SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " Teen " 4,522 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Hazmat incident at Hudson business sends 16 people to hospitals
Sixteen people were hospitalized at an industrial business in Hudson, Massachusetts, on Thursday, fire officials said. A chemical process is believed to have contributed to what happened, according to the Hudson Fire Department, which called in a Hazardous Materials team to help respond to the incident, reported about 8:47 a.m. on Parmenter Road. Employees at the business reported serious illnesses,…
U.S. Investigated Left-Leaning Groups During Minnesota Immigration Crackdown
The government conducted expansive surveillance, infiltrated group chats and obtained financial records of organizations never accused of crimes.
The Kent County Health Department wants more teens to take its health survey
The Kent County Health Department is trying to get more teenagers to take its health survey.
AI needs science’s search history
“Actually, that’s where the gold is,” said Alasdair Russell, my graduate school friend who leads a pre-clinical genome editing group at Cambridge. He was talking about the winding road of science that is omitted from published papers. “When you’re discussing how to do the experiment, and why this way is better than another way, and what does the data really mean? I know what it shows, but what does it mean?” At RAAIS 2026, he described how his group has begun logging the twisting path of discovery as it happens, recording the verbal and written exchanges that normally disappear. Ideas become nodes in a living graph: they branch when a meeting produces two plausible experiments, merge when separate lines of evidence converge, and go dark when someone quietly stops pursuing them. In his implementation, one agent scores novelty, while another tries to learn “how scientists think and how they navigate through a complex world of data,” so that high-potential nodes can trigger deeper investigation. As frontier AI labs deploy agents toward scientific discovery, giving AI authentic scientific taste remains a trillion-dollar dilemma. The bottleneck is that the record we have kept for centuries of science might be insufficient to get us there. The experiments that never make the paper Peter Medawar, 1960 Nobel laureate and “father of transplantation,” asked in 1963 whether the scientific paper was a fraud, and answered yes: the form of the paper misrepresents the thinking that produced it. Sixty years on, the diagnosis is unchanged. A paper presents a clean progression from hypothesis to result to conclusion. Lost along the way are the unconventional theories, the abandoned or unaffordable methods, and the underwhelming and inconclusive data. It reads like a browser history with every dead end deleted: the ten open tabs, the four rephrased queries, the wrong turn down a subforum. All scrubbed, leaving one clean path from question to answer as the canonical path. What has changed since then is that the discarded material is now worth something. No high-impact journal wants these artifacts, but raw trial and error is the most likely source of the training data required to develop scientific intuition, or what researchers call taste. Earlier attempts to capture the discards were motivated by scientific integrity. The Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine launched in 2002 to publish rigorous studies that disputed established models or exposed ineffective treatments. Its archive preserved negative conclusions after they had become papers, rather than the live alternatives and arguments that produced them. BioMed Central closed it in 2017, saying the mission had been served now that other journals publish null results. A less generous reading is that in fifteen years it published around 200 papers because almost nobody wants to read a negative result, let alone write one up when it will not count toward academic tenure. AI models are different. Even an uninteresting negative result can be useful, provided it is labeled. Earlier this year, Anthropic put a version of this to the test. The company pulled 129 decision points from real Claude Code sessions between January and March 2026, showed models the work up to a human detour, and asked what should happen next. Claude Mythos Preview beat the human choice 64% of the time, while Opus 4.5 managed 51%. The comparison was tilted toward the models because Anthropic deliberately chose moments where the human decision had room for improvement. On 127 further scenarios where the human action was already strong, the models improved on it only about 20% of the time. The study was possible because Anthropic’s researchers work inside a tool that logs by default. The reasoning, detours and outcome are produced in the same working environment. Biology has no equivalent. Its reasoning happens in hallways, at benches, in Slack threads and on whiteboards, while the outcome arrives weeks later somewhere else. The record has to emerge from the work itself. Ask scientists to reconstruct it afterwards and we’ll create another polished account. Subscribe A log is not a label Before any of this becomes training data, a negative result has to say what failed. The first paper published in the Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine examined 234 negative studies across five leading medical journals. Only 30% discussed statistical power, and half clearly defined a primary outcome. Tell a model an experiment failed, without telling it whether the assay was underpowered, a reagent had degraded, or the hypothesis was simply wrong, and it will learn noise with confidence. Decision histories have a second missing label too. When a lab considers five experiments and runs one, only