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From: NYTimes.com <nytdirect@nytimes.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 19, 2017 at 2:32 PM
Subject: Science Times: A River Nurtures Unusual Life in the Mojave Desert
To: pascal.alter@gmail.com

Plus: Killer Penguins, the Pentagon's U.F.O. Program and a New Treatment for Irregular Heartbeats —

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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

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An abandoned car along the Amargosa River Trail, which runs between Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in California. Rick Loomis for The New York Times

The Amargosa River Defies the Desert

By JIM ROBBINS

The slender, delicate stream flows through the Mojave, giving life to plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

John Sueme of St. Louis was the first patient to receive an experimental treatment that exposes scarred heart tissue to radiation, eliminating damaged cells that cause rapid, sometimes fatal heartbeats.

Whitney Curtis for The New York Times

A 'Game Changer' for Patients With Irregular Heart Rhythm

By GINA KOLATA

Rapid, erratic heartbeats — called ventricular tachycardia — can lead to sudden death. An experimental radiation treatment has eased the condition in five patients.

An artist's rendering compares Kumimanu biceae, an extinct giant penguin, to a human diver. Kumimanu stood 5 feet 7 inches and weighed 220 pounds. It is among the earliest known penguin species.

G. Mayr/Senckenberg Research Institute

Ancient Penguins Were Giant Waddling Predators

By CARL ZIMMER

Scientists have discovered an fossilized penguin as big as a human, and with a long, spear-like beak.

U.S Department of Defense

Glowing Auras and 'Black Money': The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program

By HELENE COOPER, RALPH BLUMENTHAL AND LESLIE KEAN

The shadowy program began in 2007 and was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the former Senate majority leader, who has had a longtime interest in space phenomena.

The emails of Gary Morton, an E.P.A. employee in Philadelphia, were requested seven days after he participated in a union rally challenging proposed budget cuts.

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York Times

E.P.A. Employees Spoke Out. Then Came Scrutiny of Their Email.

By ERIC LIPTON AND LISA FRIEDMAN

A Republican research group has requested the emails of E.P.A. employees critical of the agency. Now the E.P.A. has hired an affiliated company.

• Trump's E.P.A. Chemical Safety Nominee Withdraws

A comparison of planets in our own solar system, bottom, with planets observed circling Kepler 90, a star more than 2,000 light-years from Earth. Scientists using artificial intelligence supplied by Google researchers just detected an eighth planet orbiting the star.

NASA/Ames Research Center/Wendy Stenzel

An 8th Planet Is Found Orbiting a Distant Star, With A.I.'s Help

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

A Google neural network analyzed data collected by NASA and helped astronomers detect another planet around a star some 2,500 light years away.

A layered latte made at home by Bob Fankauser, a retired engineer in Oregon, who wanted to know how espresso poured into heated milk created those layers.

Bob Fankhauser

How Layers in a Latte Form

By JOANNA KLEIN

A retired engineer's accident while making a coffee drink spurred fluid dynamics researchers to study how espresso and milk arrange themselves in a glass.

An image of a 99-million-year-old tick, enlarged at inset, grasping a dinosaur feather, preserved in amber found in Myanmar.

Nature Communications; Peñalver et al.

Ticks Trapped in Amber Were Likely Sucking Dinosaur Blood

By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

It is rare to find parasites with their hosts in the fossil record, and the discovery is the first direct evidence of the pests feeding on dinosaur blood.

NASA/Gerald Eichstadt/Justin Coward

The Great Red Spot Descends Deep Into Jupiter

By KENNETH CHANG

The iconic storm plunges 200 miles beneath the clouds of the solar system's largest planet, and possibly much deeper, according to data from NASA's Juno spacecraft.

Anchiornis was a birdlike dinosaur with four wings that lived 160 million years ago. Fossils found in China demonstrate the evolution of feathers in modern birds.

An Ancient Step Toward Modern Birds

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

An artist's rendering shows a flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft of 2014 MU69, a distant object in the solar system's Kuiper belt. MU69 is no more than 20 miles wide, and it's possible, scientists say, it has an even smaller moon.

Tiny Moon May Orbit Distant Object That NASA's New Horizons Probe Will Visit

By KENNETH CHANG

Rocket Men: The Team Building North Korea's Nuclear Missile

By CHOE SANG-HUN, MOTOKO RICH, NATALIE RENEAU AND AUDREY CARLSEN

Q&A

How deep is the sand on a typical beach?

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

WRITE BACK

Give us suggestions, criticisms and feedback at sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com.

Climate Change

Gene Blevins/Reuters

How Global Warming Fueled Five Extreme Weather Events

By BRAD PLUMER AND NADJA POPOVICH

Scientists analyzed 27 extreme weather events from 2016 and found that global warming was a "significant driver" for most of them. We look at five cases.

• Climate Change Increased Hurricane Harvey's Rainfall By as Much as 38 Percent

A false-color infrared satellite image from this year shows natural tundra in pink. The yellow area shows the footprint of the old well.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services

Here's What Oil Drilling Looks Like in the Arctic Refuge, 30 Years Later

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Satellite images of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge show the effects of an oil well that operated there in the mid-1980s.

Health

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly were barred from using several words or phrases, causing upset among some staff and outside groups.

John Amis/European Pressphoto Agency

Uproar Over Purported Ban at C.D.C. of Words Like 'Fetus'

By SHEILA KAPLAN AND DONALD G. MCNEIL JR.

The Department of Health and Human Services played down a report that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were told not to use several words in budget documents.

Julian Glander

Why New Blood Pressure Guidelines Could Lead to Harm

By AARON E. CARROLL

Fear is typically not effective in getting people to adopt healthier habits. A more likely outcome is overtreatment.

iStock

Exercise May Aid Parkinson's Disease, but Make It Intense

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Vigorous treadmill exercise was safe and slowed progression of Parkinson's disease, a new study reports.

A baby born with microcephaly caused by Zika virus in a rehabilitation center in Recife, Brazil, last year. The most severely affected babies have little language or mobility and will likely require a lifetime of care, a new study shows.

Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times

As Zika Babies Become Toddlers, Some Can't See, Walk or Talk

By PAM BELLUCK

They are 2 years old, but developmentally they are 6 months old. The children most severely affected by Zika face a lifetime of care, new research shows.