Ripped from the Headlines: September 2020: This Week In Culture: August 30–September 4, 2020

Astronomers may have found the first known intermediate-sized black hole, the result of two smaller black holes colliding. Though this event occurred 7 billion years ago, the light from it is only just reaching Earth. Smaller black holes — between 5 and 100 times the mass of the sun —have been found, as have supermassive ones many millions of times more massive. If its identity is confirmed, this one looks to be 142 times the sun's mass, a first in the in-between category and a major discovery.

Scientists probing the galaxy for intelligent life announced a breakthrough in the way they analyze radio signals, allowing them to focus on many more stars: over a quarter million instead of the 1,327 previously being studied. Refinements to the analysis, specifically using exact distances to all of the candidate stars, means that they will dramatically reduce signals from natural sources. Caveat means "let him or her beware" in Latin.

Serena Williams is hoping that the pared-down roster of this year's U.S. Open will help her win her 24th major, tying the all-time record set by Margaret Court in a much less competitive era. With empty stands and fewer top-ranked opponents, this may be her best chance to cement her status as the greatest of all time. Faze comes from the Old English fésian, meaning "to drive off" or "to frighten."

With the Celtics trailing the Raptors in the fourth quarter of game two in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Boston's Marcus Smart hit five three-pointers in just over three minutes of play, obliterating an eight-point Toronto lead and winning the game. Three of the buckets came in quick succession, in the space of 72 seconds. Smart is not renowned for his shooting; he's better known as a defender.

As dancers and choreographers turn to their computers and video cameras during the pandemic, some are drawing inspiration from Merce Cunningham, a modern dance giant who began using software in 1989 to help him choreograph. The program, called LifeForms, was primitive. But it allowed him to innovate, creating movements and sequences that seemed alien and poetic at the same time. The computer-assisted work he made became some of the most well-received and influential of his long career.

John Thompson, who coached Georgetown basketball for 27 years, died at 78. The way he ran the program outside of his coaching — changing admission requirements and closely following all his players' academic performances — earned him widespread admiration. He was instrumental in forming the Big East, and brought the formerly dismal Hoyas to 20 NCAA tournaments, including 14 in a row, and winning six titles. His career record of 596-239 earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Theater of War Productions is an organization that puts on plays in war zones, prisons, and other and areas affected by serious trauma like the opioid epidemic or gang violence. The company is now performing via Zoom, where audience members see the cast on the screen but can't see other viewers or shift between screens like in a regular meeting. The producers and actors believe that Ancient Greek tragedies can resonate with modern audiences in ways that are informative and therapeutic.

The American Museum of Natural History in New York is reopening, with changes to exhibits, rules, and the number of visitors. There will be no touch screens or Imax movies, hand sanitizer will be everywhere, and a number of formerly accessible objects will be covered with plexiglass. Admission will be capped at 25 percent of previous capacity, up to 3,500 people a day.

The Venice Film Festival opened — the first in-person festival since the pandemic — and it looked very different from earlier crowed, glamorous versions. Cate Blanchett made comments at the opening press conference, praising the organizers and talking about the future of cinemas in this new age of all streaming, all the time. Surrealism was a movement that flourished in Europe after WWI, as artists, writers, composers, and filmmakers drew inspiration from dreams and the unconscious.

The actor Chadwick Boseman died of cancer at the age of 43. He received critical acclaim for his portrayals of the iconic figures Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and James Brown, but it was his role as King T'Challa in Black Panther that made him a global superstar. He was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, but never announced it publicly and continued to work through numerous surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy.