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Mother knows best—even if Mom is a plant. A common flowering plant, Arabidopsis, hands down “memories” of recent temperatures to its seeds to prepare them for incoming spring weather conditions, a new study shows. In an experiment by crop geneticists in Norwich, England, Arabidopsis individuals exposed to warmer temperatures produced seeds that sprouted more quickly than plants exposed to cooler temperatures—even if the warmer temperatures had occurred several weeks before the parents made the seeds....

This week the Internet is flush with photos of Pluto from the New Horizons mission. To someone who is not necessarily a Plutophile, it might be kind of difficult to see what all the hype is about. After all, the Hubble Space Telescope has shown us galaxies near the edge of the observable universe. What’s so exciting about seeing a dwarf planet in our own solar system? Setting aside the fact that New Horizons’ safe arrival means that scientists successfully guided a piano-size robot across the solar system for nearly a decade, the New Horizons flyby is momentous because the spacecraft is churning out photos that show Pluto in unprecedented detail....

U.S. EPA chief Scott Pruitt is expected to roll out plans soon to restrict the agency’s use of science in rulemakings, pitting him against critics who say it would threaten public health and environmental protections. In a closed-door meeting at the Heritage Foundation on Monday, Pruitt told a group of conservatives that he has plans for additional science reform at the agency, according to multiple attendees. EPA hasn’t formally shared details of the plan, but it’s widely expected to resemble an effort that Republican lawmakers and conservative groups have been pushing for years....

It’s one small hop for a rocket, but one giant leap for reusable rocket ships: A private rocket prototype has sailed through a 6-foot hop that, while short, marked a in a major test for a novel reusable launch system being developed by commercial spaceflight company SpaceX. Called “Grasshopper,” the rocket lifted off briefly then set back down on four spidery legs during the recent test at SpaceX’s proving ground in McGregor, Texas....

By Natasha Gilbert of Nature magazineAlarmed at signs that the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals is blunting these key weapons against human disease, governments are taking action.In industrial farming, antimicrobials are commonly given to farm animals to treat infections, and prophylactically to prevent disease or spur growth. But there is growing concern that excessive use on farms is helping to breed antibiotic-resistant microbes, from Salmonella (see `Rising resistance’) to Escherichia coli, which are harder to treat when they infect people....

Neutrinos are some of the most common particles in the universe—and some of the weirdest. These fundamental bits of matter are cousins of electrons that weigh almost nothing. They come in three known flavors and—bizarrely—can alternate between them, swapping identities as they fly through space. The discovery of this odd characteristic won two scientists the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics and garnered the 2015 Breakthrough Prize for more than 1,300 researchers who worked on the experiments....

The king had been sitting in darkness for more than 1,400 years. Half of his finely carved face was missing when the archaeologists found him, but his elaborate headdress and badges of rank were still whole. He stared, one-eyed, into the dim tunnel the visitors had excavated inside one of the largest monuments in the ancient Maya city of Holmul, located in what is now northeastern Guatemala. Hieroglyphs near the figure spelled out his name: Och Chan Yopaat, or “Storm God Enters the Sky....

In June 1827, after a full day of travel, journalist Richard Madden arrived to Adjerond, Egypt, near Suez. He looked at the horizon across the vast desert and was struck by a vision that would stay with him long after his voyage. “At one moment, the rippled surface of a lake was before my eyes … the mosques and minarets were distinct, and several times I asked my Bedouins if that were not Suez before us; but they laughed at me and said it was all sand,” he later wrote....

This story was updated at 11 A.M. EDT. Organizations worried about climate change have long drawn comparisons between the petroleum and tobacco industries, arguing that each has minimized public health damages of its products to operate unchecked. Some have urged federal regulators to prosecute oil companies under racketeering charges, as the Department of Justice did in 1999 in a case against Philip Morris and other major tobacco brands. Oil companies bristle at the comparison....

The skies over a slice of northern Australia will darken for a few minutes today as the planet experiences its first total solar eclipse in more than two years. Today’s total solar eclipse — the first since July 2010 and the last until March 2015 — begins at 3:35 p.m. EST (2035 GMT) today, which corresponds to shortly after dawn Wednesday (Nov. 14) local time in Australia. Weather permitting, will be visible from slivers of the continent’s Northern Territory and state of Queensland, as well as a large, empty stretch of the Pacific Ocean....