the chosen branch returns an outcome. The other four are experimental counterfactuals. Researchers call this the selective labels problem: the data reveal results only for the actions someone chose to take. Such a record can teach a model to imitate a lab’s taste, but it cannot establish that the taste was good. It also smuggles local constraints into general lessons. A lab that never ran cryo-EM because it did not own a microscope teaches a model that cryo-EM is rarely the right call. Alasdair’s nodes preserve the candidate set, which is the necessary first step. To be useful, each decision record needs six fields: The evidence available at that moment, and nothing that arrived later. The candidates considered, including the ones dismissed in a sentence. For each candidate: the expected result, the confidence attached to it, and the cost in time and money. The route chosen, and the reason. What happened next. How the evidence changed the scientist’s view. These must be timestamped before the outcome, because hindsight turns uncertainty into inevitability. Disagreement also has to survive. Averaging three scientists into one clean rationale reproduces exactly the information loss we are trying to fix. But there is an obvious failure mode here. Once decisions are logged and scored, people log for the record post-facto. Anyone who has watched an electronic lab notebook fill up with retrospective tidying knows how quickly a research tool becomes a compliance exercise. A record that costs a scientist ten minutes of honest reflection per decision is worth far more than one that costs an hour of performance. A publication initiative called Registered Reports offers a useful starting point. Here, researchers submit their rationale, methods and analysis plan for peer review before the data exist, and the journal commits in principle to publish if they follow the approved plan. Nature has now expanded the format across every field it covers. This approach to paper writing timestamps intent before the outcome, but it freezes one plan. A useful search history must also preserve how the plan changed, which alternatives were rejected, when, and on what evidence. Subscribe Run the runner-up Autonomous labs show what happens when decisions and outcomes are connected in a loop. Liverpool’s mobile robotic chemist ran 688 experiments over eight days in a ten-variable formulation space. A batched Bayesian search used each result to choose the next experiments and found photocatalyst mixtures six times more active than the starting formulations. Every completed experiment changed what the system did next. The robot optimized within a goal and search space that humans had already chosen. It did not decide which scientific question mattered. So what this work demonstrates is narrower, but still useful: a search history pays off when the options return standardized outcomes quickly. Open-ended biology is harder because branches can take weeks and the discarded alternatives may never be run. Some exploration therefore has to be bought. Where two branches are plausible and the stakes justify the cost, a lab should sometimes run the runner-up. Otherwise the record captures what today’s scientists usually chose and stays silent on what they systematically overlooked. A funder could ring-fence a small fraction of a grant for the branch not taken, provided that the decision record and the outcome are both deposited. That costs money, but so does having every lab rediscover the same abandoned path. Test whether taste transfers When it comes time to evaluate if our new AI system exhibits taste, the comparison should run across laboratories and fields. At selected decision points in a live research campaign, we should freeze the six fields: the evidence, the candidates, expected results, confidence, costs and the choice made. Experts then rank the options before the outcomes are known, and those outcomes are checked independently later. We could give models one of two diets - papers alone, or papers plus decision histories - and ask them to rank the next experiment on unfamiliar projects. Then, we score information gained per dollar and week, calibration, and how quickly weak branches are abandoned. If histories improve choices only inside the lab that produced them, they amount to useful organizational memory. If they improve choices on unfamiliar problems elsewhere, Alasdair’s group will have captured something science has never managed to write down: a transferable record of taste. Until that happens, a scientific search history is a promising record, not yet a training set.
Mike Chen to Publish YA Debut ‘Of Sorcery and Science’
Acclaimed author Mike Chen is releasing his debut young adult novel ‘Of Sorcery and Science’ this fall — and PEOPLE can share an exclusive excerpt. The story follows Andy Lao, a teen balancing high school life and his role as a magical realm’s Chosen One.
A City Mobilizes Against a Stubborn Health Threat: Mosquitoes
The city of Belém in northern Brazil was overwhelmed by an outbreak of dengue two years ago. An all-out municipal effort has reduced cases and may offer lessons to American cities.
At Trump's Patriot Games, political criticism clouds competition
Amid competition and camaraderie, an undercurrent of political criticism loomed over the White House athletic competition for teens.
How Thanksgiving Became Political: Francesca Hong’s Tweets Explained
Ahead of Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor, a past tweet by the assemblywoman that called for the holiday to be canceled was resurfaced.
'Don't Say Good Luck' review: Sunny Sandler and Melanie Lynskey shine
In a landscape littered with teenage dysfunction, Netflix's 'Don't Say Good Luck' is a moving argument for aspirational television.
