The Week in Science: Why Do So Many Mental Illnesses Overlap?

March 8—This week in science: A lone orca brings down a great white shark, a new "ring of fire" rocket engine, why mental illnesses overlap, and much more! -Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

A Lone Orca Killed a Great White Shark in First Documented Attack of Its Kind For the first time, scientists observe a single killer whale killing a great white shark, and then eating its liver Stephanie Pappas

Florida Risks Making a Dangerous Measles Outbreak Much Worse By ignoring common sense and medical advice, Florida's health officials risk accelerating a burgeoning measles outbreak Katelyn Jetelina , expert writer; Kristen Panthagani , expert writer

'Ring of Fire' Rocket Engines Put a New Spin on Spaceflight Rotating detonation engines developed by NASA and others could spark a rocketry revolution Steven Ashley

Humpback Whale Sex Observed for the First Time Ever between Two Males Photographers captured a healthy male humpback penetrating a weaker individual in the first record of humpback whale sex Melissa Hobson, contract writer

Why Do So Many Mental Illnesses Overlap? A concept called the "p factor" attempts to explain why psychiatric disorders cannot be clearly separated Ingrid Wickelgren

Everything to Know About OpenAI's New Text-to-Video Generator, Sora A machine-learning tool that transforms text prompts into detailed video has generated excitement—and skepticism Lauren Leffer

Rare Brown Panda Mystery Solved after 40 Years Chinese researchers have found the gene responsible for the brown-and-white fur of a handful of giant pandas Xiaoying You; Nature magazine

The False Promise of Carbon Capture as a Climate Solution Fossil-fuel companies use captured carbon dioxide to extract more fossil fuels, leading to a net increase in atmospheric CO2 Naomi Oreskes

Here's Why We Might Live in a Multiverse Several branches of modern physics, including quantum theory and cosmology, suggest our universe may be just one of many Sarah Scoles

Is Marijuana Bad for Health? Here's What We Know So Far Marijuana's health impacts—good and bad—are coming into focus Jesse Greenspan

What Do Dogs and Cats Dream About? Pets can't report their dreams, but scientists have some evidence about what is happening when Sparky and Mittens sleep Meghan Bartels

New X-Ray Map of Cosmic Megastructures Unravels Subatomic Mysteries A new catalog of more than 12,000 galaxy clusters is helping scientists better understand the universe's clumpiness, dark energy and some of the smallest particles in the cosmos: neutrinos Ashley Balzer Vigil

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