Small Creatures, Big Mission: Bugapalooza Connects Science to Military Readiness - U.S. Department of War (.gov)

Very little of our planet remains truly unexplored, and most of what's still untouched is at the South Pole. Almost all of Antarctica – along with large swathes of the ocean around it – is covered by ice that is hundreds, if not thousands, of metres thick. Space may be the final frontier, but Antarctica is its close rival.

A Graneledone octopus, a suspected new species, moves across the seafloor during a deep-sea ocean expedition off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. This species was first observed during an expedition Dr. Diva Amon (SpeSeas) participated in 2014, but was not confirmed or collected until this mission. Researchers made dozens of other discoveries on the trip, including at least 20 suspected new species, three of which may be new genera. Marine biologists from Trinidad and Tobago recently completed the first locally helmed and most expansive survey of the deep-sea waters around the Caribbean islands. The month-long project aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel (R/V) Falkor (too) documented around 13 percent of the nation’s marine territory, and described 20 potential new species. Researchers also collected over 700 specimens for the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Once catalogued, the additions will increase the size of the university’s Zoology Museum deep ocean collection by 12 times.

Hidden gaps in tiny disks could point to planets still forming. Continue reading Tiny planet-forming disks reveal a big surprise about how planets are born on Tech Explorist .

Scientists have uncovered changes inside taste buds that may help explain why some people struggle to taste food more than a year after recovering from COVID-19. The findings point to disruptions in the molecular signals responsible for detecting certain flavors, along with physical abnormalities in the structure of taste buds. The study, published in Chemical Senses, offers the first direct biological evidence connecting persistent taste problems reported by patients to measurable changes within their taste cells.

The Orion heat shield after the Artemis 2 mission, with far less char loss than experienced on Artemis 1. Credit: NASA/Kevin Davis WASHINGTON — Detailed engineering studies have confirmed that the Orion heat shield on the Artemis 2 mission performed as expected, without the erosion seen on Artemis 1.

The popularity of the giant-impact hypothesis can be attributed to the multiple lines of evidence supporting the impact scenario.