Week in Science: Spondylolisthesis and mystery drones

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December 13—This week, Google achieves a quantum computing milestone, and we investigate reports of mysterious drones over New Jersey and New York. Plus, our editors round up the cutest things we learned about animals this year, the most interesting discoveries in math, and the most surprising findings about our home, Earth. Enjoy! --Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

Luigi Mangione Said He Had Spondylolisthesis: What Is It? The suspect in the recent shooting of a UnitedHealthcare CEO reportedly had spondylolisthesis, a condition that causes the vertebrae to go out of alignment Tanya Lewis

What Are the Mystery Drones Reported over New York State and New Jersey? Reports of unidentified flying objects in the northeastern U.S. are on the rise, but so far officials have few answers for alarmed residents Lee Billings, staff editor

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Google's Quantum Computer Makes a Major Breakthrough in Error Correction Google's new chip, Willow, has achieved the exponential suppression of errors. The advance is substantial, but Willow remains far from delivering on any practical applications Dan Garisto

What's Inside Our Galaxy's Darkest Place? Barnard 68 is often mistaken for a hole in space, but it's actually a dense, opaque cloud of dust—for now Phil Plait

The 7 Coolest Mathematical Discoveries of 2024 Unsolvable problems, many-dimensional wheels and new prime numbers are among new mathematical discoveries this year Clara Moskowitz

6 Wild Things We Learned about Earth in 2024 It's been a fascinating year in earth science—from mysterious "dark oxygen" to an "unidentified seismic object," here are some incredible things we've learned about our planet in 2024 Meghan Bartels

Wuhan Virologist Says Lab Has No Close Relatives to COVID Virus Shi Zhengli, the virologist at the center of COVID lab-leak theory, reveals coronavirus sequences from the Wuhan institute Smriti Mallapaty; Nature magazine

5 Nifty Things We Learned about Pet Cats and Dogs in 2024 Why do some Labrador retrievers overeat? Do cats and dogs dream like humans do? Is your cat actually obsessed with you? In 2024 we got answers to these and other questions about our beloved furry friends Saima S. Iqbal, intern writer

Mysterious 'Disease X' Outbreak Might Be Malaria. What We Know Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are racing to identify a deadly illness that is affecting malnourished children Paul Adepoju

The 6 Cutest Things We Learned about Animals in 2024 From morphing beluga noggins to birds that practice singing in their sleep, science produced plenty of adorable findings this year Andrea Thompson, staff editor

What to Know about Lead Contamination in Cinnamon Amid concerns about lead found in certain cinnamon products, here's what to know about how spices can pick up heavy metals and how worried to be Katarzyna Kordas, partner content; The Conversation US

The Dawn of 'Dark Ages' Astronomy The universe's light-starved early epochs, as well as the first stars and galaxies, lie beyond the reach of conventional observatories but could be revealed by a new generation of radio telescope arrays Anastasia Fialkov, expert writer; Avi Loeb

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