Nature at its weirdest: what metamorphosis reveals about science and ourselves - Nature

The best inventions solve practical solutions to everyday problems, doing so efficiently and with a bit of style. But sometimes things don't exactly work out like this. Sometimes inventions can appear rather strange, either because they attempt to solve problems that do not exist, or they attempt to do so in very odd and peculiar ways. Case in point: the 10 absolutely bizarre creations below, from brain-controlled cat ears to glowing car tyres. And hats – you can expect a lot of strange hats. Starting with...

NASA's upgraded Cold Atom Lab is back in operation aboard the International Space Station, giving researchers a powerful new way to investigate the fundamental nature of matter and advance the development of future quantum technologies. Taking advantage of the station's microgravity environment, the facility enables experiments that cannot be performed on Earth. Quantum science focuses on the behavior of matter and energy at extremely small scales, including atoms, electrons, and particles of light. Although atoms are often pictured as tiny balls colliding with one another, the quantum world is far stranger. Atoms can behave like waves, appear in multiple locations at the same time, and even pass through one another under certain conditions.