Notebook
- Science & Society
Soviets nailed first landing on moon
The first spacecraft to safely land on the moon touched down on the lunar surface in 1966.
- Paleontology
Plesiosaurs swam like penguins
Computer simulations of plesiosaur swimming motion may resolve long-standing debate on how the marine reptile got around.
- Animals
Christmas tree worms have eyes that breathe, gills that see
Christmas tree worms and other fan worms have improvised some of the oddest eyes.
- Physics
Early quark estimates not entirely realized
Decades of research have shed a little light on quarks, the mysterious building blocks of atoms.
- Astronomy
The votes are in: Exoplanets get new names
Arion, Galileo and Poltergeist are just three winners of a contest to name planets and suns in 20 solar systems.
- Anthropology
Iceman has the world’s oldest tattoos
A more than 5,000-year-old European mummy gets his tattoos confirmed as world’s oldest.
- Animals
Ants don’t make decisions on the move
Worker ants stand still while processing environmental cues and planning their next moves, a new study suggests.
- Astronomy
Clues left at a galactic hit-and-run
Scientists may have discovered a dwarf galaxy that triggered a “galaxy quake” when it buzzed by the Milky Way a few hundred million years ago.
- Paleontology
Fossils provide link in dino crest evolution
Fossils from a newly identified duck-billed dinosaur in Montana could explain how their descendants developed flamboyant nose crests.
- Earth
Succession of satellites keep eye on Earth
50 years after plans were laid for the first Earth-observing spacecraft, the youngest Landsat satellites are still flying and imaging the planet’s surface.
- Animals
The fine art of hunting microsnails
Flotation, tact and limestone all prove vital to the quest for microsnails.
- Animals
The mites living on your face probably run in your family
Demodex folliculorum mites, which live on human skin, have probably evolved with their hosts over time.