Rancho Cucamonga teen creates student-led initiative to help firefighters' lung health
Hong’s Defeat in Wisconsin Sparks New Disagreements Within Democratic Party
Some Democrats said the outcome showed that the moderate wing of the party carried more electoral weight, while Ms. Hong’s strong showing gave some progressives hope.
South Carolina Senate Runoff Kicks Off With Chick-fil-A and Trump Calls
Darline Graham and Ralph Norman emerged from a special election sprint on Tuesday to succeed Lindsey Graham. She will sell her closeness to President Trump. He will tout his conservatism.
Even Some Cabinet Members Didn’t Join Trump’s Secret Flight. Here’s Who Did.
The White House aides Natalie Harp and Dan Scavino were among those traveling with the president on a military jet.
Why Were Polls So Wrong in the Wisconsin Governor’s Race?
Francesca Hong, the democratic socialist running in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor, had a double-digit lead in polls as recently as last week. Then she lost. What happened?
Teen buys abandoned storage units and sells 'treasures' he finds inside—his side hustle brings in $135,000 a year
Michael Haskell started buying abandoned storage units and selling their contents while still in high school through his business Mike's Unique Treasures.
A Space Expert Hoped to Use the Eclipse as Science Class. The D.J.s Had Other Plans.
Mar Carretero-Castrillo, an astrophysicist, returned to her remote village in Spain to be in the path of totality. Hundreds of partygoers came too.
Consumer Debt Data Shows ‘Overall’ Health Amid Persisting Divides
Homeowners with low fixed-rate mortgages lead a resilient picture of the economy. But many consumers are frustrated with declining real wages and other loans.
Telescope Spots Two Black Holes on the Cusp of Merging
New images from the James Webb telescope show a galaxy with a trio of supermassive black holes. Two of them appear to be locked in a tight tango.
8 Takeaways from Tuesday’s Primaries
A moderate won the closely fought Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin, the latest contest between the party’s progressive and moderate wings.
8 Takeaways from Tuesday’s Primaries
A Democratic primary for governor in Wisconsin remained neck and neck early Wednesday, leaving a national battle between progressive and moderate wings largely unsettled.
Rebecca Cooke Wins Democratic Primary for Key Wisconsin House Seat
Ms. Cooke, a three-time congressional candidate, held a huge fund-raising edge in a western Wisconsin race that Democrats consider pivotal to their hopes of flipping the House.
Rep. John Larson, a Longtime Lawmaker, Loses a Primary in Connecticut
In an upset, Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford, won the Democratic nomination, capitalizing on calls for generational change.
Lake Ozark aldermen approve teen curfew for Bagnell Dam Strip, easing business liability
the City of Lake Ozark Board of Alderment there this evening voted to establish a teen curfew on the bagnell dam strip.The vote count was unanimous.The modified
Amy Klobuchar Wins Minnesota’s Democratic Primary for Governor
The fourth-term U.S. senator jolted Minnesota politics early this year by mounting a bid to succeed Gov. Tim Walz.
Areas to Watch in Wisconsin’s Democratic Primary for Governor
A race between Francesca Hong and David Crowley could highlight the fault lines between Madison and Milwaukee.
Myles Lewis-Skelly transfer news: Chelsea and Man Utd turn down intermediary offer to sign Arsenal teenager
Latest transfer news and headlines as Newcastle are exploring a move for Benfica right-back Amar Dedic; Aston Villa have reached a verbal agreement to sign Matteo Ruggeri from Atletico Madrid; Kyle Walker is a target for Everton; Paul Pogba is set to leave Monaco
Authors face backlash for participation in 2022 Google AI study
Thirteen authors joined a little-known Google AI study in 2022. Now they're facing backlash.
University of Michigan Will Ease Up on Grades for Student Mental Health
The university will make first-semester grades pass or fail, to encourage students to explore different classes and lessen fears that “a low grade may have long-term consequences.”
Pickup truck accident in Egypt's Ismailia leaves 15 dead, health ministry says
Fifteen people were killed and 32 others were injured when a pickup truck carrying workers rolled over in Egypt's Ismailia Governorate, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Ari Emanuel’s Company to Acquire 7 Broadway Theaters and 10 in the West End
The purchase of ATG Entertainment, which operates dozens of venues worldwide, will require regulatory approval.
U.S. Says It Revoked More Than 175,000 Visas Under Trump
Most visas were rescinded over criminal accusations, the State Department said, while some were revoked from people who had celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
APT’s Two ‘Gentlemen’ of Verona plays like a teen drama
Playwright and director Aaron Posner spins “Two ‘Gentlemen’ of Verona” into a heartsick teen romance with a folk music score.
Democrats Plan New Push to Defeat Max Miller in Ohio After Abuse Accusations
The party’s congressional campaign arm added Mr. Miller’s opponent, Brian Poindexter, to its highly competitive “Red to Blue” list.
Democrats Plan New Push to Defeat Max Miller in Ohio After Abuse Accusations
The party’s congressional campaign arm added Mr. Miller’s opponent, Brian Poindexter, to its highly competitive “Red to Blue” list.
Video: How We’re Covering an ‘Identity Crisis’ in Politics
Recent primary wins have posed critical questions for both Republicans and Democrats as they head into the fall midterms. Carolyn Ryan, managing editor of The New York Times, shares how reporters approach coverage of shifting political dynamics.
The Perseids Meteor Shower Is Peaking. Here’s How to Watch.
The Perseids will be most active on Wednesday into Thursday morning, on the moonless night after a total solar eclipse.
Democratic rebellion against older politicians reaches new battleground
Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 47, is challenging Rep. John Larson, who is 78 and running for his fifteenth term representing Connecticut's first district.
Meet Liverpool's rising star who can only play friendlies
The emergence of teenage defender Ifeanyi Ndukwe has been one of the main storylines of Liverpool's pre-season - but why can the 18-year-old only play friendly matches?
An Elaborate Ruse: Trump Secretly Used Military Jet to Leave Turkey Amid Threats
President Trump hid in an airport catering cart and was taken to a military jet for a secret flight out of country after the NATO summit last month.
Trump Stokes Islamophobia by Calling Democratic Candidates ‘Jihadists’
Along with his comments about Muslim candidates, Mr. Trump spoke disparagingly of Somalis in the United States, saying “they’re not smart.”
Wisconsin’s Roller Coaster of a Democratic Primary Race for Governor Crashes to an End
Democrats appear likely to nominate a democratic socialist for governor. How did they get here?
How a Counterintelligence Inquiry Into Trump’s Russia Ties Was Derailed
Documents released by the White House shed new light on the demise of an often-overlooked 2017 F.B.I. investigation.
Sanders Calls on A.I. Companies to Pause Development to ‘Avoid Disaster’
Senator Bernie Sanders warned that corporations have already lost control of technology that could cause “potentially cataclysmic results” for millions of people.
Top Science Body Deletes Climate Chapter From Judges’ Manual
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine had been under pressure from Republican leaders, including President Trump.
Opinion | How We Talk About Mental Health Challenges
The National Alliance on Mental Illness responds to an Opinion guest essay. Also: President Trump’s arch; a retreat on vaccines; Mr. Trump and Canada.
Singer Samantha Mumba Thought She’d Never Have a Normal Job After Finding Fame at 15. Now She’s Embracing a Surprising Line of Work (Exclusive)
After finding the spotlight as a teen, Mumba knew she wanted to explore her talents outside of entertainment
Thousands of Endangered Species Condoms Distributed to Health Clinics, Mutual Aid Groups After Federal Funding Cuts
TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity has distributed more than 20,000 free Endangered Species Condoms so far this year to health clinics, mutual aid groups and social service organizations in the wake of federal funding cuts, including recent cuts to the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
Minnesota’s Democratic Senate Primary Pits Angie Craig Against Peggy Flanagan
The Senate primary race in Minnesota will be the latest test of left-wing energy in the party, in a state that was convulsed by the Trump administration’s deadly immigration crackdown this winter.
Forty Under 40: Chris Bakunas
A native of Omaha, Neb., Chris Bakunas first fell in love with Arkansas when he visited the Natural State as a teenager. Because of his love for the Ozarks, he...
Boeing to Sell 3 Autonomous Flight Subsidiaries
In exchange for the sale to Archer Aviation, which is developing a piloted electric aircraft, Boeing will receive a 16.5 percent stake in Archer.
New TV shows to watch this week: Tune in to 'The Shards' on FX, stream 'Sterling Point' on Prime Video and revisit 'Sense8' on Netflix
Teen drama fans will fall for "Sterling Point" and "My Life with the Walter Boys." But don't overlook Taylor Sheridan, "Ted Lasso" or a gripping Netflix series.
Pain, stigma and barriers to care: The burden of cysts and fibroids in Africa
As a teenager in Kenya, long before Evelyn Okinyi Owala became a professional bodybuilder, she attended school, spent time with friends and helped her parents around the house. But during her period each month, she said, she experienced excruciating pain, vomiting, fever, lightheadedness, heavy bleeding, pelvic pain and acne.
Private Equity Is Stuck With 33,575 Unsold Businesses
Even amid a booming deal-making environment, private equity firms are unable to exit a growing number of investments at values their investors require.
Trump Names Will Scharf as White House Counsel
The president said Mr. Scharf, a deeply conservative lawyer and the current staff secretary, would replace David Warrington in early September.
Anthony Scaramucci, Podcast Star, Explains U.S. Politics to the World
He spent 11 days in the Trump White House nine years ago. Now he has a hit podcast, helping the British public, among others, understand what’s going on.
Poll: Voters See Political Parties as More Extreme Than Their Own Candidates
In a New York Times/Siena poll of battleground states, national parties were seen as too far to the right or the left, while nominees were viewed as more moderate.
A Maine Town, Once Dependent on a Paper Mill, Tries to Move On
For over a century, Madison Paper Industries was a small Maine town’s economic engine. A new owner moved in, but uncertainty persists.
Teen dog handler wins gold in final junior contest
The 17-year-old dog agility competitor says she now hopes to get selected for the adult team.
Moderate Democrat in Hawaii Defeats Progressive House Challenger
Representative Ed Case beat Jarrett Keohokalole, a younger progressive, in a race that centered on questions of generational change and the state’s skyrocketing cost of living.
Spanish teen Jodar ousts eighth seed Lehecka at Montreal
Spanish teen Rafael Jodar defeated Czech eighth seed Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-3 on Saturday to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP Montreal Masters.Jodar will play for a semi-final berth against French 18th seed Arthur Fils, who defeated Britain's Cameron Norrie 6-2, 7-6 (10/8).
Max Miller, Republican Accused of Abuse, Won’t Drop Out, Spokeswoman Says
Mr. Miller, who has faced pressure from fellow Republicans to end his campaign and avoid endangering a solidly red seat in Ohio, will stay in the race, his spokeswoman said.
Senate Bows to Reality, Leaving Trump’s Voting Bill Undone
The summer exit confirmed what had been apparent for weeks: that Republicans lacked the votes to pass the voting restrictions the president has made a top priority.
The U.S. Is Burning Through Weapons in Iran. Russia and China Are Taking Note.
The Iran war has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles, resulting in a significant erosion of firepower. A more drawn-out Iran conflict benefits Moscow and Beijing, some analysts say.
In Confirming Blanche, Senators Endorse a Justice Dept. Under Trump’s Sway
Time and again, Todd Blanche has made it clear that he believes President Trump possesses a nearly limitless right to directly control the actions of the Justice Department.
I'm enjoying being a mom to 5 tweens and teens
Everyone warned me about parenting during the teen years. Sure, there are hard parts, but there's a fun side to it, too.
My Stepson’s Hateful Views Are Damaging My Business. What Should I Do?
I would love to bar this person from our home, but I cannot.
We unretired in our 60s to afford raising our teenage granddaughter
Michael and Connie Frost are raising their granddaughter Kinsley in Georgia, balancing their retirement and her education needs.
We unretired in our 60s to afford raising our teenage granddaughter
Michael and Connie Frost are raising their granddaughter Kinsley in Georgia, balancing their retirement and her education needs.
Fact-Checking 3 Competitive Senate Races in Maine, Michigan and Ohio
Republican attacks have focused on terrorism and illegal immigration, while Democrats have sought to capitalize on the unpopularity of President Trump’s cuts to Medicaid.
Amid Abuse Claims Against Max Miller, This Democrat Thinks He Can Win His Seat
Brian Poindexter, an ironworker, is in the spotlight in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, where Mr. Miller faces multiple calls to step aside.
After a Poisonous Primary, Michigan Democrats Promise to Get Along
The party is racing to get behind Dr. Abdul El-Sayed after a Senate primary that was “spirited,” as Pete Buttigieg diplomatically put it at a unity rally on Friday night, but tensions remain.
She Is Russia’s Richest Woman. Her Business Empire Is Going Up in Flames.
