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It takes Lawrence Tabak about 15 minutes to rattle off all the potential COVID-19 treatments being tested in the clinical trial programme he oversees: a lengthy, tongue-twisting list that includes drugs to disarm the virus, to soothe inflammation and to stop blood clots. Over the past two years, the ACTIV programme, run by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), has included more than 30 studies—13 of them ongoing—of therapeutic agents chosen from a list of 800 candidates....

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) should make sweeping changes to how it funds research as part of its efforts to reduce sexual harassment in science, a working group advising the agency on the issue said on 13 June. The NIH should treat sexual misconduct as seriously as research misconduct, the group told agency director Francis Collins and his top advisers at a meeting in Bethesda, Maryland. The panel also wants the NIH to require all scientists receiving agency grants to certify that they have not violated their institution’s code of conduct, and to establish programmes to help researchers affected by harassment re-enter the scientific workforce....

The world’s first optical telescope dedicated to finding extraterrestrial intelligence opened April 11 in Harvard, Mass. The 72-inch-wide mirror is designed to glimpse any otherworldly laser flash lasting at least one nanosecond. The Planetary Society announcement, April 11 Flower power: the diversification of ants 100 million years ago depended on the coincidental emergence of flowering plants, which presented ants with new ecological opportunities. Science, April 7 Jesus may well have walked on water—in its frozen state....

General Motors, Ford and other carmakers are increasingly trying to sell consumers on a future where fleets of battery-powered cars cruise along U.S. highways and byways. Turning such a vision into reality, however, requires far more than simply making electric cars available—drivers need to know how, when and where they will be able to recharge their batteries, not to mention how much it is going to cost. The addition of an electric car to a home’s electrical system is not just a new load, it’s a big load—in some places doubling what a home currently consumes, says Paul Fulton, general manager of Cisco Systems’s Prosumer Unit (which works on both consumer and professional networking technology)....

Despite decades of effort, it has proven frustratingly difficult to predict who is most at risk of dying by suicide. Relying on patients to reveal their intentions doesn’t work. Nearly 80 percent of those who die by suicide hide their suicidal thoughts from doctors and therapists during their last visits. Yet suicide rates are increasing among middle-aged Americans and it is the second-leading cause of death for young people. That’s why researchers have been urgently searching for a reliable biological predictor of suicidal thoughts and behavior....

Ten thousand years ago, when smallpox first emerged, humankind could do little more than pray to the gods for succor. Later known as variola, the virus that caused the disease first attacked the linings of the nose or throat, spreading throughout the body until a characteristic rash followed by virus-filled blisters developed on the skin. Over the course of recorded history, the “speckled monster” killed up to a third of the people it infected....

The numbers are stark when it comes to suicide: It is a leading cause of death in the United States, and was the second leading cause of death in the U.S. for people ages 10 to 14 and 25 to 34 in 2020. That year, millions of American adults thought of, planned or attempted suicide, and nearly 46,000 died by suicide according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most people who take their own life receive services in primary care and other medical settings in the year prior to death....

It has been a decade since scientists last fanned out across the country to assess the rates of mental illness. The latest census, just completed, indicates that a whopping 46 percent of Americans will suffer from a mental disorder during their lifetime. Tens of thousands of people answered questions about their deepest thoughts and behaviors for the study, the most extensive ever conducted. In any given year, 18 percent of respondents suffered from a serious anxiety disorder, 10 percent from depression or bipolar illness, 9 percent from an impulse disorder, and 4 percent from alcohol or drug addiction....

Despite the promise of cheap, clean power, geothermal energy development may be on shaky ground. There have been rumblings from residents and scientists alike that drilling deep to tap naturally occurring heat could cause bigger earthquakes. Already on edge about temblors, northern California locals are eying an expansive new geothermal project proposed by a company called AltaRock that’s going to be boring down more than two miles (3.2 kilometers). The area near the town of Anderson Springs—about 90 miles (150 kilometers) north of San Francisco—is home to natural geothermal vents (nicknamed The Geysers by early visitors who saw the steam vents there) and has been exploited for its natural energy-generating capacity for the better part of the last century....

