ALL FED UP Collisions with other galaxies has made NGC 1316 (left) into the giant monster it is today.
ESO
DEFINING A KINGDOM In the peculiar, shape-shifting world of fungi (Erysiphe guttata shown), a rebellion has broken out against the traditional way of naming species.
L. R. AND C. TULASNE/SELECTA FUNGORUM CARPOLOGIA 1861
MAGNIFYING STAR A white dwarf, the core of a dead star, contorts the light of the sunlike star it orbits, as seen in an artist’s illustration. The white dwarf’s gravity amplifies the light from its companion each time the white dwarf passes between the other star and Earth.
JPL-Caltech/NASA
HERS, NOT HIS A small female Neotrogla bark louse extends an inflatable, penislike organ (less than a millimeter long, shown in orange), which fits into a vaginalike pocket inside the male of her species and collects his sperm.
Courtesy of K. Yoshizawa
ALL SPUN UP Molecules hit with a laser have reached record spin speeds of 600 trillion revolutions per minute.
Creativity103/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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