As Ukraine repeatedly strikes warehouses of the e-commerce site Wildberries, Tatyana Kim, its billionaire co-founder, faces her biggest test yet.
They’re Battle-Tested Democrats. Do Voters Care?
Haley Stevens and Angie Craig were celebrated by Democrats in 2018. This year, they’ve faced tough primaries.
As Pressure Mounts, U.S. Hunts for Cuba’s Next Leader
Some officials warn that a more hard-line leader could emerge if the Trump administration moves forward with its plans.
A decade of heart: Camp Lionheart celebrates 10 years
Camp Lionheart recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, bringing together children and teens with heart disease for a week of traditional summer camp activities in a medically supported environment.
Murkowski Will Oppose Blanche as Attorney General, Putting His Confirmation at Risk
The Alaska senator is the second Republican to announce plans to vote against Todd Blanche. He likely cannot afford any other G.O.P. defections and still win approval.
Opinion | College Is More Political Than Ever. But in a New, Insidious Way.
Students are self-segregating by ideology.
Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner on Rom-Coms and the Politics of ‘One Night Only’
In “One Night Only,” Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner play singles living in a world where the government has banned premarital sex. How far-fetched is that?
New Mexico court orders Meta to pay $567M, overhaul teen protections on Facebook and Instagram
A New Mexico court ordered Meta to pay $567 million and implement sweeping new protections for teens using Facebook and Instagram.
China’s Export Boom Rolls On Despite Trade Backlash
China’s factories are finding eager buyers abroad even as weak consumer spending and a prolonged property slump weigh on growth at home.
In Upset, Andy Ogles Loses to a Republican Challenger in Tennessee
Mr. Ogles, a two-term congressman, had held off primary threats before, despite controversy. But on Thursday, Charlie Hatcher, a former state agriculture commissioner, delivered an upset.
Some House Republicans Are Backing a Challenger in Cory Mills’s Re-election Bid
Two Republican lawmakers have endorsed a primary opponent of Representative Cory Mills, who has been accused of assault and is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.
Educators & Teens Get Hands-On With TEMPO Data to Help Investigate Local Air Quality
On Day 1 of the Institute, the CosmicDS Science Principal Investigator Pat Udomprasert led a hands-on immersion session introducing educators to TEMPO-Lab, a
Video: How the Migrant Crisis in Ceuta Ignited a Backlash Against the Far Right
A sudden migrant surge from Morocco into the Spanish territory of Ceuta attracted the presence of far-right, anti-immigrant politicians. But many locals say they don’t want their multicultural home to be used as a political prop.
Curiosity keeps Lowry engaged in business, nonprofits, law
As a teenager, Meredith Lowry developed a passion for caring and helping others by working at her father’s Fayetteville animal hospital. She was on the front line with clients as...
This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature
Scientists trained artificial intelligence on libraries of DNA and then asked the model to create recipes for viral genomes. Sixteen of them were viable, yielding new viruses.
A Promising Heart Drug Fails, Challenging a Long-Held Theory of Disease
The drug targeted inflammation, and its shocking failure has experts questioning whether inflammation really does cause heart disease.
Upstate N.Y. teen wins junior disc golf world title
A boring afternoon turned into a full-blown obsession for Ethan Hadders, and years of practice later, he's now a junior world champion.
Insults, Expletives and Fat-Shaming: Vance Trolls Critics on the Right and Left
The vice president has dispensed with the decorum and restraint of his predecessors to directly take on opponents and journalists on social media with sometimes profane and often personal jabs.
Wilson County teen turns summer hobby into custom banner business
Nashville News, Weather, and Sports
Moderate Democrats Prepare for ‘War’ Against an Ascendant Left
One moderate group says the progressive wins are “deeply troubling” and is planning a $15 million effort against democratic socialism.
Follow the Markets and Track Stocks With These Free Apps
Google Finance and Apple’s Stocks app have added new features over the years to make them more useful for tracking the markets and your investments.
Does He Have the Most Stressful Job in Sports?
Brian Cashman has presided over four titles and zero losing seasons. Yankees fans want more.
Why So Many C.E.O.s Are Getting a Chief of Staff
The position as a trusted sounding board is in high demand as business gets more complex — and everyone wants to get in on the latest bureaucratic fad.
