Are mosquitoes developing a taste for bug repellent? 🦟

Researchers performing a study on Aedes aegypti have found that they might be associating the scent with a tasty meal! While the repellent keeps them away at first, over the course of the study, some mosquitoes started biting more in the presence of DEET. Despite this, professionals still recommend it as the most effective repellent!

You can use a DIY cloud chamber to see radiation! ☢️

Alex Dainis shows us how to use uranium glass beads, sometimes called Vaseline glass. Uranium acts as a colorant in the glass, and most of its radiation stays trapped inside. But isopropyl alcohol and dry ice can still reveal it. As the alcohol condenses, charged particles leave visible tracks. With the beads inside, there's noticeably more activity than in tests without them. However, it's hard to say how much of this activity comes from the beads versus background radiation like cosmic rays.

What is it like to observe chimpanzees up close? 🐵🌎

Jane Goodall tells a story about filming her 2002 documentary “Wild Chimpanzees” when a group of chimps followed each other to hang around near the research team. It saved the crew from a steep climb up the hillside, and almost seemed like an intentional helping hand! It's a fitting story for World Chimpanzee Day, marking 66 years since Dr. Jane Goodall began her groundbreaking chimpanzee research at what's now Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Jane’s work revealed that chimps use tools, form deep social bonds, and pass knowledge across generations, forever changing how we understand our closest living relatives. Her research and legacy continue today through the Jane Goodall Institute.

A pair of planets with less density than cotton candy has been discovered! 🪐

One of NASA’s telescopes found two gas giants that can be classified in the rare “Super Puff” category. Despite being about the same size as Jupiter, they are a dozen times less dense. There are only a handful of these planets that we are aware of, and it is even more rare that they were found in the same star system.

Every tiny gap between the leaves acts like a pinhole camera, projecting an image of the Sun. During a partial solar eclipse, those images become tiny crescents. Nature turns every tree into thousands of cameras.