Japan’s most recognizable orchid, the Spiranthes australis, has been cherished for centuries (it even features in The Man’yōshū, the oldest collection of Japanese waka poetry, dating back to 759AD) and it’s just been discovered to have an almost identical twin: the Spiranthes hachijoensis. The flower was actually hiding in plain sight—in private gardens, balconies, parks and more—and the common belief was “that all the Spiranthes …
The First Complete Map of an Insect Brain A team led by John Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge have completed the most expansive map of a brain to date. The diagram, which traces every neuron and connection of a larval fruit fly (whose biology is comparable with humans), took 12 years to map and is expected to inform future brain research. To survey the …
Drinking in space is typically tricky, as liquids separate into droplets without Earth’s gravitational pull. However, researchers at NASA have devised a way to drink from an open-top cup without gravity or a straw. The Space Cup, part of NASA’s Capillary Flow Experiment, combines cup geometry and fluid dynamics to allow astronauts to sip liquids as if on Earth. Designed by astronaut Don Pettit, physicist …
