This Mars rover could finally reveal whether life ever existed on Mars - Science Daily

US officials canceled NASA’s ambitious Mars Sample Return program, leaving potential evidence of ancient life sitting on Mars. Could China beat them to it?

Scientists have uncovered a previously unknown cleanup system at the back of the eye, revealing a hidden route that allows fluid and waste to escape into the body's lymphatic system. The discovery challenges long-standing assumptions about how the eye functions and could eventually lead to new approaches for treating serious conditions that cause blindness. Glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and several other major causes of permanent vision loss are associated with the accumulation of fluid, metabolic waste, and inflammatory material in the back of the eye. Until now, researchers have struggled to explain exactly how this sensitive region removes unwanted substances.

A satellite no bigger than a small carry on suitcase could help scientists investigate one of the least understood periods in cosmic history: the roughly 150 million years of darkness before the universe's first stars began to shine. Developed in the UK, the spacecraft is called CosmoCube. An international research team led by the University of Cambridge plans to send it around the Moon, where the lunar far side can block radio interference coming from Earth. In that unusually quiet environment, CosmoCube will listen for an extraordinarily faint signal left behind by the early universe.

With 302 neurons, 200 of them in their heads, hermaphrodite female roundworms reveal surprising sex-specific differences in the nervous system and how these differences influence behavior, reproduction, and aging. Researchers at Northeastern University compared brain activity in male and hermaphroditic Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic worm widely used in biological research to understand how sex wires males and female nervous systems differently.

Artist’s concept of the new dinosaur species Invictibellatrix amberina, along with the fossil from which it was identified. The fossil had been sitting in a drawer for 100 years, until researchers pulled it out and became curious. Image via Sergey Krasovskiy and Pedro Salas/ Natural History Museum London. You deserve a daily dose of good news. For the latest in science and the night sky, subscribe to EarthSky’s free daily newsletter.