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Last week, when scientists at an Italian laboratory announced that unexpected blips in their detector could be from long-sought subatomic particles known as axions, their colleagues were cautiously optimistic: In physics, alleged detections of new particles often fade to insignificance as researchers gather more data. And there are other, more prosaic explanations for the blips. Conversely, the theoretical case for axions’ existence is compelling to many physicists. And the hypothetical particles are one of the leading candidates for dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up the majority of the material universe....

“And death shall have no dominion”—Dylan Thomas, 1933 You will die, sooner or later. We all will. For everything that has a beginning has an end, an ineluctable consequence of the second law of thermodynamics. Few of us like to think about this troubling fact. But once birthed, the thought of oblivion can’t be completely erased. It lurks in the unconscious shadows, ready to burst forth. In my case, it was only as a mature man that I became fully mortal....

Nanoparticles have been investigated in recent years as tools for defending the brain against neurotoxic proteins that may contribute to the onset of several different neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease. Such proteins, in particular amyloid-beta peptides, are thought to play a role depositing fibrous plaques on the brain that damage synapses (the contact points between neurons) and lead to a decline in cognitive capabilities. During the onset of Alzheimer’s, amyloid beta collects in the brain centers that form new memories....

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has completed the first triathlon in space, running, biking and “swimming” along with athletes in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California over the weekend. “I’m happy to be done,” Williams said from the International Space Station Sunday (Sept. 16) after she crossed the orbital finish line. “It wasn’t easy, and I’m sure everybody in California’s very happy to be done too.” Sunita Williams is the U....

By Eric Hand of Nature magazineAs the space shuttle glides through its final week, another arm of the US space program faces a bleak future. Astrophysics was once NASA’s highest-funded science division and, with the Hubble Space Telescope, a long-time public-relations winner. But its two flagship telescope missions, ranked as the highest priorities for US astronomy, are now under threat as budget constraints start to bite.Stung by spiraling costs and charges of mismanagement, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – Hubble’s long-awaited successor – is now seen by some critics as too expensive to fly....

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley accused Hillary Clinton of failing to pursue action against climate change adequately, saying in an interview with ClimateWire that the planet would “literally burn up” under her plan. The assertion comes as O’Malley scrambles for footing in a presidential primary race that has left him with almost imperceptible polling results one week before Iowa caucusgoers cast the first decision of 2016. His comments indicate he sees climate change as a potentially pivotal issue that he can use to attract passionate voters in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party....

LIVING WITH ALZHEIMER’S An important through line in the special report on “A New Era for Alzheimer’s” [The Future of Medicine] is the potential impact of lifestyle in modulating the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Three European countries—Finland, France and the Netherlands—have completed pioneering dementia-prevention trials in community-dwelling seniors. They show it is possible to reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults using a multidomain lifestyle intervention. And in 2018 the SPRINT MIND study reported significant reductions in the risk of mild cognitive impairment and of the combination of such impairment and dementia through aggressive lowering of systolic blood pressure....

By Carey Gillam KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - An unusually heavy winter storm slammed into the nation’s mid-section Tuesday, heading east and threatening roughly two-thirds of the country with what forecasters said could be up to a foot of snow. The storm system forced the closing of many state offices and schools in hardest-hit Kansas, where Governor Sam Brownback declared a state of “disaster emergency.” Authorities in Kansas and neighboring Missouri advised residents to stay in their homes and the National Weather Service (NWS) warned of extremely difficult travel conditions....

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After three days in space, SpaceX’s first all-civilian crew returned to Earth, splashing down off the Florida coast to end a historic mission. “It’s been an amazing ride for everyone,” Inspiration4 mission director Kip O’Keefe said in a post-splashdown news conference. “We couldn’t ask for a more successful mission.” The SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience gently landed in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 18 at 7:06 p....

The 21st century feels like a letdown. We were promised flying cars, space colonies and 15-hour workweeks. Robots were supposed to do our chores, except when they were organizing rebellions; children were supposed to learn about disease from history books; portable fusion reactors were supposed to be on sale at the Home Depot. Even dystopian visions of the future predicted leaps of technology and social organization that leave our era in the dust....

