Science Times: Snow drought in the West hits record levels
Plus: The inside view of a mummy —
Science Times
February 3, 2026
Two people in white lab coats are illuminated by the light of computer screens. One screen shows part of a spine, and the other has an image of a skull.

Mark Abramson for The New York Times

What Do You Get When You Put a Mummy Through a CT Scan?

Experts are using high-res scanners and 3-D printers to illuminate ancient ailments and injuries.

By Emily Baumgaertner Nunn

A technician in latex gloves examines a lit-up purple sheet of DNA electrophoresis in a dark room.

Volker Steger/Science Source

Researchers Are Using A.I. to Decode the Human Genome

AlphaGenome is a leap forward in the ability to study the human blueprint. But the fine workings of our DNA are still largely a mystery.

By Carl Zimmer

Children playing outside with fake snow falling around them.

Headway

Childhood Trauma Doesn’t Have to Be a Lifelong Curse

Decades after a landmark study showed the lasting health effects of such trauma, researchers are finding ways to guard against enduring harm.

By Rochelle Sharpe and Gabriella Angotti-Jones

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Rockets and rocket-launching equipment are seen from a distance, reflected in a body of water.

Callaghan O'Hare for The New York Times

Elon Musk Merges SpaceX With His A.I. Start-Up xAI

The deal further intermingles Mr. Musk’s companies and creates the most valuable private company on earth.

By Ryan Mac, Kate Conger, Maureen Farrell and Rob Copeland

A white booster floats above textured terrain.

Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos’ Rocket Company Pauses Space Tourism to Focus on the Moon

The New Shepard rocket from Blue Origin, which brought 92 people on trips to the edge of space, will cease flying for at least two years as the company prioritizes NASA contracts.

By Kenneth Chang

Four small wooden tool fragments on a white background with a small scale bar.

Nicholas Thompson

430,000-Year-Old Wooden Tools Are the Oldest Ever Found

The finding, along with the discovery of a 500,000-year-old hammer made of bone, indicates that our human ancestors were making tools even earlier than archaeologists thought.

By Franz Lidz

An artist’s rendering of the head of a birdlike, feathered dinosaur with a small protruding knob on its forehead.

Andy Fraser

Trilobites

You Wouldn’t Want to Butt Heads With This Small Dinosaur

A newly discovered raptor had a knobby bump on its head, suggesting that, like some larger dinosaurs, it engaged in competitive head bashing.

By Jack Tamisiea

A cuttlefish with green and yellow stripes swims toward the camera against a solid blue background.

Trilobites

A New Way to Flirt: Dazzle Potential Mates With Patterns Invisible to Humans

Cuttlefish attract prospective sexual partners by creating a pattern on their skin, based on the orientation of light waves.

By Kate Golembiewski

A polar bear on sea ice with a setting sun in the background.

Some Polar Bears Are Getting Fatter Even as Sea Ice Shrinks (for Now)

Seals favored by Svalbard bears are becoming easier to hunt as ice declines, a study found. But researchers say the situation may be temporary.

By Eric Niiler

A blue and yellow ship travels through the open ocean.

A Shift for NOAA’s Surveys: From Science to Mining

A $20 million agency project will aid companies prospecting the sea for critical minerals.

By Eric Niiler and Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

Gladys West, Unsung Figure in Development of GPS, Dies at 95

As a Navy mathematician in the 1950s and beyond, she played an unheralded but foundational role in making possible the global satellite-based mapping system.

By Michael S. Rosenwald

CLIMATE CHANGE

Large gray splotches from ice algae nearly most of the snowy, hilly terrain on Greenland.

Jenine McCutcheon/University of Waterloo

Something Dark Is Growing on Greenland’s Ice. And Melting It Faster.

New studies show how algae grows on ice and snow, creating “dark zones” that exacerbate melting in the consequential region.

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

Energy Secretary Chris Wright, wearing a blue jacket and dark tie, speaking into a microphone.

Nathan Howard/Reuters

A Secret Panel to Question Climate Science Was Unlawful, Judge Rules

The researchers produced a report that was central in a Trump administration effort to stop regulating climate pollution.

By Lisa Friedman

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HEALTH

A family of six sit down at a table for a meal.

Alamy

A Predictor of a Good Social Life? Your Parents.

A decades-long study suggested that close relationships with family members during teenage years could lead to a rich network of friendships in adulthood.

By Emily Baumgaertner Nunn

Two elderly twins smile and hold hands and pose in front of a white background.

Jason Grow

Genes May Control Your Longevity, However Healthily You Live

A new study suggests that those with long-lived families probably have the best prospects of making it to a very old age.

By Gina Kolata

A portrait of a woman with short silver hair, a black shirt and glasses. She looks directly back at the viewer.

Haruka Sakaguchi for The New York Times

What It’s Like to Live With One of Psychiatry’s Most Misunderstood Diagnoses

Spurred by her past struggles with dissociative identity disorder, she has devoted her professional life to studying it.

By Maggie Jones

Article Image

Illustrations by Zach Hackman

The Wonder Drug That’s Plaguing Sports

Ostarine held the promise of profound medical treatments. Something unexpected happened on the way to F.D.A. approval.

By Jason Stallman

A series of tents line a sidewalk along a street.

H.H.S. to Expand Faith-Based Addiction Programs for Homeless

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said addiction is a “spiritual disease” that calls out for the involvement of religious organizations.

By Ellen Barry

Orange-gloved hands trim a cannabis bud in a cannabis growing facility in Canada.