Science Times: This lifesaving genetics tool works best if you’re white

July 21, 2026

Juan Bernabeu

This Lifesaving Genetics Tool Works Best if You’re White

Genetic prediction models are poised to revolutionize medicine. But because they have been trained on European DNA, they threaten to widen health care disparities.

An artist's concept of a rocky planet with a hazy atmosphere orbiting a red star that is being transited by another small planet.

Melissa Weiss/CFA

Astronomers Find an Atmosphere on a Nearby Earthlike Planet

It’s the first potentially habitable world known to host an atmosphere, making it a lead contender in the search for life beyond our solar system.

By Katrina Miller

Looking up through the ceiling and attic of a house into the sky through a hole made by a falling meteorite.

It’s a Treasure to Science. Too Bad It Came Through Their Roof.

A New Jersey couple helped scientists uncover the makeup of an unusual asteroid after it fell into their bedroom.

By Robin George Andrews

Emily Elconin for The New York Times

Dark Sky Defenders Raise Alarm Along the Border of West Texas

Residents fear that the Trump administration’s plans to build a border wall will threaten the region’s spectacular starry skies.

By Katrina Miller and Emily Elconin

An exterior view of a Merck research facility on a bright day in South San Francisco.

Getty Images

The F.D.A. Approves a New Pill to Slash Cholesterol Levels

The new pills can lower cholesterol levels far below what can be achieved with statins, clinical trials have shown.

By Gina Kolata

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A computer-generated illustration of two very large bright blue gas-giant planets orbiting a star in deep space.

Rare Pair of Improbably Light ‘Super-Puff’ Planets Is Discovered

They’re less dense than cotton candy, and they will help astrophysicists better understand the most unusual ways giant planets can form.

By Rebecca Dzombak

The Future of Nutrition Research May Run Through the Sewer

During the Covid-19 pandemic, wastewater testing became a virus warning system. Now, scientists are using the approach to understand how communities eat.

By Simar Bajaj

A soccer ball design on a plain white background with a black-and-gray hexagon pattern that appears blurry.

A Tribute to the Mathematically Marvelous Soccer Ball

As the World Cup final approaches, take a moment to appreciate the beautiful symmetries of humanity’s favorite truncated icosahedron.

By Siobhan Roberts

A mounted T. rex fossil, in a large gallery at the Breuer building.

T. Rex Skeleton Sells for Record-Breaking $50.1 Million

The remains of a 12-and-a-half-foot-tall Tyrannosaurus rex, known as Gus, were sold on Tuesday by Sotheby’s in New York. The sale makes Gus the most valuable prehistoric specimen ever sold on the commercial market.

By Alisa Shodiyev Kaff

CLIMATE CHANGE

Billy Hickey for The New York Times

Taking Out the Trash: These Old Ladies Are Cleaning Up Cape Cod

The Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage estimate they’ve removed 6,000 pounds of refuse from ponds on Cape Cod. “There’s no better feeling,” one said.

By Cara Buckley and Billy Hickey

A wide view of a single-story house fully engulfed in flames at the test facility. Flames pour out of the windows and from beneath the roof. In the foreground, three people in protective gear, including yellow jackets and face masks and one hard hat, walk around the scene. Black smoke fills the air.

The New York Times

Visit the Lab Where They’re Fighting Fire With Fire, Literally

As wildfires intensify, threatening more people, a nonprofit is studying how to rethink homes and neighborhoods to prevent catastrophe.

By Mira Rojanasakul

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HEALTH

The New York Times

The Epicenter of Drug Deaths in America Is Shifting West

Nationally, overdose deaths are falling. But not in Arizona.

By Josh Katz

Claire Merchlinsky/The New York Times; Photographs via Getty

Alzheimer’s Blood Tests Offer New Promise to Diagnose and Predict the Disease

New studies are shedding light on how the tests could eventually transform treatment.

By Dana G. Smith and Pam Belluck

Taylors Farms signs are displayed on the exterior of facilities.

Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images

Retailers Remove More Taylor Farms Lettuce After Recall in 27 States

The affected products were shipped starting June 29 and have expiration dates through Aug. 3.

By Christina Jewett and Julie Creswell

The New York Times

The Fake Influencers Selling Wellness on Your Feed

The New York Times found hundreds of A.I.-generated doctors, healers and wellness influencers on social media touting the health benefits of supplements to American consumers. Many of these hyperrealistic looking ads promise medical miracles, and appear to be targeting older women, while making misleading health claims for a profit.

By Arijeta Lajka, Isabelle Niu, Mark Boyer, James Surdam and Dan T. Peters