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Animals

Glassy eyes may help young crustaceans hide from predators in plain sight

Nanospheres in the eye reflect light that matches the color of the surrounding water, possibly making the animals invisible to nearby predators.

Oceans

50 years ago, scientists discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In 1973, plastic bottles adrift in the North Pacific alarmed scientists. Fifty years later, more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic litter the area.

Paleontology

Insect bites in plant fossils reveal leaves could fold shut millions of years ago

The 252-million-year-old fossil leaves have symmetrical holes, which suggest an insect bit through the leaves when they were folded.

Climate

Rapid melting is eroding vulnerable cracks in Thwaites Glacier’s underbelly

Thwaites is melting slower than thought, but the worst of it is concentrated in underbelly cracks, threatening the Antarctica glacier’s stability.

Physics

Here’s why icicles made from pure water don’t form ripples

A new study explains why icicles made from pure water have irregular shapes rather than the ripples typical of the salty icicles found in nature.

Animals

Why male giraffes drink potential mates’ pee

In giraffes, an organ that detects pheromones has a stronger connection to the mouth than the nose. That’s different from many other mammals.

Astronomy

The James Webb telescope spotted the earliest known ‘quenched’ galaxy

A galaxy dubbed GS-9209 ceased forming stars more than 12.5 billion years ago after a 200-million-year-long sprint.

Climate

Climate ‘teleconnections’ may link droughts and fires across continents

Far-reaching climate patterns like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation may synchronize droughts and regulate scorching of much of Earth’s burned area.

Health & Medicine

3-D maps of a protein show how it helps organs filter out toxic substances

Images of LRP2 in simulated cell environments reveal the structural changes that let it catch molecules outside a cell and release them inside.

Health & Medicine

A chemical imbalance doesn’t explain depression. So what does?

The causes of depression are much more complex than the serotonin hypothesis suggests

Animals

Cockatoos can tell when they need more than one tool to swipe a snack

Cockatoos know when it will take a stick and a straw to nab a nut in a puzzle box. The birds join chimps as the only known nonhumans to use a tool kit.

Paleontology

This dinosaur might have used its feet to snag prey in midair like modern hawks

Fossilized toe pads suggest a hawklike hunting style in Microraptor, a dinosaur that some scientists think could hunt while flying.