Target Shooting Could Be Causing Brain Injuries. We Measured the Danger.

The Times tested the blast waves of several popular civilian guns at an indoor range and found that repeated firing could add up to potentially harmful exposure.

By Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Dave Philipps and Jeremy White

A Voyage Into the Art of Finding One’s Way at Sea

Scientists and Indigenous sailors in the Marshall Islands are studying seafaring and the human brain.

By Alexa Robles-Gil

Let the Mind-Control Games Begin!

Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.

By Oliver Whang

The Dogs of 8,000 B.C. Were Amazingly Diverse

The staggering array of modern dog breeds is typically traced to the Victorian era. But half of all canine variation was in place roughly 10,000 years ago, a new study suggests.

By Emily Anthes

Trilobites

Parasitic Queen: Now She’s Stealing an Ant Fief

Experts discovered an unusual form of regicide in which a parasitic ant queen tricks workers in a colony into turning on their own mother.

By Rebecca Dzombak

How Much Plastic Can Kill a Sea Turtle? A New Study Has Answers.

Scientists analyzed thousands of autopsies of seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals and found that even small amounts of ingested plastic can be deadly.

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

Overlooked No More: Sabina Spielrein, Visionary Lost Between Freud and Jung

She maintained a triangular correspondence with the two men, who overshadowed the significant contributions she made to the field of psychoanalysis.

By Nina Siegal

A Dead Glacier Is a Loss. A Dying One Is a Threat.

Melting ice from the Himalayas is creating thousands of unstable lakes, a growing menace to towns and cities below.

By Raymond Zhong, Jason Gulley and Bora Erden

How Many People Die in India From Hot Weather? Nobody Really Knows.

Officials have yet to grasp the magnitude of heat-related deaths, let alone effectively deal with the problem, public health experts and scientists say.

By Anupreeta Das

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Head for Another Record in 2025

But there are signs that greenhouse gas pollution in China might be slowing, according to a new analysis.

By Brad Plumer

C.D.C. Links Measles Outbreaks in Multiple States for the First Time

If the outbreaks cannot be extinguished by January, the anniversary of the first cases in Texas, the United States will lose what is known as “elimination status” as determined by the World Health Organization.

By Apoorva Mandavilli and Teddy Rosenbluth

Empathetic, Available, Cheap: When A.I. Offers What Doctors Don’t

Frustrated by the medical system, some patients are turning to chatbots for help. At what cost?

By Teddy Rosenbluth and Maggie Astor

the new old age

Wheelchair? Hearing Aids? Yes. ‘Disabled’? No Way.

Many older Americans shun an identity that could bring helpful accommodations, improve care and provide community.

By Paula Span

Scientists Grow More Hopeful About Ending a Global Organ Shortage

At an international conference, researchers at the forefront of animal-human transplantation compared notes and allowed themselves the first real optimism in decades.

By Roni Caryn Rabin