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Scientists at Harvard University have assembled the first nearly complete genome of the little bush moa, a flightless bird that went extinct soon after Polynesians settled New Zealand in the late 13th century. The achievement moves the field of extinct genomes closer to the goal of “de-extinction”—bringing vanished species back to life by slipping the genome into the egg of a living species, “Jurassic Park”-like. “De-extinction probability increases with every improvement in ancient DNA analysis,” said Stewart Brand, co-founder of the nonprofit conservation group Revive and Restore, which aims to resurrect vanished species including the passenger pigeon and the woolly mammoth, whose genomes have already been mostly pieced together....

This story is a supplement to the feature “Bracing the Satellite Infrastructure for a Solar Superstorm” which was printed in the August 2008 issue of Scientific American. Feeling the Full Brunt The harshness of space takes a toll on satellites even at the best of times. A superstorm would cause years’ worth of damage within a few hours. Solar particles and radiation puff up the atmosphere, increasing the drag forces on low-orbiting satellites....

The acid rain scourge of the 1970s and 1980s that killed trees and fish and even dissolved statues on Washington, D.C.’s National Mall has returned with a twist. Rather than being sulfuric acid derived from industrial sulfur emissions, the corrosive liquid is nitric acid, which has resulted not just from smokestacks but also from farming. Besides dissolving cement and limestone and lowering the pH of lakes and streams, acid rain leaches critical soil nutrients, injuring plants, and liberates toxic minerals that can enter aquatic habitats....

Key concepts Energy conservation Temperature Heat Plants Insulation Introduction Have you ever seen a rooftop garden? Around the world, some rooftops have been transformed into living green areas. Besides beauty, rooftop gardens have a number of very visible advantages, including growing (very) local food. How would you like home-grown sky vegetables for dinner, or some fresh-cut roof flowers for vases in your house? Rooftop gardens also take carbon dioxide out of the air while releasing breathable oxygen....

Type 1 diabetics, who do not produce the hormone insulin, must be vigilant about their blood glucose (sugar) levels. Chronic high blood sugar, which results from too little insulin, can lead to nerve and organ damage; low levels can cause seizures or death. The current gold standard in care involves a continuous glucose monitor (a sensor inserted under the skin), an insulin pump (a wearable device that can be programmed to release varying amounts of insulin), and a lot of trial-and-error work by the user—because the monitor and the pump don’t talk to each other....

It was a down-in-the-mud presidential campaign, but the dirtiest part comes on Inauguration Day. As Joe Biden lifts his right hand to take the oath of office at noon on Jan. 20 at the Capitol, a team of specially trained cleaners will be lifting their hands to disinfect the White House. The executive mansion will get a deep clean after two COVID-19 outbreaks this fall led to President Donald Trump and members of his staff and family becoming infected....

View slideshow Paul Rothemund is a computer scientist and an artist, although not necessarily in that order. Using a few DNA molecules, an atomic force microscope and a computer, he can fit the likenesses of 50 billion smiley faces into a space no bigger than a drop of water. Rothemund refers to his brew of art, biology and technology as “DNA origami,” because it is created by using hundreds of short DNA strands (which Rothemund refers to as “staples”) to fold much longer genetic ribbons into nanoscale shapes and patterns....

ARAVAIPA CANYON, Ariz.—Willow and cottonwood trees, verdant with springtime foliage, draped over the shallow Aravaipa Creek in mid-February as if forsaking any notion of winter. The blooming trees and abundant plant life, along with rare species of desert wildlife, make the Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness so biologically diverse and sensitive to human intrusion that it is one of a handful of wilderness areas in the country that have a daily cap on the number of visitors....

In the last few years, researchers have noticed the appearance of an unusual southern species in New England waters, the delectable blue crab. Populations of the crabs are typically found between the Gulf of Mexico and Cape Cod in Massachusetts, but in 2012, shellfish wardens and wildlife managers started noting sightings of the crustaceans miles north of the cape. From 2012 to 2014, there were reports of individual blue crabs showing up in parts of the Gulf of Maine from Duxbury Bay and Marblehead, Mass....

How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-extinction by Beth Shapiro Princeton University Press, 2015 (($24.95)) It has been several millennia since the last mammoths died out, after more than 100,000 years of dominating Arctic ecosystems. But the hairy elephants could return within decades, brought back to life by recent breakthroughs in biotechnology. In this lucid road map for the nascent discipline of “de-extinction,” Shapiro, an evolutionary biologist, examines not only how we can resurrect long-vanished species but also when we cannot or should not....

