Scientists want you to use toothpaste made from hair. Here’s why - BBC Science Focus Magazine

Researchers have uncovered an unexpected phenomenon, dubbed the Zwan-Wolf effect, squeezing plasma "like toothpaste" in Mars' upper atmosphere. This effect, which also happens on Earth, was thought to be impossible on the Red Planet.

A digital illustration of a ball of electricity. (Vladlen Tian/iStock/Getty Images Plus) When you picture lightning, it tends to be fairly straightforward – a jagged gash of light that splits the sky, disappearing in less time than it takes to blink. But for centuries, a strange picture of a more eerie form has emerged. Thousands of records and eyewitness accounts have told of balls of lightning hovering above the ground before disappearing in a pop like soap bubbles. This fleeting phenomenon is all but impossible to study – and reports vary wildly in descriptions of its size, its hue, and even its behavior, making it one of the most peculiar mysteries in atmospheric science. But if you can't catch ball lightning in a field, physicist Chuliang Zhou and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have reasoned, maybe we can learn more by reproducing something like it in a lab. "Here we report the first controlled generation of a macroscopic, long-lived soliton driven by relativistic terahertz electromagnetic fields," the researchers write in a paper published in Nature Photonics.

Mercury ends its prograde motion and prepares to enter retrograde in Libra the Balance — spot it after sunset if you’re quick. Mercury hangs just 1° above the western horizon half an hour after sunset on October 24. Look for the stars of Scorpius in the southwest to help guide you toward the planet’s position. Credit: Stellarium