“Satellite 1970 PL-2 is evidently a surveillance satellite. Nuclear radiation from it indicates a power reactor, not a warhead.” The decoded message may be phrased in English, Russian, or still another language. It would indicate that the alien satellite was no orbital nuclear bomb—and that there was not yet a “hot” space war. Interception and examination of suspicion satellites by manned spacecraft may be foreseen in the near future. It will be one of the logical developments of the cold war in space—a strange, secrecy shrouded contest, short of open hostilities but with deadly serious military implications—that is going on right now....

If you watch a pigeon throughout the day, you’ll see it do so much more than peck for food and crap on statues. It may dance, chase another bird, clap its wings, kiss its mate, take off almost vertically, or feed milk to its young. A pigeon is living the complex, nuanced life of a modern-day dinosaur. Here are some of the behaviors you’ll see. How to speak pigeon Pigeons are famous for their cooing, but why do they do it?...

This artificial enzyme likely resembles what enzymes looked like billions of years ago, when life began evolving. Enzymes created in laboratories typically follow principles of rational enzyme design, in which researchers develop a preconceived idea of what an enzyme should be, model it on a computer, and then influence its development to produce the molecule that they want. By contrast, this new enzyme, developed by Burckhard Seelig’s lab at UM’s College of Biological Sciences, was developed in the same way enzymes evolve in nature....

C’anne Wolf is no newbie to the medical system, or to motherhood. She’s a nurse who works one night a week in a free medical clinic in San Francisco. She also is the mother of six children, and currently pregnant. But she’s scheduled to have a caesarean section on April 7, and she’s scared. That’s because the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidelines this month recommending that new mothers with a confirmed or potential case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2, consider allowing health care providers to temporarily separate them from their newborns—in a different room or in the same room separated by a barrier....

Now the bad: The number of days with lots of really intense tornados is going up. That’s the major finding in a new study (login or payment required) by three researchers: James Elsner of Florida State University, Svetoslava Elsner and Thomas Jagger. Elsner and his co-authors detect signals in US tornado data suggesting “an increasing efficiency of the atmosphere to produce tornados,” and they suggest further research is needed to find out whether global warming may be contributing to it....

Psychologists have for years been studying the tiny, relatively unimportant social cues that get us to vote one way or the other. (It’s helpful, for American psychologists, that we have only two parties. For the rest of us, ehhh.) The reasons we vote aren’t always big–sometimes they’re subtle and small. So, here is a quiz to predict who you’ll vote for, based on those cues. Where will you be voting today?...

Steer wrestlers in studded chaps leap from their noble steeds to grab a cow by its horns until it topples over. (The legendary bulldogger Bill Pickett brought steer to heel by biting their lips.) Barrel racers, bedazzled boots gleaming, guide their horses in a tight clover at breakneck speeds. Tie-down and team ropers in embroidered pearl-snap western shirts lasso calves to the ground. Bull riders and their equine equivalents, saddle and bareback bronc riders, simply hang on for dear life....

Quite obviously, billions and billions of bacteria and viruses are moved in every ship’s ballast every day, but the real issue is whether that matters. Since bacteria and viruses are common throughout the planet, does it make a difference in which body of water they live? Scientists are increasingly suspecting the answer is yes, that these microorganisms have a natural home, known as a biogeography, and that they could very well one day prove to be just as invasive a species as a mussel....

Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute comes with his own experience on Hollywood sets, having served as scientific advisor on the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. His biggest problem wasn’t with the alien technology of Klaatu, the extraterrestrial harbinger of doom played by Keanu Reeves. Instead, he fought for the filmmakers to stop showing the scientists as number-crunching stereotypes. “Real scientists don’t describe an object entering the solar system as ‘notable for the fact that it was not moving in an asteroidal ellipse ....

This year, LG was one of the first companies on the press conference schedule, and one of its marquis demos was a Hub Robot that embodies the company’s digital home assistant, CLOi—pronounced like the human name, Chloe. Instead of making LG look like the future of technology, however, this robot served as a good reminder of just how far we are from the autonomous robot butlers we’ve been promised. The CLOi bot has a vaguely humanoid face and the kind of cloying appeal you’d expect from a Pixar character....

We see because photons of light bounce onto our retinas, reaching brain cells called neurons, which transform their energy into an electrical signal for the brain’s visual cortex. But sometimes the noggin’s wiring goes haywire and sends phantom cues called phos­phenes. They are the tiny stars that blur your vision when you whack your head or rub your eyes. Physical force can jar our neurons, causing them to fire and send errant messages, says Jason ­Samaha, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz....

DuckDuckGo started in 2008 as an alternative to other search engines—that’s mostly Google, with more than 90% of the market—that put advertisers ahead of users. One of DuckDuckGo’s big features is that your searches are never tracked, and it doesn’t use cookies to follow your activities around the web. Any ads you see aren’t personalized, but are instead based on the specific search terms you use. Search for “cars” and you’ll see ads about cars, not some car-patterned socks you once clicked through to on Instagram....

You might be used to throwing out or giving away gadgets when they reach the end of their useful life, but listen: you’ve got options. Many of the electronics you consider outdated can be upgraded rather than abandoned or replaced. We’re not talking about projects that require a high level of technical skill or a lot of money, either—there are simple ways to give your gadgets years of extra life....

All Pela cases are made of a bioplastic and flax straw mixture that makes these protectors 100 percent biodegradable. All Pela cases meet ASTM D6400 standards, meaning they’ll break down in your city’s industrial compost system in as little as three months. You can also send your case back to Pela and they’ll compost it for you. Pela cases fit most iPhones, Samsung Galaxies and Notes, Google Pixels, and Huawei smartphones....

As our writers deliver election coverage here on our front page, feel free to pick up on– or pick a bone with– their thoughts. Ask questions, share your ideas. Interact with us, and with each other. The web offers our national community a way to come together in one place and share our experiences and ideas.

Healthcare is a prevalent issue, with nearly half of respondents saying they want science to solve problems related to cost and disease prevention and treatment. Just under 40 percent think scientists can find a solution to climate change. Some results show a divide in the perception of science and scientists, with 80 percent of people saying they are more likely to believe information that comes from a scientist than be skeptical of it, but more than half (58 percent) feel that scientists are elitists....

For less than the price of a drop-in pilates class, grab a small phthalate-free ball to help you continue your practice at home. It’s 9 inches in diameter, weighs just a few ounces and can assist you with core strength and stability. You’ll need to inflate it yourself by blowing into a tube and then replacing the plug, which is designed to ensure the ball can withstand high pressure without bursting....

In a paper published in Environmental Research Letters, researchers found that Europe’s last stretch of summers has been hotter than anything in the past 2100 years. By looking at historical records and tree rings scientists were able to piece together a climate history of Europe stretching back over 2000 years. Trees are particularly important record keepers for dendrochronologists or people that study tree rings. Trees grow slowly, adding a new ‘layer’ to their interior as they cycle through winters and summers....

All long-term methods of birth control come with side effects, from acne to mood swings to painful periods. Anyone taking hormonal contraceptives is probably dealing with some kind of unpleasant trade-off, and guess what? They (and their partners!) may not want to anymore. But in heterosexual relationships, the burden is generally on whichever person has a hormonal option. That isn’t to say that there aren’t straight men who’d like more control over their fertility....