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For decades scientists have debated how, where and when the wolf became the dog. Now a new study hints that dogs were domesticated just once, challenging a previous claim about how many times humans befriended canines. In a paper published this week in Nature Communications Krishna Veeramah at Stony Brook University and colleagues argue that dog domestication occurred once, sometime between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. Early efforts at nailing down the time and place of domestication varied wildly....

Some horrible things have been happening in the world. From terrorist attacks, to mass shootings, the world seems like a much smaller and scarier place to live. How do we as a society prevent tragedies like this from occurring? How should we balance privacy and security going forward? Let’s talk about encryption, the role it is playing in the political arena, and what it means to you. What Is Encryption? Let’s first cover what encryption actually is....

Scientists who work on genomics and are funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) must post their data online so that others can build on the information, the agency has said in an update to its guidelines. The change, which expands the remit of an earlier data-sharing policy, is not expected to drastically alter research practices — many genomics researchers are accustomed to sharing their data. But the latest policy, released on 27 August, gives clearer instructions for gaining the informed consent of study participants....

Most hunts for genes that might heighten the risk of autism involve tediously scanning the genomes of several families in which the disorder is prevalent and looking for multiple cases in which a single base in the genetic code has been substituted or deleted. Over the years, scientists have linked increased risk for the mental disorder—characterized by asocial and obsessive behavior—to genetic regions on 20 chromosomes. With so many different possible culprits, it is clear that there is not just one gene (or even just a few) that causes the illness now diagnosed in one of every 166 children born in the U....

Once in a while, a supermassive black hole gets a sumptuous treat. A passing star wanders too close and gets caught in the black hole’s gravitational pull, like a fly trapped in a spider’s web. The star then becomes an easy meal for the black hole, which tears its prey to bits and ingests a good portion of it. Astronomers have witnessed several such disruptions before in distant galaxies, but usually only toward the end of the process....

Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? Alan Weisman Little, Brown, 2013 ($28) After penning his best seller The World Without Us, Weisman spent two years traveling the globe, investigating how we can survive in a world with entirely too many of us, set to brim with 10 billion humans later this century. The result is a frenzied barnstormer of a book. From Minneapolis to Mexico, from the Holy Land to Vatican City, Weisman presents the intermingled stories of the scientists, religious leaders and humble aid workers all striving for or against a sustainable human future....

The Truth in Small Doses: Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer–and How to Win It Clifton Leaf Simon & Schuster, 2013 ($27) The U.S. Congress declared a “war on cancer” with the 1971 National Cancer Act and poured money into fighting the disease. Yet ever since, new cancer cases have risen three times faster than the U.S. population. According to Leaf, a journalist and cancer survivor, the act failed because of the flawed research culture it spawned....

For nearly 10,000 years—since the dawn of civilization and the Holocene era—our world seemed unimaginably large. Vast frontiers of land and ocean offered infinite resources. Humans could pollute freely, and they could avoid any local repercussions simply by moving elsewhere. People built entire empires and economic systems on their ability to exploit what seemed to be inexhaustible riches, never realizing that the privilege would come to an end. But thanks to advances in public health, the industrial revolution and later the green revolution, population has surged from about one billion in 1800 to nearly seven billion today....

Kate and Dan met on the job in Boston, when they were in their early 20s. He thought she was attractive; she thought he was an arrogant jerk. At a work party, it came out that both had lost a parent in recent years, and a mutual feeling of “you must really get me” washed over them. A few years later, when they both found themselves in New York and single, the friendship ramped way up, into multiple-phone-calls-per-day, soul-baring, belly-laughing territory....

