News in Brief
- Astronomy
The TESS space telescope has spotted its first exoplanet
TESS’s first exoplanet is twice Earth’s size and may have lots of water.
- Life
Here’s how clumps of honeybees may survive blowing in the wind
Honeybees clumped on trees may adjust their positions to keep the cluster together when it’s jostled by wind, a new study suggests.
- Tech
This flying robot could reveal secrets of the aerial world of insects
A new winged robot with the exceptional agility of a fruit fly could lend insight into animal flight.
- Anthropology
Butchered bird bones put humans in Madagascar 10,500 years ago
Humans reached the island near Africa 6,000 years earlier than thought, raising questions about how its megafauna went extinct.
- Physics
Sound waves can make bubbles in levitated drops of liquid
A new technique reveals how to make bubbles from droplets suspended in the air.
- Neuroscience
How obesity may harm memory and learning
In obese mice, immune cells chomp nerve cell connections and harm brainpower.
- Planetary Science
Saturn has two hexagons, not one, swirling around its north pole
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spied a vortex growing high over Saturn’s north pole, whose hexagonal shape mirrors a famous underlying cyclone.
- Genetics
German skeletons hint that medieval warrior groups recruited from afar
Graveyard finds may come from an ancient European warrior household with political pull.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s magnetic field is surprisingly weird
New results from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal different magnetic behavior in the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.
- Quantum Physics
Rubidium atoms mimic the Eiffel Tower, a Möbius strip and other 3-D shapes
Scientists have arranged atoms of the element rubidium into complex three-dimensional structures.
- Astronomy
New images reveal how an ancient monster galaxy fueled furious star formation
Scientists were able to see the abundance of star-forming gas and dust in a giant galaxy from when the universe was less than 2 billion years old.
- Materials Science
A new material harnesses light to deice surfaces
A new sun-powered material could someday melt the ice off airplane wings, wind turbines and rooftops.