HOUSTON—For the third time in eight years, water gushed into Virginia Hammond’s northwest Houston home. It was 2 a.m. on April 18. Over the next several hours, her two granddaughters—ages 12 and 15—perched on tables, scared to put their feet in the dark gray floodwater rising below them. It nearly topped 3 feet. “They couldn’t get in the beds because the beds were wet. They couldn’t go to the bathroom because the water was over the toilet bowl,” Hammond recalled....

Oil money has conjured up a pricey experiment in sustainability in a patch of desert between downtown Abu Dhabi and its airport. There, the city of Masdar (“the source”) is rising. It is meant to signal a shift away from fossil fuels by hosting a variety of ecofriendly approaches, such as a system of subterranean electric cars—Personalized Rapid Transit—that whisk visitors and residents from point to point. Yet despite its ambitious goals, innovative planning and best intentions, Masdar may likely be only a mirage for other cities hoping to mimic its approaches to sustainability....

By Scott Malone and Victoria CavaliereBOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A heavy snowfall and dangerously low temperatures gripped the northeastern United States on Friday, grounding flights, closing schools and government offices across the region and causing at least three deaths.Boston was hard-hit by the first major winter storm of 2014, getting nearly 18 inches of snow, while some towns north of New England’s largest city saw close to two feet of accumulation....

Astronomers have found yet another ghostly galaxy that appears to be devoid of dark matter. Researchers have reported several such sightings over the past few years, each time flagging so-called ultradiffuse galaxies that can be as large as the Milky Way but relatively bereft of stars. This latest object, known as AGC 114905, is similar in size to our own spiral galaxy yet has 1,000 times fewer stars. If the dark-matter-free status of AGC 114905 is ever confirmed, cosmologists will be forced to reexamine and perhaps even abandon some of their most cherished theories in favor of more exotic explanations for what makes up the universe’s unseen mass....

By Victoria Cavaliere SEATTLE (Reuters) - Firefighters gained ground on Tuesday against the largest wildfire in Washington state’s history but the massive blaze that has destroyed 200 homes continued to threaten some communities and forced a fresh round of evacuations. The Carlton Complex fire burning east of the Cascade Mountains and 120 miles (190 km) northeast of Seattle, was 16 percent contained on Tuesday, more than a week after it was sparked by lightning, officials said....

Editor’s note: We are republishing this story, originally posted June 27, 2005, as a tribute to business leader, physicist and entrepreneur Fred Kavli, founder and chairman of The Kavli Foundation, who died November 21. Fred Kavli collects Norwegian oil paintings and ornate Asian vases, installing them lovingly around his sprawling, 12,000-square-foot mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, Calif. But his most heartfelt passion has nothing to do with art or antiques....

Common ingredients in the cleaning sprays for your kitchen and bathroom make mice less fertile, suggesting the compounds could do the same to humans, according to a new study. Health researchers are concerned about specific chemicals used in cleaners—including popular brands like Lysol, Clorox and Simple Green—called quaternary ammonium compounds, used to kill microorganisms. Recent laboratory work from Virginia Tech University scientists found that when mice are exposed, both males and females have some unsettling impacts, such as weaker sperm and decreased ovulation....

In its first major result, just over a year after its inauguration, a super-sensitive South African telescope has discovered two giant ‘radio bubbles’ above and below the central region of the Milky Way. The features stretch over a total of 430 parsecs (1,400 light years), about 5% of the distance between the Solar System and the Galaxy’s centre. The bubbles are gas structures that can be observed because electrons stirring inside them produce radio waves as they are accelerated by magnetic fields....

A series of unsolved puzzles in number theory called Diophantine problems date back to 3,700 years ago. Over the years mathematicians have whittled away at them, and recent work has made significant progress on some—and showed others to be just as uncrackable as ever. Researchers have been using tools from geometry to tackle the problems, which are named after Diophantus, a third-century Greek mathematician. They involve determining which solutions exist for polynomial equations such as xn + yn = zn....

Golf courses are among the most manufactured of all landscapes: manicured greens, rigorously mowed fairways and chemical-laced ponds. “In essence, golf course managers are one-crop farmers; they grow grass,” says Kevin Fletcher, executive director of Audubon International, a group dedicated to promoting golf courses as nature reserves (and no relation to the bird-, though not necessarily birdie-loving National Audubon Society). Such an obsessive focus on grass, not to mention on knocking tiny white balls into little cups in the midst of verdant scenery, might not seem like the ideal setting for animal life....