Researchers have built a biological robot

Researchers have built a biological robot that is controlled with part of a rat’s spinal cord. The 6-millimetre robot is made of 3D-printed muscles made of laboratory-grown mouse cells, connected to the section of a rat’s spine that controls the hind legs. Nerves grew from the rat tissue into the muscles and made them contract, and the team could control their ‘Spinobot’ with neurotransmitters. Eventually, the technology could be used in prosthetics, says roboticist Collin Kaufman, but that would probably involve human tissue.

The First Ever Image of Nearby Exoplanet Proxima C?

It’s far from certain, but astronomers might have captured an image of the exoplanet Proxima c, thought to orbit the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri in our nearest neighbouring planetary system. Researchers analysing data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope identified infrared images that seem to show the planet appearing across several years of routine observations. If genuine, the detection could tell us Proxima c’s size and the angle at which it orbits its star. However, some say it could be the result of random noise in the data — unwanted light from artefacts or background stars.

Black Hole Collision Sheds Light

Gravitational-wave astronomers witnessed a merger between black holes of two greatly different sizes, one nearly four times more massive than the other. The unprecedented observation gave them insight into how one of the black holes spins, which had eluded them in previous gravitational-wave experiments examining mergers of equally sized black holes. The new data promise new ways to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Is The Universe Anisotropic?

A map of 850 distant galaxy clusters hints that the Universe might not be uniform. Combining data from US, European and Japanese X-ray space telescopes, researchers have revealed galaxy clusters that were around 30% brighter or fainter than expected, suggesting that their distances had been poorly estimated. Taking these clusters as beacons of the rate of cosmic expansion, the findings would mean that one region is expanding slower than the rest of the Universe, and another is expanding faster.

'Spectacular' artefacts found as Norway ice-patch melts

Ice retreating from a Norwegian mountain pass has uncovered a wealth of artefacts dating back to the Viking era or earlier. Local archaeologists first took note of the pass in 2011, when an ancient woollen tunic was found that could be more than 1,700 years old. The thaw intensified in 2019, revealing everything from stone-built cairns and the remains of a small shelter, to dairy products and reindeer pelts. The ice left many of the items in an exquisite state.

Neutrino clue to antimatter mystery

Physicists have found the strongest evidence yet that neutrinos are fundamentally different from their antimatter counterparts. Researchers produced neutrinos and antineutrinos at an accelerator in Tokai, Japan, and shot them 295 kilometres through the Earth’s crust to the Super-Kamiokande detector. The team found that one flavour of neutrino — muons — morphed into different types of particle at a different rate than did their antimatter twins. If confirmed, the results could help to solve the Universe’s greatest mystery: why there is more matter than antimatter.

Huge dinosaur footprints found on cave ceiling

Dinosaur footprints measuring up to 1.25 metres long have been found deep inside a cave in France — on the roof. The tracks were made 166 million to 168 million years ago, when three dinosaurs traversed the shoreline of a sea. The site was then at the planet’s surface, but geological processes have buried and tilted the sediments, and the prints are now on the cave’s roof, 500 metres underground. Researchers say the footprints probably belong to an unknown species of titanosaur, a category of long-necked herbivorous dinosaur that includes some of the largest animals ever to walk on Earth.

Oldest known fossil of Homo erectus

A skull of an ancient toddler of the species Homo erectus has been found in South Africa and dated to between 2.04 million and 1.95 million years old, pushing back the age of the species by up to 200,000 years. It was also found with the skull of a species on a side-branch of our evolutionary tree, Paranthropus robusta, which suggests many species overlapped in South Africa at the time.

Artificial intelligence decodes the facial expressions of mice

Researchers have used a machine-learning algorithm to decipher the seemingly inscrutable facial expressions of laboratory mice. For example, a mouse experiencing pleasure pulls its nose down towards its mouth, and pulls its ears and jaw forwards. By contrast, when in pain, it pulls back its ears and bulks out its cheeks, and sometimes squints.

Superconducting alloys discovered in extra-terrestrial objects for the first time

For the first time, superconductors have been found in meteorites. The tiny particles of alloys containing indium, lead and tin would have formed in extreme environments, such as during planetary collisions. Researchers analysed meteorites using magnetic-field-modulated microwave spectroscopy to find where tiny amounts of superconducting materials were hiding. They then used a ‘divide-and-conquer’ technique, progressively breaking the meteorites into smaller grains to pinpoint the superconducting particles. In the coldness of space, these particles might affect planetary formation.

Homo antecessor finds its place in our family tree

The enigmatic hominin Homo antecessor has found its place in our family tree thanks to the 800,000-year-old proteins in fossil teeth. Researchers used mass spectrometry to analyse a sliver of enamel from a molar found in Spain’s Gran Dolina cave. The tooth reveals that H. antecessor was a close relative of the last common ancestor of humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans.