“This vulnerability can occur when magnetised plasma from the Sun deforms Earth’s magnetic field, stretching its shape at the poles and diminishing its ability to deflect charged particles,” Katherine Wright explains on the American Physical Society website.

Thousands of people flew Allegiant last year thinking their planes wouldn’t fail in the air. They were wrong. By Nathaniel Lash, William R. Levesque and Anthony Cormier.

A mutated version of the virus was more effective at entering human cells, scientists report. The finding may help explain the vast scope of the last outbreak. By Carl Zimmer.

Denis McDonough, now White House chief of staff, wrote in 2008 that he was surprised to see "a sensitive doc bumping around on public email addresses." By Dan Froomkin.

Should We Start Regulating 'Ultra-Hazardous' Research That Has the Potential to Destroy Us?

New Technology Opens Live Access to 911 Reported Crimes.

I lost a child, and yet I chose to become a father again. Is that bravery or stupidity? By Jayson Greene.

Plano [Texas] surgeon Christopher Duntsch left a trail of bodies. The shocking story of a madman with a scalpel. By Matt Goodman.

Clock Opera

[Menchum, Cameroon:] Deadliest lake in the world suffocated over 1,746 people in one night.

SWIFT, the global financial messaging system, on Tuesday disclosed new hacking attacks on its member banks as it pressured them to comply with security procedures instituted after February's high-profile $81 million heist at Bangladesh Bank. By Jim Finkle.

Someday a coronal mass ejection (CME) could happen and create a geomagnetic storm on earth that could decimate power grids all over earth.

A waiter at a Sherbrooke, Quebec, restaurant was arrested Wednesday for serving salmon to a highly allergic customer in a case one expert says could be a Canadian first. By Melissa Fundira.

In the 1970s and 80s, crews sat at constant readiness in nuclear missile silos buried in the Arizona desert. What would have happened if they had got the order to launch? By Richard Hollingham.

Medical literature is full of stories of people who have operated on themselves. Surprisingly, some lived to tell the tale. By Adam Taylor.

A new documentary explores the fight around Indian Point Energy Center in the wake of Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster. By Andrew Lapin.

No, it’s not only you—some user interfaces today intentionally want to confuse and enroll. By Yael Grauer.

I speak with Joshua Itzkowitz Shifrinson, an assistant professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service and author of “Deal or No Deal? The End of the Cold War and the U.S. Offer to Limit NATO Expansion,” published in the current edition of International Security. By Micah Zenko.

Rita is addressing a problem that all businesses have. By Allison Schrager.

Incirlik Airbase houses NATO’s largest nuclear-weapons cache. But, as Turkey grapples with ISIS and a coup attempt, how secure are the American H-bombs stored there? By Eric Schlosser.