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Imagine a group of people in different parts of the world smoothly interacting as if they were physically together, down to being able to feel one another’s touch. The components that will enable such “collaborative telepresence” could transform how we work and play together, rendering physical location irrelevant. Just as video-calling apps such as Skype and FaceTime have made what was once the domain of business widely accessible to consumers, and massive multiplayer online games have radically altered how people interact on the Internet, collaborative telepresence could transform how people collaborate virtually in business and beyond....

The United Nations recently released a sweeping report on the health of the planet’s coral. Healthy reef cover—where squishy polyps and colorful algae coat the white skeletons of hard coral—has dropped 14 percent in the past decade. Coastal development, ocean plastic pollution and overfishing all take their toll, allowing destructive algae to proliferate. But warming oceans, which bleach coral, are the biggest threat to reefs worldwide. The all too familiar story has a few bright spots, however....

On a cold, gray Saturday morning at Yale University in February 1993, instead of just reading his laboratory’s article in a cancer journal and scanning past the rest—cancer is a profoundly wide field, and there is much to read—cancer biologist John Pawelek made time to finish the entire issue. That simple decision changed the course of his research, toward a controversial explanation for the deadliest aspect of the disease—namely, why it spreads....

Dear EarthTalk I’ve heard of extremely environmentally friendly homes and communities called “Earthships” popping up across the U.S. What are they exactly? —Kelsey Kuehn, Kirtland, Ohio An Earthship is a kind of passive solar home—or community of homes—typically made of natural and recycled materials such as old tires and recycled cans. Such homes make use of non-polluting renewable energy sources and smart design to meet most if not all heating, cooling and power needs....

They discovered important details about the missile launcher that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine. They identified neo-Nazis in the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., and unmasked Kremlin hit squads. And now they have documented the use of cluster bombs, which are banned in many countries, in Ukraine. For their investigations, staff at the international collective Bellingcat use only freely available material from the Internet—including video footage and photographs from social media posts....

When I first started running semi-seriously, I diligently carried a water bottle on my belt, as instructed by all the running magazines and websites. Then, as my (ahem) thirst for the sport grew, I graduated to an embarrassing fanny-pack-style beverage bladder. But, oddly enough, by the time I achieved the level of having a shoe sponsorship and coaches, I wasn’t carrying anything with me at all. A few sips at random water fountains or the on-course aid stations worked just fine....

Cancer results from a combination of spontaneous mutations that arise with age—just call it “bad luck”—and environmental exposures to carcinogens such as tobacco, ultraviolet light or viruses. But the question of the relative contribution of luck—compared with more explicit causes—has generated vigorous debate for years. The distinction matters because of the implications for cancer prevention: If a cancer is mostly caused by toxic exposures, then public health efforts should focus on strategies to prevent those exposures....

An American election season seems like a bad time to sing the praises of human rationality. Candidates make promises that will never be kept yet voters somehow accept; thoughtful arguments hold no sway, while sound bites carry the day. What a comedown from the Enlightenment ideals, the faith in rationality, that inspired the founding of the republic. And it is even worse than you might think. Some things you think should be possible to figure out rationally if only you exerted yourself aren’t....

CANADA In the famed Burgess Shale rock formation, paleontologists discovered hundreds of fossils from a horseshoe crab–shaped, prehistoric predator that lived in the ocean 506 million years ago. It measured up to a foot long. GERMANY A vengeful crowd attacked two intoxicated German men who killed a western capercaillie they said attacked them. The bird is endangered in Germany; species populations have shrunk because of habitat loss and stress from increased human contact....

U.S The world’s longest hurricane simulator begins tests at the University of Miami. It mobilizes 38,000 gallons of water with wind speeds of up to 156 miles per hour and is six times larger than any previous experimental setup. The Americas The Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization announced that rubella joins smallpox and polio as diseases eradicated from the region with widespread vaccination. Liberia Geologists discovered that a spiny African plant seems to grow in dense, forested areas only over kimberlite, a mineral from which most of the world’s diamonds are mined....

