Notebook
- Planetary Science
120 seconds in Pluto’s shadow
A 747 outfitted with a telescope worked with New Horizons to reveal details about Pluto’s atmosphere.
- Agriculture
Plants trick bacteria into attacking too soon
Scientists have discovered that a plant compound interferes with bacterial communication.
- Tech
Pill measures gut gas
A gas-sensing ingestible capsule tested in pigs could someday help doctors assess people’s gastrointestinal health.
- Animals
Harvester ants are restless, enigmatic architects
Florida harvester ants dig complex, curly nests over, then leave and do it again.
- Animals
Meet the tarantula in black
Named for Johnny Cash, a new species of tarantula makes its home in the shadow of Folsom Prison.
- 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.
