Shutdown Means E.P.A. Pollution Inspectors Aren’t on the Job
The E.P.A.'s shutdown furlough of most inspection personnel has halted one of the government’s most important public health activities.
By Coral Davenport
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Photo CreditBonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post, via Getty Images Photo 
CreditWill Ivy/Alamy Stock Photo Broadcasting from Deep Space, a Mysterious Series of Radio Signals
Astronomers have identified a second set of odd radio bursts from the distant universe. Aliens probably aren’t causing it, but what is?
By Dennis Overbye
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CreditJurgen Freund/NPL/Minden Pictures Ocean Warming Is Accelerating Faster Than Thought, New Research Finds
An analysis concluded that Earth’s oceans are heating up 40 percent faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago, a finding with dire implications for climate change.
By Kendra Pierre-Louis
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CreditNASA More Trouble for the Hubble Telescope as a Primary Camera Malfunctions
Last year a gyroscope died, now there’s a camera glitch. That’s just the telescope “aging gracefully,” the mission director said.
By Dennis Overbye
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CreditVictoria Roberts Clean, Abundant Energy: Fusion Dreams Never End
In theory, hydrogen fusion may power the future. But there are substantial scientific hurdles yet to overcome.
By C. Claiborne Ray
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CreditHawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources George the Snail, Believed to Be the Last of His Species, Dies at 14 in Hawaii
Scientists say George, an inch-long mollusk about 14 years old, was most likely the last of Achatinella apexfulva, a species of land snail that lived only in Hawaii.
By Julia Jacobs
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CreditTony Wu/Minden Pictures These Whales Are Serenaders of the Seas. It’s Quite a Racket.
Why do whales sing? Scientists still aren’t certain, and maybe the whales aren’t, either.
By Karen Weintraub
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CreditAnnie Tritt for The New York Times How to Make a Bucking Bull: Good Breeding and, Just Maybe, a Cow’s Love
It takes a high-tech village to raise a champion animal for bull riding. The cowboys, bred the old-fashioned way, can barely keep up.
By James Gorman
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CreditMichael Soluri Sync your calendar with the solar system
Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other astronomical and space event that's out of this world.
Trilobites
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CreditChristina Warinner In an Ancient Nun’s Teeth, Blue Paint — and Clues to Medieval Publishing
A rare blue pigment, discovered in the fossilized plaque of a German nun, hints at a broader role for women in the production of religious texts.
By Steph Yin
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Creditvia Johann Bruhn Giant Fungus Is Older, Bigger and Rarely Mutates
New genetic analysis shows that an underground parasitic mold in Michigan is about 2,500 years old and has a low mutation rate.
By JoAnna Klein
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CreditCarlos Osorio/Associated Press Free Trees? Many Detroit Residents Say No Thanks
It’s not that residents don’t like trees, a recent study found. They just don’t quite trust the city to take care of them.
By Steph Yin
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CreditTomasz Sulej and Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki] An Elephant-Size Relative of Mammals That Grazed Alongside Dinosaurs
Paleontologists believed dicynodonts died out as dinosaurs conquered the world, but fossils found in Poland suggest they survived millions of years more.
By Nicholas St. Fleur
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CreditJSC/NASA It’s Cold Outside, but Earth Is at Its Closest Approach to the Sun
Our planet’s elliptical orbit doesn’t affect winter or summer temperatures. But some astronomers wonder whether it’s a factor in why life survives.
By Shannon Hall
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