New York Times Science News

1. Surprising Signs of an Atmosphere Around a Tiny World, Billions of Miles Away

   A gradual dimming and brightening when a star passed behind it suggested the mini-Pluto was wrapped in a thin layer of air.

2. What My Father’s Experience Taught Me About Memory and the Brain

   In the final stages of his dementia, a long-lost memory from childhood returned, perfectly formed. What was going on in his brain?

3. A Landslide in Alaska Set Off a Tsunami. There May Be More to Come.

   Scientists say as glaciers retreat in a warming climate, landslide-generated tsunamis are likely to become more frequent.

4. A Mutation Gave Humans the Gift of Speech. These Mice Have It, Too.

   Scientists wanted to know why the chatter of Alston’s singing mice sounds so much like human conversation. What they found might change how we study both species.

5. How Ancient Centipede Ancestors Conquered the Earth

   A long-neglected fossil seems to show the evolutionary leap that let the ancestors of today’s many-legged arthropods crawl forth from the seas.