Science

Woe betide the rhinoceros radiologist. “Radiologists are very comfortable with dogs, cats, horses, cows,” said Dr. Michael Adkesson, the president and chief executive of Brookfield Zoo Chicago. But ask them to peer inside a critically endangered, 2,300-pound black rhino and they might quickly find themselves in uncharted territory. In 2018, …

Today, few critters are as abundant as cicadas. Thousands of different cicada species are found throughout the world, and some even periodically emerge by the trillions. But the prehistoric world was not crawling with periodical swarms. The cicadas of the late Jurassic Period — which had bulkier bodies than today’s …

In the dying days of the 12th century, with Norway in the grip of civil wars, the Baglers, a faction aligned with the archbishop, laid siege to Sverresborg, the castle stronghold of King Sverre Sigurdsson. The monarch was away, so the besiegers pillaged the castle, burned down houses and poisoned …

Update, Oct. 26 — On Saturday, NASA said the astronaut who experienced a “medical issue” has been released from the hospital after an overnight stay and has now returned to Houston. “The crew member is in good health and will resume normal post-flight reconditioning with other crew members,” the space …

Leon N. Cooper, a Nobel-winning physicist who helped unlock the secret of how some materials can convey electricity without resistance, a phenomenon called superconductivity, and who did pioneering work in understanding how memory and the brain work, died on Wednesday at his home in Providence, R.I. He was 94. His …

Some 1,350 light-years from Earth, astronomers detected strange pairs of unexplained objects orbiting in the Orion Nebula. Since then, about 12 months ago, other scientists have proposed a new potential explanation for these apparitions, while other researchers wonder whether they exist at all. “There’s a bit less confidence they exist,” …

Grizzly bear 399, one of the best known bears in the world and the oldest recorded reproducing female grizzly in the greater Yellowstone area, was struck by a car and died Tuesday south of Jackson, Wyo. She was 28. Nicknamed “399,” she was adored by millions as she lumbered along …

“Math is power” is the tag line of a new documentary, “Counted Out,” currently making the rounds at festivals and community screenings. (It will have a limited theatrical release next year.) The film explores the intersection of mathematics, civil rights and democracy. And it delves into how an understanding of …

More than 80 American Nobel Prize winners in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics have signed an open letter endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “This is the most consequential presidential election in a long time, perhaps ever, for the future of science and the United States,” reads the letter, …

Philip G. Zimbardo, a towering figure in social psychology who explored how good people turn evil in the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, which devolved into chaos after college students acting as guards started abusing other students acting as prisoners, died on Oct. 14 at his home in San Francisco. He …