Link About It: This Week’s Picks

Textiles embedded with data, new fish species, fashion in the metaverse and more

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Observes The Farthest Star Ever Seen Documented in a new study led by Johns Hopkins University PhD candidate Brain Welch and published in the scientific journal Nature, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a star estimated to be 28 billion light-years away—making it the most distant one ever seen. Named Earendel, this 12.9-billion-year-old cosmic object happens to be …

Wolverine Fish, Blind Eel and 210 More New Fish Species Found

Conservation organization Shoal announced that scientists have discovered 212 new freshwater fish species in the last year—a remarkable feat not only for the unprecedented number, but also for all the extraordinary creatures it represents. The New Species 2021 report includes the Hopliancistrus wolverine (aka the Wolverine fish), which surprised researchers with a hidden weapon system tucked underneath its gill covers. Other species—like the Mumbai blind …

Scientists Declare a New Species of Multicolored Fish

A Maldivian scientist has officially announced a new fish species: the mesmerizing Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa, or rose-veiled fairy wrasse, named after the Dhivehi word for rose (finifenmaa). The rainbow-colored fish was first spotted in the 1990s but researchers believed it came from an already-known species. Now, scientists from the California Academy of Sciences, the University of Sydney, the Maldives Marine Research Institute and the Field Museum …