The federal government has encouraged health centers to delay nonessential surgeries while weighing the severity of patients’ conditions and the availability of personal protective equipment, beds and staffing at hospitals. People with cancer are among those at high risk of complications if infected with the new coronavirus. It’s estimated 1.8 million people will be diagnosed with cancer in the U.S. this year. More than 600,000 people are receiving chemotherapy. That means millions of Americans may be navigating unforeseen challenges to getting care....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The director of the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention said on Tuesday he was “confident” that the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa can be brought under control but that “we are by no means out of the woods.” Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Washington with public health officials and lawmakers, Dr. Tom Frieden said it is vital that every case of the disease is eliminated....

Letting Go of God by Julia Sweeney. Indefatigable, Inc., 2008 ($20) Scheduled to air on Showtime in early 2009 “So I’m in the bookstore, and I see this book by Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works,” says comic and former Saturday Night Live star Julia Sweeney, “And I think, ‘How does the mind work?’” So launches a memorable journey, both in Sweeney’s life and in the new film of her one-woman stage show, Letting Go of God, an extraordinarily engaging account of her walk across the religion-science divide....

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has unleashed an outpouring of condemnation from scientists and research organizations worldwide. Some organizations in Western nations have moved to quickly sever links with Russia—cutting off funding and resources and ending collaborations with Russian scientists. And from Mauritius to Latvia, national science academies and groups of researchers have issued statements sharply criticizing the conflict and supporting their Ukrainian colleagues. In Ukraine, scientists are pressuring nations to freeze Russia out of their science programmes, and calling on Russian institutes and scientific leaders to condemn the invasion....

Disappointed federal officials today announced that the “Mississippi baby,” thought to have been cured of HIV with an aggressive treatment regimen, now has detectable levels of virus. The sad news, upsetting for the family of the 46-month-old girl, also dashed the hopes of clinicians who believed a cure for babies born with HIV may be within their grasp. In a news briefing by the National Institutes of Health clinicians explained that the girl had been off medication for more than two years but had remained seemingly HIV free....

By Fergus Jensen and Kanupriya Kapoor JAKARTA (Reuters) - More than 76,000 people fled their homes and flights were grounded across most of Indonesia’s densely populated island of Java on Friday after a volcanic eruption sent a huge plume of ash and sand 17 km (10 miles) into the air. The ash cloud from Thursday night’s eruption of Mount Kelud in the province of East Java moved west over the island, forcing the closure of seven airports and stranding thousands of passengers....

Editor’s note: The online version of this story was posted on December 14, 2009. Before humans arrived, the Americas were home to woolly mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths and other behemoths, an array of megafauna more impressive than even Africa boasts today. Researchers have advanced several theories to explain what did them in and when the event occurred. A series of discoveries announced last fall, at first glance apparently contradictory, add fresh details to the mystery of this mass extinction....

About two decades ago Swiss geneticists were trying to figure out how a few vital genes exerted master control over the development of fruit flies. In the course of their work, they managed to get a fly to grow numerous eyes all over its body. Sure, the information is crucial for our understanding of how an individual changes from a single fertilized egg into a differentiated organism, but little to no market exists for the disturbing Drosophila....

It was a remarkable turnabout. In September, after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita pushed gasoline prices to more than $3 a gallon, President George W. Bush spoke out for energy conservation. The president, who had previously insisted that new oil wells and refineries were the solution to the nation’s energy woes, called on Americans to save gas by driving less. Listeners with long memories recalled President Jimmy Carter’s television appearances during the oil crisis of the 1970s, when he urged Americans to turn down their thermostats....

Astronomers have spotted a cosmic blast that dwarfs all others. A gargantuan explosion tore through the heart of a distant galaxy cluster, releasing about five times more energy than the previous record holder, a new study reports. “In some ways, this blast is similar to how the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 ripped off the top of the mountain,” study lead author Simona Giacintucci, of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D....

Alas, Poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy; he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my afterimage he is! Well … that’s what William Shakespeare’s Hamlet might have said, had he been looking at a vintage Pears’ Soap advertisement bearing court jester Yorick’s skull, rather than holding an exhumed and rotting Danish cranium. Stare long enough at the skull in the ad, and it will be “burned” into your vision even after you look away....