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Our guts are not entirely our own. Inside our intestines, human cells are at war with trillions of bacteria—a war over what happens to food as it moves through the body. Some microbes are beneficial, helping us extract energy from food; others lurk and wait for the chance to overrun our guts at the expense of our health. A recent study adds nuance to scientists’ evolving understanding of gut microbes. Ivana Semova and John Rawls of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, along with their colleagues, studied the absorption of fatty acids in the intestines of tiny translucent zebra fish (Danio rerio)....

From Ensia (find the original story here); reprinted with permission. May 19, 2017—Late last August, armed with a sweep net and identification guides, Sarah Piecuch was looking for butterflies. She trudged through waist-deep grasses, trying to keep her footing steady while tallying those she found fluttering through the sky or perched on nearby flowers. But Piecuch isn’t an entomologist, and she wasn’t walking in a pristine meadow. Rather, she’s a wildlife biologist for the New York State Department of Transportation, and she was surveying the land beside busy highways in hopes of learning what kind of management can make these long, thin strips of habitat most beneficial for pollinators....

Key Concepts Physics Pressure Bernoulli’s principle Air flow Introduction Did you know that airplanes and sound have something in common? Can you guess what it might be? Air pressure! It is fascinating how air—something that is so fluid and invisible—can power an amazing number of phenomena. In this activity, you will use your own breath to blow a small paper ball into an empty bottle. It sounds simple, but is it?...

In J. M. Barrie’s classic stage play, Peter Pan, the Darling children embark on an adventure with Peter, a puckish young boy who refuses to grow old. In magical Never Land they meet fairies, battle pirates and encounter mystical creatures. The tale, which has inspired youngsters for generations to play similar games, seems to hint that one can remain young at heart forever by indulging in the wonders of imagination. Nearly all children enjoy getting lost in fantastical worlds....

Every day crowded cells holding people at an immigration detention facility in Florida have been doused with caustic disinfectants that have caused breathing problems and bleeding, according to reports from the detainees. The disinfectants contain two chemical compounds that scientific research has implicated in long-term damage to human cells and—in animals—to reproductive health. On August 26 a complaint filed on behalf of detainees at the Glades County Detention Center in Florida, which holds people for U....

When astronomers first spotted the celestial object now known as ‘Oumuamua skittering across the sky last October after it had dived around the sun, its elongated trajectory and rapid speed quickly revealed that it came from outside the solar system. Learning anything else about our first-known interstellar visitor, however—such as whether it was an asteroid or a dim comet—proved far more challenging, as it departed our planetary vicinity as quickly as it arrived....

It is practically a rite of passage that scientists who reach a certain level of eminence feel compelled to pub-licly announce and explain their religious beliefs. The new books by Owen Gingerich and Francis Collins, reviewed this month on page 94, follow in the footsteps of Arthur Eddington and Max Planck. Yes, these authors say, they believe in God, and no, they see no contradiction between their faith and their research–indeed, they see each as confirming the other....

Millennial voters are poised to drive the U.S. debate on climate change—and they could have an oversized impact on 10 competitive congressional elections this year, two new studies suggest. The first study, released late last week by the Pew Research Center, showed that millennials are considerably more liberal than their elders on a variety of issues, including climate change, and that they’re much more inclined to support Democratic candidates for Congress....

Scientists have created the first molecule that can move in a straight line by itself on a flat surface by mimicking how a person walks. The molecule—9,10-dithioanthracene, or DTA—is made of a coal-tar derivative linked to a pair of sulfurous organic compounds. When heated, the linked compounds moved in alternation so only one was lifted from a copper surface at a time. The planted “foot” kept the molecule from stumbling or veering off course, even when pushed or pulled with a fine probe....

Key concepts Physics Air pressure Volume Forces Introduction You might have heard people talking about pressure before: maybe that there is too much of it, or not enough. Pressure can mean different things in everyday English, but in general when scientists talk about pressure they mean a constant physical force (such as a push or a pull) exerted or applied to an object. For example, if you sit on an inflated balloon, you can see the effect of the pressure on that balloon—at least, until it pops!...

