Lake fly larvae plunge more than 200 meters into Lake Malawi each day to hide from predators, using tiny air sacs to control their depth。 A rubber-like material called resilin lets them expand or shrink the sacs by changing their pH。 Their toughness challenges a popular explanation for why insects are absent from the open ocean
New research challenges the decades-old idea that children experience an “adiposity rebound” when their BMI begins rising around age 6。 Although BMI returns to earlier levels, a more reliable measure showed that body fat does not rebound at all。 The increase appears to come from growing muscle and lean tissue as children prepare for later growth
Young Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field may have created a safe zone where several large moons could survive。 Saturn lacked this protection, possibly explaining why Titan stands almost alone among its largest moons
Physicists have uncovered a surprising limit to electrical resistance caused by particles colliding。 Using ultracold potassium atoms trapped in a grid of light, researchers created a highly controlled stand-in for electrons moving through a solid。 As collisions became more frequent and intense, resistance initially rose, but eventually hit a ceilin
Automotive lights are better than they've ever been, but there's a trade-off
A new 3D printing technique can produce exceptionally hard tungsten carbide cobalt while using less of its expensive raw materials。 By softening rather than fully melting the material, researchers created defect-free samples with industrial-grade hardness and opened the door to more efficient manufacturing
Scientists have created twisted laser beams that interact differently with right-handed and left-handed molecules, revealing their identity through the fragments they produce。 The approach could provide a faster, simpler, and more sensitive way to analyze important molecules used in chemistry and pharmaceuticals
Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Venus may still be tearing itself apart from within。 Advanced 3D simulations indicate that some of the planet's giant rift valleys formed relatively recently and could still be expanding。 The results suggest Venus has a far more active interior than researchers once believed, challenging the long-held vie
Photons traveling through a cloud of atoms can emerge so early that they appear to have spent a negative amount of time inside。 Researchers tested whether this was merely a misleading feature of the light pulse by making extremely weak measurements of the atoms。 Surprisingly, the atoms confirmed the same negative dwell time
Scientists have created an “electron lighthouse” that uses laser light to launch and steer electrons through a semiconductor without an applied electrical field。 The quantum effect could eventually improve optical sensors, communications, imaging, and information storage
Hidden moon ice may reveal itself through the way it bends and reflects vibrations from moonquakes。 The technique could help astronauts locate vital water supplies and uncover clues about the origins of Earth’s oceans
A surprisingly simple change could make sodium-ion batteries far more powerful while opening the door to turning seawater into drinking water。 Researchers at the University of Surrey found that sodium vanadium oxide performs much better when its naturally occurring water is left inside instead of being removed during manufacturing
A new analysis suggests the Sun holds far more silver than earlier estimates indicated。 More advanced models of the solar atmosphere raised the calculated amount by 55 percent, bringing it into much closer agreement with ancient meteorites。 The technique may also help scientists track the cosmic origins of silver and other heavy elements
NASA’s Swift Observatory observed a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star more than 30,000 light-years from the center of a distant galaxy。 The extraordinary flare briefly outshone its entire host galaxy in ultraviolet light and revealed a black hole about a million times the Sun’s mass
Mathematicians have shown that no electoral system can perfectly balance local representation, proportional national results, and a fixed-size parliament once enough parties compete。 A newly proposed voting method could soften these unavoidable trade-offs and produce outcomes that are much closer to fair