CLIMATEWIRE | An intensifying tropical system that became the first named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season dumped nearly 15 inches of rain on parts of South Florida on Saturday, giving the region an early taste of what experts say could be a very active hurricane season. By yesterday morning, the depression had turned into Tropical Storm Alex. It churned north-northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, where it was expected to bring high winds and heavy rain to Bermuda this morning....

Four years before Pres. Barack Obama unveiled plans for a $215-million Precision Medicine Initiative designed to better understand genetic variations within disease and develop treatments, veterans were already volunteering to be part of an avant-garde effort to boost such tailor-made medicine. The venture, called the Million Veteran Program (MVP), aimed to get complete health information and DNA analysis from one million volunteers receiving health services through the Veterans Health Administration (commonly called the VA)....

WHEN YOU first look at the center image in the painting by Salvador Dal reproduced at the left, what do you see? Most people immediately perceive a man’s face, eyes gazing skyward and lips pursed under a bushy mustache. But when you look again, the image rearranges itself into a more complex tableau. The man’s nose and white mustache become the mobcap and cape of a seated woman. The glimmers in the man’s eyes reveal themselves as lights in the windows–or glints on the roofs–of two cottages nestled in darkened hillsides....

On a recent Wednesday, 10 members of New YorkPresbyterian Hospital’s oncology staff gather around a long table in a windowless conference room, sharing sandwiches and fruit, discussing their work. Discussing it in terms that might well surprise their patients. A social worker reads a short essay describing nearly two decades of entering patients’ rooms after the doctor has given a diagnosis of cancer as “coming into their winter, their horror,” unable to keep herself warm or impervious....

One of the most important characteristics of an alien planet is whether or not it falls into what’s called the habitable zone ­— a Goldilocks-like range of not-too-close, not-too-far distances from the parent star that might allow the planet to host life. Now scientists have redefined the boundaries of the habitable zone for alien planets, potentially kicking out some exoplanaets that were thought to fall within it, and maybe allowing a few that had been excluded to squeeze in....

Nature today retracted two controversial papers on stem cells that it published in January. The retractions — agreed to by all of the co-authors — come at the end of a whirlwind five months during which various errors were spotted in the papers, attempts to replicate the experiments failed, the lead author was found guilty of misconduct, and the centre where she is employed was threatened with dismantlement. The retraction notice includes a handful of problems with the papers that had not been previously considered by institutional investigation teams....

In March 2019 biotechnology giant Biogen stopped two big trials of its experimental Alzheimer’s disease drug aducanumab because it did not appear to improve memory in declining patients. Then, in a surprise reversal several months later, the company and its partner, Japanese drugmaker Eisai, said they would ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the treatment. A new analysis, Biogen said, showed that a subset of people on the highest doses in one trial did benefit from the compound, which dissolves clumps of a protein called beta-amyloid within the brain....

As deejay gigs go this is a short one, but the audience is captive and the venue is very exclusive. With a recently announced contest, NASA has opened the door to the public to choose music to be played for astronauts during the final two scheduled space shuttle missions. Four winning songs will serve as wake-up music on the missions, currently pegged for November and February launches. Wake-up music is a tradition that, according to a NASA history of the practice, stretches back to the Apollo moon program....

In science, we use statistics and experiments to figure out causal relationships. Researchers in artificial intelligence and machine learning have started to design software that allows computers to learn about causes the way that scientists do. Over the past 15 years, researchers in my laboratory have shown that children learn in much the same way. In one experiment, we showed preschool children a simple machine with a switch on one side and two disks that spin on top....

In November 1944, President Roosevelt wrote a letter to Vannevar Bush, who was then director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSDR). From there, Bush oversaw many of the scientific advances that contributed to victory in World War II. The end of the war was yet nine months away, but FDR asked Bush to advise him on how, “in the days of peace ahead,” the experience of the OSRD could be applied for the betterment of society....