EPIGENETICS AND ANTIBIOTICS “Hidden Switches in the Mind,” by Eric J. Nestler, discusses epigenetic changes—alterations to how genes behave that do not affect the information they contain. Is it possible that such changes are at least partially responsible for bacteria becoming resistant to various drugs, given that the changes are passed on to daughter cells? If so, the changes would provide yet another way to overcome resistance to various drugs. Instead of looking for an entirely new antibiotic, it might be simpler to find a way to undo the epigenetic changes and restore the bacterial susceptibility to the drugs we already have....

Conventional influenza surveillance describes outbreaks of flu that have already happened. It is based on reports from doctors, and produces data that take weeks to process—often leaving the health authorities to chase the virus around, rather than get on top of it. But every day, thousands of unwell people pour details of their symptoms and, perhaps unknowingly, locations into search engines and social media, creating a trove of real-time flu data....

Rwanda has made major public-health strides since the country’s genocide against the Tutsi people ended in June 1994, but declines in foreign aid now threaten that progress. Donors such as the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have reduced assistance to Rwanda by 40% over the past three years, jeopardizing advances in a country seen as a development success story....

The man with radioactive atoms flowing through his veins seems calm. He moves onto a gurney and lies still as it slides into a humming, doughnut-shaped scanner at Vancouver General Hospital. His foot hurts—a lot—and the machine takes sharp 3-D snapshots of bones and soft tissue within by imaging these atoms, their radiation shining brightest where there is increased blood flow to the injury. This kind of bright beacon does not just illuminate feet....

A Japanese billionaire and a coterie of artists will visit the moon as early as 2023, becoming the first private citizens ever to fly beyond low Earth orbit, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced tonight. Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of Japanese e-commerce giant Zozo, has signed up to fly a round-the-moon mission aboard SpaceX’s BFR spaceship-rocket combo, he and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced during a webcast tonight (Sept. 17) from the company’s rocket factory in Hawthorne, California....

When comedian Susan Prekel takes to the stage and spots an attractive man in the audience, her heart sinks. “By the end of my gig he’s going to find me repulsive, at least as a sexual being,” she says. In more than a decade of performing on the New York City comedy circuit the attractive, tall brunette has been asked out only once after a show. But male comics get swarmed....

A three-year study of the nation’s drinking water quality has found more than 200 unregulated chemicals in the tap water of 45 states. The Environmental Working Group analysis of 20 million tap water quality tests found a total of 316 contaminants – including industrial solvents, weed killers, refrigerants and the rocket fuel component perchlorate – in water supplied to the public between 2004 and 2009. U.S. EPA regulates 114 of those pollutants, setting maximum legal levels that water utilities achieved 92 percent of the time, according to the study....

Far-reaching rules that form the backbone of the U.S. commitment to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions do much to “help ease the pain” of states and the energy industry, as one state regulator described. The Obama administration’s final Clean Power Plan, which the White House will officially announce this afternoon, includes a slew of changes responding to constructive criticism and aiming to bolster U.S. EPA’s legal defense to imminent challenges. The rule gives states two extra years to submit plans and start making cuts, eases interim goals into a “glide path” and contains grid reliability assurance mechanisms (Greenwire, Aug....

Researchers say they have identified how infants thrive on what were previously believed to be indigestible components of milk from humans and cows—a development that could point the way to helping save some seriously ill children. The research began with a puzzling question: Why is about a third of the content of breast milk completely indigestible by newborn babies? It turns out that indigestible components called oligosaccharides—complex molecules of sugars and proteins—are food for bacteria that live in the human gut and are crucial to early development....

Personalized cancer medicine has advanced from a distant hope to a clinical reality. Oncologists regularly individualize treatments to target a tumor’s unique genetic weaknesses. But because these personalized medicines reach healthy tissues and tumors alike, even the most targeted treatments can cause unwanted side-effects. A new approach devised by nanotechnology experts at the Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center may improve the precision of personalized medicines by helping them avoid collateral damage....