News in Brief

  1. Animals

    African elephants walk on their tippy-toes

    Pressure plates reveal how African elephants load their feet when they walk, providing clues to pachyderm podiatry problems.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Saturn’s moon Dione might harbor an underground ocean

    Saturn’s moon Dione might have an underground ocean, like several other moons in the solar system.

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  3. Animals

    Bees take longer to learn floral odors polluted by vehicle fumes

    Car and truck exhaust mingling with a floral scent can slow down the important process of honeybees learning the fragrance of a flower.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Rosetta spacecraft ends mission

    The Rosetta mission comes to an end as spacecraft touches down on surface of comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

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  5. Astronomy

    Solar system sits within major spiral arm of Milky Way

    The solar system appears to live in one of the major spiral arms of the Milky Way, not in an offshoot as previously thought.

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  6. Animals

    Barnacles track whale migration

    The mix of oxygen isotopes in the shells of barnacles that latch on to baleen whales may divulge how whale migration routes have changed over millions of years.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Europa spouting off again

    Plumes of presumably water erupt from the surface of Jupiter’s frozen moon Europa, in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

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  8. Climate

    Methane didn’t warm ancient Earth, new simulations suggest

    Scarce oxygen and abundant sulfate prevented methane from accumulating enough to keep Earth warm hundreds of millions of years ago, reviving the faint young sun paradox.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Source of Charon’s red north pole is probably Pluto

    The dark red pole on Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, is probably gas that escaped from Pluto and was then transformed by sunlight.

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  10. Animals

    Sandboxes keep chicken parasites at bay

    Fluffing feathers in sand and dust prevents severe mite infections in cage-free hens.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Philae lander spotted on comet 67P

    Missing since November 2014, the Philae comet lander has been found lurking in the shadows on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

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  12. Animals

    Bonobos adept at nut cracking

    Bonobos demonstrate their overlooked nut-cracking skills in an African sanctuary.

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