Science|Business summer reads of 2026
As most people in the European research and innovation policy bubble are going on a well-deserved summer break, we have come up with a list of our favourite books, podcasts and essays from the past year that ask deeper questions about science, technology and politics.BooksPasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation, by Donald StokesIf you haven’t read Pasteur’s Quadrant yet, now is the time. In the EU and elsewhere, we’re living through a period of dwindling faith that curiosity-driven research automatically leads to economic growth and technological progress. Pasteur’s Quadrant, published in 1997 by the Princeton academic Donald Stokes, is the most influential critique of the standard “linear model” of R&D: the idea that new discoveries made in ivory-tower labs get neatly passed on for commercialisation by start-ups. In reality, Stokes argues, practical applications often inspire more theorical lines of inquiry. Of course, we have long known that things are more complex than the linear model, but even today, it’s still often assumed in Brussels discourse. The book is a useful corrective, and is being used now to argue for new types of scientific institutions. David MatthewsThe Weaponization of Expertise: How Elites Fuel Populism, by Jacob Hale Russel and Dennis PattersonAre society’s problems solvable by technical expertise alone? “If only the benighted would listen,” say Jacob Hale Russel and Dennis Patterson, two professors at Rutgers Law School who got frustrated with how scientists and politicians handled public health communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the book, they argue that clichéd mantras about scientific evidence and expertise perpetrated by academics, journalists and politicians have harmed public trust in the very institutions they were trying to defend. Paradoxically, slogans such as “we believe in science,” “follow the science” and “defer to the experts” can fuel mistrust in science, experts and democratic institutions. The authors criticise “condescension” and “technocratic paternalism” in the public discourse and make the case for a more nuanced approach to scientific and expert policy advice that rests on humility, doubt, scepticism and open dialogue. “Most complex social questions in fact revolve around values, not the recitation of unambiguous facts,” they say. Florin ZubascuBreakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, by Dan WangIn this book, Dan Wang compares the structural differences between the US and Chinese industrial policies, but raises a very timely question for innovation policy wonks: how can advanced manufacturing know-how contribute to technology-intensive economic growth? Wang says technology has three components: the tools, the blueprints and patents, and the process knowledge. The third component represents the “proficiency gained from practical experience, which isn’t easily communicated and requires years of implementation.” According to Wang, rather than seeing tools and blueprints as the ultimate ends of technological progress, policymakers should see them as milestones in the training of better scientists and manufacturers. Over the past decades, China has amassed “process knowledge” because capital flowed to complex fabrication facilities, while investors in the West have parked their money in capital-light businesses such as digital platforms or chip companies that focus on design. As it turns out, thanks to its oversized focus on manufacturing, China has gained remarkable advantages in the global technology race. Florin ZubascuBaltic: The Future of Europe, by Oliver MoodyWhat can Europe learn from the nine countries surrounding the Baltic Sea? Alongside the familiar stories about Estonia's digital transformation, the book examines how the region has used technology, resilience, education, governance and long-term thinking to respond to geopolitical, economic and security challenges. Innovation policy wonks might find fresh perspectives on how innovation can strengthen defence, societal resilience and Europe's capacity to adapt in an uncertain world. Whether or not you agree with all of Oliver Moody's conclusions, the book is a useful guide to a region that is increasingly shaping European debates on security, competitiveness and technology. Goda NaujokaityteThe Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf This book chronicles the wild and adventurous life of natural science pioneer Alexander von Humboldt who at some point in the 19th century seems to have been just about the most famous person in the world. Through scientific expeditions to the Andes Mountains and to the depths of Siberia, von Humboldt contributed a host of discoveries and concepts. During his life he met and formed relationships with historical figures as different as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Simon Bolivar, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles Darwin. He is also claimed to be the person in the world with most things named after him, a list that includes an ocean current, a penguin and a region of the Moon. Still venerated in Germany, with numerous scientific institutions named after him, von Humboldt has slipped out of public consciousness in most of the rest of the world. For anyone not familiar with him, this book does a good job of describing his fascinating life. Ole EllekrogCareless People, by Sarah Wynn-WilliamsYou may have heard this referred to as the book Meta doesn’t want you to read. The 2025 memoir from Sarah Wynn-Williams, former director of global public policy at Meta, then just called Facebook, includes explosive claims about everything from a