Today, we look at some changes afoot here on The Times’s Science desk, peer into worlds both near and far and answer a reader’s question about the existential threat of A.I. Plus: the most read science article this week and a quiz. Science at The Times
“This summer, one area of The New York Times has been evolving, metamorphosing, growing like bamboo, expanding like the Big Bang. Beginning this week, the Science desk is rolling out new beats, columns and projects,” writes Vivian Ewing in a recent Times Insider article. And she’s right! Starting this month, we are introducing four weekly columns by four amazing science writers — the first, excerpted below, is by Natalie Wolchover, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer on the cosmos, and another will be by the nature writer David Quammen. This Science Times newsletter is also part of the section’s relaunch, with two emails each week and lots of original content. Later in the fall, we’ll also be introducing a project called “Unknowns,” which will explore unsolved problems across all the realms of science. One example: a visual explainer that touches on many of the mind-boggling, unanswered questions that exist in the cosmos, like the expansion of the universe, how black holes work and more. Want to learn more? Read the full story here. The link for the story above is free for everyone (although you may need to log in first). Is Earth truly unique?
Perhaps we like to consider other planets because they’re alternative realities, refreshingly exotic manifestations of the same laws of physics. These voluminous balls of rock, gas and ice fueled our imaginations, but at the same time, they ground us, their alien landscapes bringing Earth into relief. Over time, the list of known planets has grown to include more than 6,300, known as exoplanets. Thousands more exoplanet candidates await confirmation. Probably about 100 billion others are expected to exist in our galaxy alone. Lately, with tools like the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists are gleaning from the teensiest of signals knowledge of exoplanets’ compositions and atmospheres, their origin stories, even the possibility that they might host life. Your questions, answeredWill A.I. kill us? Can it hack my bank account? We asked readers for their questions about artificial intelligence. Nearly 1,000 people responded with queries, big and small. We answer one question below, and you can read more of them here. How might A.I. threaten the existence of humanity? — Dale Kuropat, Wickenburg, Ariz. As people warn that A.I. could destroy humanity, they are light on examples of how. They say that malicious people could use A.I. to develop a bioweapon. And they worry that, as companies and governments integrate A.I. with vital infrastructure, the systems could end up hoarding the world’s economic resources and depriving people of food, housing and other things we need to live. But those scenarios are highly speculative. They also worry that, once A.I. is hooked into the world’s infrastructure, it could start a global drone war or set off a nuclear bomb. Even the risk of someone using A.I. to unleash a biological attack is smaller than it might seem. But for the doomsayers, the worry is that A.I. makes this easier. — Cade Metz, a Times reporter who writes about artificial intelligence Do you have a question you’d like the Science desk to answer? Send it to sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com Invisible worlds
Inside us, below us, all around us, life abounds — but it’s often invisible to us. Only through the use of increasingly advanced microscopes can it be brought to our eyes in all its shimmery, glowing glory. But capturing these minuscule moments requires the precision of a scientist and the patience of a photographer. “I see myself as a ranger in the African bush,” said Benedikt Pleyer, the third-place winner of a video contest that celebrates the dizzying beauty of the microscopic, the Nikon Small World in Motion competition. “You go out and see where the lions are, except they’re tiny and right in front of you.” The winners, announced on Wednesday, reveal the most beautiful details that we can’t usually see — and how much we have to learn about the world around us. We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times.
One more thingTEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE The last vestiges of warmth drained out of a Tyrannosaurus rex’s body around 66 million years ago, but scientists just used chemistry to take the long-extinct dinosaur’s temperature. Here’s a question based on that new finding. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.) If you had to guess, what would you estimate as T. rex’s body temperature? Thanks for joining us this week! Let us know how we’re doing at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.
|
