News in Brief
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft ends mission
The Rosetta mission comes to an end as spacecraft touches down on surface of comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Animals
Sandboxes keep chicken parasites at bay
Fluffing feathers in sand and dust prevents severe mite infections in cage-free hens.
- 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.
- Animals
Bonobos adept at nut cracking
Bonobos demonstrate their overlooked nut-cracking skills in an African sanctuary.