From Nature magazine Doris Taylor doesn’t take it as an insult when people call her Dr Frankenstein. “It was actually one of the bigger compliments I’ve gotten,” she says — an affirmation that her research is pushing the boundaries of the possible. Given the nature of her work as director of regenerative medicine research at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Taylor has to admit that the comparison is apt. She regularly harvests organs such as hearts and lungs from the newly dead, re-engineers them starting from the cells and attempts to bring them back to life in the hope that they might beat or breathe again in the living....

“I think you’re making the very common mistake of imagining that a science-fiction writer knows something about the future.” —Iain Banks I was on stage in 2012 with a great writer, the late Iain Banks, when he made this reply to a question from an audience at the British Library about what might be coming. It got a big laugh. We are all interested in the future. In our personal lives, when thinking about the future of humanity and even Earth itself, we keep trying to make predictions....

The idea that humans will eventually travel to and inhabit other parts of our galaxy was well expressed by the early Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who wrote, “Earth is humanity’s cradle, but you’re not meant to stay in your cradle forever.” Since then the idea has been a staple of science fiction, and thus become part of a consensus image of humanity’s future. Going to the stars is often regarded as humanity’s destiny, even a measure of its success as a species....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. On the night of Dec. 10-11, 2021, an outbreak of powerful tornadoes tore through parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois, killing dozens of people and leaving wreckage over hundreds of miles. Hazard climatologists Alisa Hass and Kelsey Ellis explain the conditions that generated this event—including what may be the first “quad-state tornado” in the U....

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a special report on the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2016 produced by the World Economic Forum. The list, compiled by the Forum’s Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies, highlights technological advances its members, including Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina, believe have the power to improve lives, transform industries and safeguard the planet. It also provides an opportunity to debate any human, societal, economic or environmental risks and concerns that the technologies may pose prior to widespread adoption....

An insecticide used on corn and other U.S. crops poses health risks to workers who mix and apply it and also can contaminate drinking water, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report released this week. The report is an update, based on new research, to a 2011 assessment of the health impacts of the pesticide chlorpyrifos (pronounced KLOR – pie -ra – phos), which remains one of the most commonly applied organophosphate pesticides....

Hurricane-prone states are experiencing some of the nation’s sharpest increases in COVID-19 infections, raising fears that a major storm will have deadly consequences if people in its path refuse to evacuate to avoid contagion. The number of infections nationwide has more than doubled since the start of hurricane season on June 1, passing 3.8 million yesterday. The increase has been especially dramatic in Southeastern states on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, federal data shows, leaving hospitals strained and people potentially wary of finding shelter during a hurricane or staying with friends or relatives....

The recent rash of billionaire-funded launches has raised the idea that spaceflights that are funded and crewed privately are making space more “accessible.” In the case of Inspiration4 and other recent private spaceflights, it is true that they are providing access to space in the most literal sense of “access”: they have ferried people who are not part of any state astronaut corps to space. But for most people, the word “accessible” doesn’t just mean being able to go somewhere; something being “accessible” suggests that it has become attainable to people for whom it might not have been otherwise, specifically by breaking barriers to their participation....

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just got worse. In what the World Health Organization’s top response official is calling a “game changer” event, one case has now been confirmed in Mbandaka—a city of 1.2 million people about 150 kilometers from the rural rainforest area where the other confirmed Ebola cases have been found. The country has been grappling with 44 reported cases, three of which have been confirmed....

By Meredith Davis CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dave Wiechert of Nashville, Illinois, does good business most years cleaning seed for farmers in preparation for planting season. But this year, Wiechert is doing big business after harvest: cleaning fungus off wheat so farmers can sell it. The “head scab” fungus can produce vomitoxin, a chemical that is poisonous to humans and livestock when consumed at high levels. This year, soft red winter wheat has been hit badly by the fungus, which develops when it rains during the crop’s key growing period....