The word “psychopath” conjures up movie images of brutal, inexplicable violence: Jack Nicholson chasing his family with an ax in The Shining or Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, his face locked into an armored mask to keep him from biting people to death. But real life offers another set of images, that of killers making nice: Ted Bundy as law student and aide to the governor of Washington State, and John Wayne Gacy as the Junior Chamber of Commerce’s “Man of the Year....

Electrons are extremely round, and some physicists are not pleased about it. A new experiment captured the most detailed view of electrons to date, using lasers to reveal evidence of particles surrounding the particles, researchers reported in a new study. By lighting up molecules, the scientists were able to interpret how other subatomic particles alter the distribution of an electron’s charge. [The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics] The symmetrical roundness of the electrons suggested that unseen particles aren’t big enough to skew electrons into squashed oblong shapes, or ovals....

NOVEMBER 4–5 According to the World Health Organization, one in four of us will develop at least one mental illness or behavioral disorder in our lifetime. Depression alone affects an estimated 121 million people worldwide. At the two-day EMBO/EMBL Science and Society Conference, biologists, psychologists and neuroscientists will explore the ethical and social implications of major mental illnesses as well as their causes and treatment. Attendees will debate the definitions of mental disorders, financial interests in the refinement of both diagnoses and drugs, and controversial new therapies, among other topics....

Tinnitus, the perception of phantom noises in the absence of actual sound, affects millions of people around the world. According to one recent assessment, approximately one in 10 adults in the U.S. experiences tinnitus—and in nearly a quarter of these individuals, symptoms last for more than 15 years. Those with tinnitus can also experience complications such as difficulty focusing, fatigue, anxiety and an overall reduction in the quality of life. Psychological interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy can help lessen the distress, but to date, no drug or medical device has been shown to reliably improve this condition....

Our brain is attuned to noticing new things in the busy environment around us. This alertness to novelty means we are apt to overemphasize what holds our attention. When people stand out as different, they stick in our mind because of how much we initially notice their presence—and by how vividly we later recall them. Our recollection of the unusual carries over into how we think about social groups. A recent survey by YouGov America illustrates the real-life tendency to overrepresent the size of minority populations....

Phosphorus mining has a beneficial side and a disturbing side. It gives us ammonium phosphate, a key ingredient in the fertilizer used to grow abundant food. It also produces massive amounts of waste, depicted here. The phosphorus comes from calcium phosphate rock that is strip-mined across several U.S. states and pulverized. Producers add sulfuric acid to form phosphoric acid, which is later converted to ammonium phosphate. Every ton of phosphoric acid generated creates five tons of a soil-like by-product, phosphogypsum....

To keep this world tolerable for life as we like it, humanity must complete a marathon of technological change whose finish line lies far over the horizon. Robert H. Socolow and Stephen W. Pacala of Princeton University have compared the feat to a multigenerational relay race [see their article “A Plan to Keep Carbon in Check”]. They outline a strategy to win the first 50-year leg by reining back carbon dioxide emissions from a century of unbridled acceleration....

EXHIBITIONS Seeing How does vision work—and do we really see things differently? This exhibit explores how we experience depth, color and motion. It also reveals how the context in which we look at images and items determines what we think we see. Exploratorium, San Francisco Permanent display 415-397-5673 www.exploratorium.edu/seeing/ Brainzilla For an encounter with a mental giant that you will not likely soon forget, consider taking a tour of this gargantuan, interactive model of a human brain....

Embedded in a lung cancer tumor, scientists have found a gastrointestinal tract in miniature. Duke University researchers have observed rudimentary, but functional, stomachs, small intestines, and duodenums growing inside cancerous lungs—illustrating how varied and plastic these metastatic cells can be. Cancerous cells, after all, use the very same developmental mechanisms as healthy cells do to adapt and survive. So scientists are observing an example of some cells mutating into their developmental cousins....

In a case of life imitating art, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) reported today that they had successfully reversed mental retardation in mice, just as scientists did in the classic 1966 novel Flowers for Algernon. In the book by Daniel Keyes, scientists use experimental surgery—first tested on a mouse named Algernon—to dramatically boost the intelligence of a mentally retarded janitor named Charlie Gordon. Now M.I.T. scientists report in Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences USA that they ameliorated brain damage in mice caused by a genetic disorder known as fragile X syndrome by blocking an enzyme involved in cellular development....