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The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Tsunamis are one of the most terrifying natural events that the world experiences. The series of waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of water can be caused by any number of events, including earthquakes, underwater explosions, landslides or even meteorite impacts. On the coastline, the resulting waves evolve from unnoticeable to devastating, reaching tens of metres in height before they hit the land....

In the cycling world, the name “Calfee” evokes images of upscale, featherweight carbon-fiber road bikes, produced by California designer-manufacturer Craig Calfee. But bamboo now constitutes one leading edge of his portfolio, in part because the bikes, he notes, have “the lowest carbon footprint on the planet.” Bamboo’s versatility is no secret. Certain varieties are fast growing yet extremely rugged. There are bamboo bridges, dams, boats, even airplanes [see “Bamboo Boom,” by Michelle Nijhuis]....

Most of us think we elect our leaders based on their politics. But new research reveals that it might be the candidates’ faces that count. Anthony Little of the University of Stirling in Scotland and his colleagues modified the faces of candidates from eight different political races in the U.K., the U.S. and New Zealand. Using a computer, he combined the real faces with a picture of an “average” face made from a composite of several different people....

On June 13 NASA’s official tally of exoplanets—planets beyond our solar system—shot past 4,000. The master list includes alien worlds around both tiny neutron stars and swollen, dying suns, planets in the crowded center of our galaxy the Milky Way, and planets floating alone in the depths of interstellar space. One location is conspicuously missing, however: Alpha Centauri, the star system next door to our own. Because of a confounding set of circumstances, this intriguing target has remained a cipher—at least, until now....

The fate of Antarctica’s massive Thwaites Glacier—sometimes called the “Doomsday Glacier”—is not yet sealed. But scientists are getting worried. Thwaites is losing ice at accelerating rates, and recent studies suggest it may grow even less stable over the next decade. The front of the glacier, where ice meets ocean, is melting and retreating backward at an alarming speed. Warm ocean water is seeping underneath the ice and melting it from the bottom up....

Katherine J. Cramer is author of The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she heads the Morgridge Center for Public Service. Her work focuses on the way people in the U.S. make sense of politics and their place in it. Cramer’s methodology is unusual and very direct....

Editor’s Note (11/9/20): On Tuesday the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case California v. Texas, which will decide whether to uphold a lower court’s ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional because of the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. The decision, which likely will not come for several months, could strip protections for people with preexisting conditions, including COVID-19. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg—and President Donald Trump’s controversial nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill her seat—have ignited concerns over how a court with a six-to-three conservative majority might rule on an upcoming case on the Affordable Care Act (ACA)....

If the 1918 flu pandemic broke out today, it would likely kill at least 62 million people, or slightly more than the number that die in a single year from all other causes combined. The estimate stems from a new tally of flu deaths from 1918 to 1920 in different countries, which varied widely. Based on their findings, authors of the study say that 96 percent of the victims of a present-day pandemic would be in the developing world....

The blistering heat wave that scorched the Pacific Northwest last month would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of climate change, scientists say. In fact, it was nearly impossible even with it. That’s according to a new study from World Weather Attribution, a climate research initiative that investigates the influence of climate change on individual weather events. “We’ve never seen a jump in record temperature like the one in this heat wave, as far as I can remember,” said Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a climate scientist at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and co-leader at World Weather Attribution, in a briefing yesterday....

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. When Stephen Paddock opened fire Oct. 1 on concertgoers in Las Vegas, killing 59, the city became the unfortunate host of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Investigators are still trying to piece together the events that took place that evening, and why. Like other recent mass shootings, the events in Las Vegas were quickly followed by demands for change to gun control policy....

Winston Churchill is best known as a wartime leader, one of the most influential politicians of the twentieth century, a clear-eyed historian and an eloquent orator. He was also passionate about science and technology. Aged 22, while stationed with the British Army in India in 1896, he read Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and a primer on physics. In the 1920s and 1930s, he wrote popular-science essays on topics such as evolution and cells in newspapers and magazines....

Had everything gone to plan, NASA’s third mission to land astronauts on the moon would have deployed a pallet of science instruments and brought back samples from humanity’s first visit to the lunar uplands. Instead, 50 years ago this month, Apollo 13 “had a problem.” An oxygen tank that had been unknowingly damaged before it left the ground exploded en route to the moon, crippling the spacecraft with astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert onboard....

In January 2010, 11 men and women boarded a flight from New York to the tiny island of Grenada, a palm-treed Caribbean paradise ringed by white sand beaches and a crystal turquoise sea. But the group wasn’t on vacation. This was a team from New York University’s College of Dentistry, and they’d come to assess the dental health of Grenada’s children. For the next two weeks, they dragged tanks of compressed air, lights and other equipment into schools, transforming classrooms into makeshift dentist offices....

We blink an average of 15 times a minute. So why don’t we notice our world repeatedly going dark? University College London scientists used fMRI brain imaging to find out. They placed light-blocking goggles on volunteers and put a strong fiber-optic light source against the roof of subjects’ mouths, which illuminated the eye through the skull. This combination created constant visual stimulation in the optic nerve and brain that blinking did not interrupt....

In the fall of 2018, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca launched the YOUR Cancer program. The program connects the company’s long history of cancer science with the knowledge that the best cancer care requires more than therapeutics alone — it requires a community. YOUR Cancer aims to convene, engage and celebrate the full breadth and depth of the oncology community and all who make a difference in the lives of cancer patients and their families....

For chickens bred to lay eggs, being male is a gloomy prospect. These cockerels develop too slowly to be raised for meat, so they are usually killed within days of hatching by methods including gassing and grinding. The practice culls billions of chicks each year, raising ethical concerns for consumers and animal rights advocates. As a result, both United Egg Producers, the U.S. industry group that represents most hatcheries for egg-laying hens, and the German government have pledged to end the practice in coming years, or once an alternative is available....

Some really interesting stuff today, too: two pretty excellent freebies, two slam-dunk gift items, and one of the best laptop deals I’ve seen, like, ever. Onward! (Credit: American Express) 2. Save 20 percent on an iTunes gift card (Credit: Apple) Here’s a no-brainer for the gift shopper: For a limited time, OfficeMax has a $50 iTunes gift card for $40 shipped. (Shipping would normally add another $2.49 to the total.) Scroll down past the product description, then look at the available card options; it’s the first one in the list....

Chronic infection with malaria and hepatitis B and C occurring in more than 800 million people worldwide leads to at least 1.5 million deaths yearly. Although significant strides have been made in treatment and vaccination for these liver-based diseases, shortfalls remain. Progress has been stymied for several reasons, chief among them is the lack of an effective research model. Now, advances in mouse model creation are conspiring to usher in a new era in the research and treatment of these life-threatening maladies, and possibly many others....

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Culminating an emotional debate, the new Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved legislation that would provide federal funding for more embryonic stem cell research by a margin of 253 to 174. The Senate is expected to okay the measure, but President Bush has vowed to veto it–and it is questionable whether congressional advocates can muster the two thirds majority required to override a veto. The legislation would free up federal funds to conduct research on cells taken from human embryos, which are considered by scientists to be the most promising source of potential new treatments for spinal cord injuries and degenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cancer....

The most distant single star seen yet dates back to less than 1 billion years after the universe’s birth in the Big Bang, and may shed light on the earliest stars in the cosmos, a new study finds. The scientists nicknamed the star “Earendel,” from an Old English word meaning “morning star” or “rising light." Earendel, whose technical designation is WHL0137-LS, is at least 50 times the mass of the sun and millions of times as bright....