Rethinking the Poker Face and Plans for a Cat in Space Hugh Gentry/Reuters A flood of molasses, which spilled from a broken pipeline in Honolulu Harbor on Sept. 9, has wreaked havoc on the local marine ecosystem. Seldom does the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919 come up these days, but a recent spill that is wreaking havoc on the environment in Hawaii brought that long-ago tragedy back into the news. Game Psychology Poker Arms In a classic work by Lady Gaga, she boasts, "No, he can't read my poker face." But according to a paper in the journal Psychological Science, she should be more worried about her arm and hand movements, at least when playing poker. "Even though professional players may be able to regulate their facial expressions, their motor actions could betray the quality of their poker hand," the authors wrote. In three studies, psychologists asked undergraduates to watch clips of professional poker players placing bets; it turned out that smooth and confident arm motions while pushing the chips were the surest signal of a good hand. Environment A Torrent of Molasses It tastes delicious in sticky toffee pudding, but it has been suffocating marine life and killing coral reefs in Honolulu Harbor for weeks now, ever since a hole erupted in a pipeline that shunts molasses from storage tanks to cargo ships bound for California. About 233,000 gallons of tarlike molasses spilled into the water, which, National Geographic tells us, is equivalent to about 5,500 barrels of oil, though not quite as bad for the environment. Matson, the company that owns the pipeline, has apologized and pledged to pay for the cleanup. Historically speaking, molasses did worse damage in Boston a century ago, when a storage tank burst and sent a wave of molasses surging through the North End at 35 miles per hour, killing 21 people and countless horses. Medicine A Landmark Alzheimer's Study In a novel approach to tackling Alzheimer's, researchers will test a drug on people who are genetically predisposed to the disease but have no symptoms of memory loss or cognitive decline. The five-year clinical trial will involve 650 adults ages 60 to 75 who will either get a placebo or a drug meant to attack amyloid, a protein that accumulates in plaques on the brains of people with Alzheimer's. The federal government is granting $33.2 million to the research. "For the first time I feel hopeful," Jamie Tyrone, 53, a retired nurse who has two copies of the relevant gene, told The New York Times. Animals And, of Course, Cats It was a heavy week for cat news: Iran announced that it might send a Persian into space, as a prelude to sending a human in 2018; scientists sequenced the genome of the rare Siberian tiger, the largest of the cat family, and found "more than 95 percent similarity to the genome of the domestic cat"; and John Bradshaw, a British anthrozoologist, published an article in New Scientist magazine about why our cats aren't very nice to us (hint: it's not in their nature, as that genome news suggests). Dr. Bradshaw's newly released book, "Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet," takes the stance that we should take steps to breed cats that are nicer human companions because the current system of spaying and neutering our fluffy lap pets while bringing feral kittens into shelters for adoption could produce generations of meaner kitties. Space Exploration Mars Gets a Maven Last week we learned, disappointingly, that there is no methane on Mars, which suggests an absence of life there. But there are still things to get excited about with Mars: next week NASA will show off a spacecraft called Maven, for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, that will be launched on Nov. 18 and should arrive at Mars next September. Maven will spend a year studying the upper atmosphere, "seeking clues into the disappearance of atmospheric gases believed to have resulted in climate change on the Red Planet," NASA said.