A few years ago, after writing a self-help book for young women with binge-eating issues, I played around with the idea of getting a social work or family therapy degree. How wonderful to help people for a living! But the nitty-gritty of going back to school and having to study again scared me to death. I used to be a darned good student—but now? I’m so wiped from earning a living and keeping up with my toddler that my brain feels like Swiss cheese....

Sarasa Satish is a waste picker. Every morning, she starts promptly at 8:30 a.m. going door to door, collecting throwaway materials from houses in the Rajendra Nagar slums of Bangalore, India. The neighborhood is crowded, with an average of about five people packed into each of its 4,000 households. Most are poor; some don’t have running water. A typical workday ends with her sorting out the recyclable material once she’s dumped the rejects, or non-recyclable waste....

On March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John W. Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan and three other people. The following year, he went on trial for his crimes. Defense attorneys argued that Hinckley was insane, and they pointed to a trove of evidence to back their claim. Their client had a history of behavioral problems. He was obsessed with the actress Jodie Foster, and devised a plan to assassinate a president to impress her....

Pop quiz: what’s the first thing that comes to mind when I say “ADHD”? a. Getting distracted b. Ants-in-pants c. Elementary school boys d. Women and girls Most likely, you didn’t pick D. If that’s the case, you’re not alone. For most people, ADHD conjures a mental image of school-aged boys squirming at desks or bouncing off walls, not a picture of adults, girls, or especially adult women. Both scientists and society have long pinned ADHD on males, even though girls and women may be just as likely to suffer from this neurodevelopmental disorder....

A four-year-old watches as a monkey hand puppet approaches a vase containing a red and a blue plastic flower. The monkey sneezes. The monkey backs away, returns to sniff again, and again sneezes. An adult then removes the red flower and replaces it with a yellow one. The monkey comes up to smell the yellow and blue flowers twice and each time sneezes. The adult next replaces the blue flower with the red one....

We humans are pretty smug about our large brains and sophisticated ways. But if there is one thing I have learned as a biologist, it is to never underestimate the abilities of animals that most people consider primitive and simple-minded. Usually mammals teach me this lesson. But recently the complexity of the behaviors I observed in a peculiar reptile known as the tentacled snake made my jaw drop in amazement. The tentacled snake, Erpeton tentaculatus, is a fully aquatic serpent native to Thailand, Cambodia and South Vietnam....

About a fifth of children seen by their doctors for persistent coughs may actually have whooping cough, a new study suggests. The new results come from England, where adolescents don’t receive a booster vaccination for the highly contagious disease; that booster shot is recommended in the United States. The findings suggest that a shot may be warranted for adolescents in England, though further research is necessary, said Dr. Cameron Grant, a pediatrician at the Starship Children’s Hospital and the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who was not involved in the study....

FINALIST YEAR: 1965 HIS PROJECT: Programming a computer to compose music like classical composers did WHAT LED TO THE PROJECT: By age five, Raymond Kurzweil knew he wanted to be an inventor. Building things in his Queens, N.Y., home out of spare parts and Erector sets gave him what he describes as a “magical, transcendent feeling” that soon had him hooked. He discovered computers around age 12. He spent hours tinkering with them, hanging around the electronics surplus stores on Manhattan’s Canal Street to nab the components....

When the Mount Sinai School of Medicine opened in 1968, Sandra Masur was among the first female faculty members hired. Since Dr. Masur moved into her first lab, in Mount Sinai’s Basic Science Building—a converted bus garage—she has led two major research programs and trained generations of scientists. Fifty years later, she is still at Mount Sinai, now on the 22nd floor of the Annenberg Building (yet to be constructed when she joined the school)....

Digital storage of data has become an integral part of our lives, whether in the form of contacts and calendars on smartphones or constant access to the vast stores of knowledge in the cloud. Previous research has suggested that saving information makes us less likely to remember it, presumably because we assume we do not really need to memorize something that is saved. But doing so should also free up mental resources, reasoned cognitive scientists Benjamin Storm and Sean Stone, both at the University of California, Santa Cruz....

Key concepts Food science Proteins Heat Eggs Introduction Have you ever been in such a rush in the morning that you barely had time for breakfast? Eggs can be a good breakfast choice because they can be cooked quickly and in many different ways. Eggs have been eaten for thousands of years, all over the world. Hard-boiled eggs are commonly used for dying Easter eggs, but a soft-boiled egg can make a yummy breakfast or snack....