Week in Science: Vicious new superbug on the rise

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September 26—This week, impossible diamonds, a "nightmare" bacteria surging in hospitals, and the tenuous link between Tylenol and autism. All that and more below! —Andrea Gawrylewski,  Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

Does Tylenol Use during Pregnancy Cause Autism? What the Research Shows President Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have tied Tylenol use during pregnancy and folate deficiencies to rising autism rates—but the evidence is thin Allison Parshall

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Infections of Drug-Resistant 'Nightmare Bacteria' Are Surging in Hospitals The infection rate of one type of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales bacteria has risen by more than 460 percent in recent years. Scientists say people receiving treatment in hospitals are at highest risk Lauren J. Young

Writing in Your Books Is Good for Your Brain—Here's Why Annotating the margins of books is an important part of deep reading and has a long legacy of merit in both science and literature Brianne Kane

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Deep-Earth Diamonds Reveal 'Almost Impossible' Chemistry Seemingly contradictory materials are trapped together in two glittering diamonds from South Africa, shedding light on how diamonds form Stephanie Pappas

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 Linguistic Science behind Viral Social Media Slang Linguist Adam Aleksic explains how viral slang and algorithm-driven speech aren't destroying language––they're accelerating its natural evolution. Rachel Feltman, Allison Parshall, Jeffery DelViscio

The Sordid Mystery of a Somalian Meteorite Smuggled into China How a space rock vanished from Africa and showed up for sale across an ocean Dan Vergano

Nobody Knows How Tylenol Really Works The common pain reliever is safe when used as directed, research shows. But scientists remain puzzled by one aspect: how it reduces pain and fever Josh Fischman

Tipsy Bats and Perfect Pasta Win Ig Nobel Prizes for Weird Science Research Winners of the annual Ig Nobel awards include the science of tipsy bats and the physics of cacio e pepe Chris Simms, Nature magazine

This Blazing Exoplanet Breaks All the Rules about Alien Atmospheres, JWST Finds Hot, small and old—exoplanet TOI-561 b is just about the worst place to look for alien air. Scientists using JWST found it there anyway Elise Cutts

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

Astronomers' Exoplanet Haul Tops 6,000 Alien Worlds It's a crowded galaxy, the latest exoplanet tally shows Sarah Lewin Frasier

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 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

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