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
A LOT LIKE HOME An Earth-sized planet capable of hosting liquid water and four other worlds orbit the cool red star Kepler-186, as seen in an artist’s illustration. The planet, found in data from the Kepler space telescope, is the smallest planet found in a star’s habitable zone.
NASA Ames, SETI Institute, JPL-Caltech
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)
BARE BONES Differences between the skeletons of modern humans (back) and Neandertals (front) may stem from the way the groups use some genes involved in bone growth. Chemical modifications of DNA may have dialed down the activity of these genes in Neandertals, leading to stocky frames.
© Sabena Jane Blackbird/Alamy
ODD ALLIES Domesticated grapevines play host to the bacterium P. acnes, which relies on the plant for essential DNA repairs.
Anders Ljungberg/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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