Week in Science: Is intermittent fasting helpful or harmful?

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September 19—This week, whatever happened to Breakthrough Starshot, the billionaire's mission to another star? Plus, the risks of intermittent fasting, and a map of COVID vaccine availability by state. All that and more below! —Andrea Gawrylewski,  Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

Why Intermittent Fasting May Do More Harm Than Good Whether intermittent fasting helps anyone is unclear, but it does have known health risks. Who can try the dieting trend, and who should avoid it? Frederik Jötten

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How Your Brain Constructs—And Sometimes Distorts—Your Experience of the World  In his new book, Daniel Yon explains how our brain is constantly constructing reality Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Alex Sugiura

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How a Billionaire's Plan to Reach Another Star Fell Apart An abandoned plan to visit another star highlights the perils of billionaire-funded science Sarah Scoles

The Secret Lives of Dead Trees Forest ecologist Mark Harmon has been exhaustively examining dead logs for 40 years, and he's found a complex world few people see Stephen Ornes

New Fossils Could Help Solve Long-standing Mystery of Bird Migration Tiny fossils hint at when birds began making their mind-blowing journey to the Arctic to breed Lauren N. Wilson, Daniel T. Ksepka

The Landslide Lurking in Your Backyard As warming temperatures bring more extreme rain to the mountains, debris flows are on the rise Jen Schwartz

How 3D Laser Scanning Could Reconstruct the Charlie Kirk Shooting Forensic scientist Michael Haag explains how laser scanners could be used to lock down the crime scenes where Charlie Kirk was fatally shot, letting investigators revisit angles, trajectories and vantage points long after the fact. Deni Ellis Béchard

Child's Death Shows How Measles in the Brain Can Kill Years after an Infection A child in Los Angeles County has died from a rare but always fatal brain disorder that develops years after a measles infection. Experts underscore the need for vaccination to protect the most vulnerable Andrea Thompson

New York City's Rats Have a Secret Nightlife—And a Language Humans Can't Hear A new preprint field study reveals that New York City's rats aren't just survivors—they're talkative city dwellers with their own hidden nightlife. Mapping their movements and conversations could offer insights to transform urban planning and pest control Deni Ellis Béchard

Secrets of DeepSeek AI Model Revealed in Landmark Paper The first peer-reviewed study of the DeepSeek AI model shows how a Chinese start-up firm made the market-shaking LLM for $300,000 Elizabeth Gibney, Nature magazine

What State-by-State Rules Mean for Your COVID Shot With federal vaccine guidance under fire, states are forging their own immunization paths Jaimie Seaton

Weird 'Time Crystals' Are Made Visible at Last Time crystals, a state of matter once thought physically impossible, could soon be on a banknote Elizabeth Gibney, Nature magazine

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