These superconducting mirrors make photons bounce back and forth up to a billion times before being lost. The device helped researchers "watch" a microwave pulse lose its quantum state.Full story.
Credit: Michel Brune/Laboratoire Kastler Brossel

This illustration depicts the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that is "blown by the solar wind and outlines the edge of the solar system. Like a deflated tire, the heliosphere is currently shriveled, as the solar wind is at its lowest in 50 years. Full story.
Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

Look out! A carnivorous fungus (main photo) found in 100-million-year-old amber captured dinner with lasso-like traps (inset). Full Story
Credit: Schmidt, A. R. et al. 2008. Am J Bot.

This portrait of Saturn’s icy rings looks toward the unilluminated northern side. Sunlight illuminates the rings from below, and light not reflected scatters through the countless particles that make up the rings, setting them aglow.
Credit: JPL/NASA, Space Science Institute

A view from the sea shows three caves at the base of the Rock of Gibraltar that were once frequented by Neandertals. Discoveries in the two caves on the right suggest these cousins of modern humans had behaviors that were more advanced than previously thought. Full Story
Credit: Finlayson/Gibraltar Museum

STING OPERATION: Scientists use bees and wasps to sniff out the illicit and the dangerous." title="Sting Operation">See feature story from the latest print Science News.
Credit: Polka Dot Images/Superstock

Japan's Hinode spacecraft, which is honed in on the sun, has beamed back videos that show the evolution of a polar crown prominence, a giant glowing loop of relatively cool gas hovering above the solar surface. See video and caption.
Credit: Hinode, NASA

A new study demonstrates religiously inspired pain relief in Catholic individuals, accompanied by changes in a pain-regulating brain region. Participants viewed images taken from paintings either of a woman depicted by Leonardo da Vinci, left, or of the Virgin Mary, right, before and during applications of painful electrical pulses. Full Story
Credit: Wiech, et al.

A triplefin reef fish fluoresces red as patches on its body absorb blue wavelengths of light and release the energy as a red glow. The effect gets swamped when viewed in full-spectrum light (inset). Full story.
Credit: Michiels et al. BMC Ecology

This newly discovered ant species, with mouthparts like forceps and no eyes, may come from the most ancient known lineage of living ants. Full Story
Credit: Rabeling and M. Verhaagh

The faint dot in the upper left could be the first snapshot of a planet orbiting a sunlike star (central object) beyond the solar system. The planet's unusually wide separation from the star may challenge planet formation models. Full story.
Credit: Lafrenière et al., Gemini North

The aftermath of the star Eta Carinae's blast, observed in the 1840s, generated the well-known two-lobed Homunculus nebula and a fast shock wave propagating ahead of it, as shown in this illustration. A new study suggests a previously unknown type of explosion triggered the massive star's outburst. Full Story
Credit: Lynette Cook

This scanning electron microscope image shows a mosquito’s needle-like organ inside a sheath that enables it to puncture skin without buckling. This structure could inspire the design of pain-free microneedles. Full story.
Credit: Ramasubramanian/Bioinspiration & Biomimetics

A mutation in the previously unknown gene FOXI3 causes hairlessness in dogs. The mutation probably first arose in Mexican hairless dogs, but also affects hair growth in Peruvian hairless dogs and Chinese crested dogs, such as the one shown above (left). Coated dogs of the same breeds (such as the Chinese crested dog on the right) have normal FOXI3 genes. Full Story
Credit: Tosso Leeb

A bit of luck allowed astronomers in March to document the brightest gamma-ray burst every observed. Here, an artist's illustration offers a close-up view of the burst and shows how material likely shot outward in a two-component jet (white and yellow beams).
Credit: NASA/Swift/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith &John Jones