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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
These insects fly with their legs. Physics explains how
Phantom crane flies change the angle of their splayed legs to increase or reduce drag, helping them navigate varying winds.
- Space
How realistic is Project Hail Mary?
Ryan Gosling is on a mission to save the sun — and Earth — from star-killing microbes. Science News dissects the science behind the sci-fi movie.
- Plants
Check out 6 ways orchids use tricks to reproduce
This spring, these six orchids will lure pollinators with mimicry, scent or other unusual strategies.
- Health & Medicine
‘Smart underwear’ measures how often humans fart
“Zen digesters” rarely fart. “Hydrogen hyperproducers” fart a lot. Scientists are investigating what is typical.
- Physics
Here’s why sneakers squeak on the basketball court
Tiny, repeating detachments between sole and floor — thousands of times a second — create the distinctive squeak heard on the court, data show.
- Life
An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox
Fecal analyses and necropsies suggest a fire-footed rope squirrel was the source of a 2023 mpox outbreak among sooty mangabeys in Côte d’Ivoire.
- Animals
Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs
Rufous net-casting spiders can tune the stiffness and elasticity of their webs thanks to loops of silk, scanning electron microscope images reveal.
- Animals
A bonobo’s imaginary tea party suggests apes can play pretend
Apes, like humans, are capable of pretend play, challenging long-held views about how animals think, a new study suggests.
- Animals
Canadian humpback whales thrive with a little help from their friends
Humpback whales are teaching each other a feeding technique called bubble netting, and it's helping a Canadian population recover from whaling.
- Health & Medicine
Artificial lungs kept a man alive until he could get a transplant
A new artificial lung system might keep people without lungs alive for weeks. Like real lungs, tubes and pumps oxygenate blood and maintain blood flow.
- Animals
Animals experience joy. Scientists want to measure it
Scientists have long focused on quantifying fear and other negative emotions in animals. Now they’re trying to measure positive feelings — and it’s a challenge.
- Animals
How cheetah mummies could help bring the species back to Arabia
Arabian cheetah mummies' DNA reveals that the long-lost population could be closely replaced by a cheetah population in northwestern Africa.