toxic workplace culture to how the company worked with advertisers to target vulnerable teens, and the lengths it was prepared to go to in order to break into China. It’s a fascinating insight into how and why the tech company gradually shifted its approach to policy, whether in the US, Europe or Asia. Meta has denied the allegations in the book, and last year won an emergency ruling to prevent Wynn-Williams from promoting it. In response, the author is now suing her former employer. If that doesn’t make you want to read it. Martin GreenacrePodcastsThe Europeans: Europe’s anti-ElonThis podcast is a great choice for a light-hearted dose of European policy and culture news. Most of it has little to do with research, innovation and technology, but this particular podcast features an interview with Mastadon’s founder Eugen Rochko. He talks about his experience running an open-source, federated, European-made social media platform, and leaving it all behind. The conversation, which starts 14 minutes in, gently encourages us to reflect on what kind of technology we, as Europeans, want to make. Goda NaujokaityteSolarpunk and how we escape dystopiaNew technologies are very often taken from science fiction. Alberto Santos-Dumont, inventor the airship, was inspired as a child by the adventure stories of Jules Verne. OpenAI’s attempt to build a personal assistant with the voice of Scarlett Johansson was lifted from the 2013 film Her, completely ignoring the movie’s cautionary message. So if we want better tech, we need to imagine it first. Unfortunately, the state of current sci-fi is relentlessly dystopian, giving inventors precious few ideas or hope. However, a new genre, Solarpunk, which envisages a technologically advanced but ecologically harmonious future, is now taking off. The actual tech the genre imagines, such as permaculture, renewable energy or community repair workshops, while nice, isn’t all that inspiring or ambitious. But it’s a first step towards rescuing sci-fi from its pessimistic Blade Runner rut. David MatthewsEveryday AbundanceLaunched in June, Everyday Abundance is a podcast that tells the stories of the inventions we now take so for granted that we barely given them a second thought. For example, the washing machine, which liberated women from a lifetime “bent over washtubs and washboards.” Or modern dentistry, which ended the reality that “tooth pain was simply part of human life.” Historians of technology, Virginia Postrel and Charles C Mann are very much on the optimistic end of the spectrum when it comes to the capacity of invention to improve human life. Here, they set out their case: if it wasn’t for progress, you might be hunched over a washtub with toothache rather than reading these words. David Matthews‘We will not know what we lost’: Conservation fallout a year after USAID shutdownSince his return to the White House, Donald Trump has been on a mission to undermine science. He slashed jobs at federal agencies, terminated grants in some research areas, took unprecedented control over university affairs and, within hours of his inauguration, suspended the US Agency for International Development. While its initial focus was to administer health and food aid around the world, it had since expanded to conservation projects. The result? Some of these projects were stopped abruptly. In this Mongabay podcast, environmental reporter Michelle Nijhuis tells the story of the EcoGuard conservation programme in Liberia, whose local patrols had helped protect rainforests, monitor endangered wildlife and track illegal threats. From one day to the next, these were left without salaries. Luckily, she notes, the initiative was able to get emergency funding from international NGOs, but its future remains “incredibly uncertain.” Juliette PortalaEssaysThe Mars Delusion, by Henry WismayerWhy is humankind so fixated on establishing a colony on Mars? asks London-based writer Henry Wismayer. From space evangelists promoting Martian settlement as an insurance policy, to billionaire Jeff Bezos, who said humans should settle on Mars “because it’s cool,” the mission is not running short of advocates. However, in this essay, Wismayer reminds us that some critics expect any future Mars pioneer to end up “irradiated, sick, mad and dead.” Scientists have already looked into the possible effects of prolonged exposure to Martian gravity, and it’s not pretty: muscle shrinking, bones weakening, changes to the central nervous system and other biological modifications to make us all reconsider the journey. “Some researchers have forecast that the future settler, after generations of evolutionary conditioning, will look less like an Übermensch and more like ET,” Wismayer writes. Juliette Portala
After Michigan Loss, AIPAC Weighs a Second Effort to Defeat El-Sayed
The pro-Israel organization spent $32 million in an unsuccessful effort to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. It might try again in the general election.
Scandal Leaves North Carolina G.O.P. With No Candidate and Little Time
Representative Chuck Edwards’s decision to drop his re-election bid amid sexual harassment charges came as a Democratic farmer, Jamie Ager, was already making inroads.
A Democratic Socialist Disparaged Thanksgiving. Will Voters Forgive Her?
“Cancel Thanksgiving,” she wrote. “VDay” brings out “the worst of humanity,” she mused. Francesca Hong’s old social media posts get a fresh look ahead of Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor.
Butterflies Take Flight in Face of Climate Change and Extreme Weather
In 32 of the countries included in a recent study, at least a quarter of the native butterfly species had moved to new areas.