First millipede with more than 1,000 legs

Researchers in Australia have described the first reported millipede to live up to its name. The animal has 1,306 legs — breaking the previous record of 750 legs — and was found 60 metres underground in a mining area of Western Australia. It is pale and blind, with a long, thread-like body comprising up to 330 segments. Researchers named the species Eumillipes persephone, after the Greek goddess of the underworld, Persephone.

NASA spacecraft ‘touches’ the Sun for the first time ever

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has travelled into the Sun’s corona — the first to have ever broached our star’s outer atmosphere. The Parker probe crossed the much-anticipated boundary, known as the Alfvén surface, on 28 April. It took several months for scientists to download the data and confirm the achievement.

Oldest domestic dog remains in Americas

A tooth found in caves in Haida Gwaii in Canada is the earliest reported remains of a domestic dog in the Americas. Radiocarbon dating pinpoints the tooth’s age to 13,100 years ago — the oldest archæological evidence of human occupation in the area by 2,000 years. The findings stand alongside oral histories that record the Haida people’s long history on the islands. Researchers predict more discoveries to come, because the caves on the west coast of Canada are mostly unexplored by archæologists.

DeepMind AI tackles one of chemistry’s most valuable techniques

The artificial-intelligence company DeepMind has developed a new machine-learning model to predict the density of a molecule’s electrons — a key step to calculating its physical properties. The algorithm relies on a technique called density functional theory (DFT), which has been hugely successful in chemistry, biology and materials science. But DFT goes a bit wonky in some cases, because it’s not a perfect reflection of the complex quantum mechanics that govern matter. Researchers trained an artificial neural network on data from hundreds of accurate solutions derived from quantum theory, plus some handy laws of physics.

Newly Found Dinosaur Had a Battle Axe for a Tail

Chilean researchers have discovered a new species of ankylosaur in the subantarctic tip of Chile. Stegouros elengassen was about 2 metres long, with a relatively large head, slender limbs and a flat, frond-shaped tail unlike any seen before.

Quantum Simulators Create a Totally New Phase of Matter

Physicists have created a physical simulation of an exotic and elusive state of matter first predicted in the 1970s, called a spin liquid. Spin liquids contain arrangements of electron spins — the subatomic equivalent of bar magnets — in a solid material that are intrinsically unstable, like the molecules in a liquid. Evidence for their existence is still preliminary, but researchers have now been able to simulate them using atoms suspended in a vacuum — a type of quantum computer that has received less attention than other technologies. Such ‘quantum simulations’ show promise as early applications of quantum computers.

This tiny iron-rich world is extraordinarily metal

Astronomers have spotted the tiniest, most metal-based planet yet — an iron-rich world that is 9 parsecs away from Earth and zips around its star once every 8 hours. The planet, known as GJ 367b, is three-quarters the size of Earth, but much denser. Its temperature reaches a searing 1,500 ℃ during the day — nearly hot enough for its iron to begin to melt.

DeepMind’s AI helps untangle the mathematics of knots

Artificial-intelligence (AI) powerhouse DeepMind has teamed up with mathematicians to spot previously unseen patterns and seek new discoveries. Researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm on vast amounts of data about knots and revealed a formula linking two properties of knots — which the mathematicians then proved rigorously. In a separate test, the team found a potential pattern related to symmetries, which had been sought for decades.

Earth’s eccentric orbit paced the evolution of marine phytoplankton

Variations in Earth’s orbit might help to determine the evolution of marine phytoplankton. Researchers analysed fossils of coccolithophores that lived in the Pleistocene period (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) alongside deviations in the circularity of Earth’s annual orbit, which cycles approximately every 100,000 and 400,000 years. They found that the diversity of plankton species increased during periods of high eccentricity of Earth’s orbit, when the seasons vary more in equatorial regions.

A pair of nearby supermassive black holes are heading for a collision

A newly discovered pair of supermassive black holes is closer to Earth than any known so far. The two are only 1,600 light years apart, so astronomers predict they will smash together in a mere 250 million years. One sits at the centre of the galaxy NGC 7727, with the other just off to the side. Many more off-centre black holes could be hiding throughout the Universe, say astronomers — in which case, the cosmos might contain up to 30% more of the celestial objects than previously thought.

World's first living robots can now reproduce

The world’s first living robots, created from frog cells, self-replicate by pushing loose cells together. The Pac-Man-shaped blobs are made up of stem cells removed from frog embryos, which naturally cohere and develop hair-like protuberances called cilia. In a dish, they can move around and push loose stem cells into piles with their ‘mouths’. These piles can then develop into ciliated ‘offspring’, and go on to build their own pile-of-stem-cell babies.

Eurasia’s oldest surviving jewellery?

A 41,500-year-old pendant carved from a piece of a woolly mammoth tusk could be the oldest known example of decorated jewellery in Eurasia made by humans. The purpose and meaning of the designs on its surface are unclear, but they could represent a counting system, lunar observations or a way of scoring kills. The pendant was found in the Stajnia Cave, in Poland, alongside a 7-centimetre-long awl — a pointed tool used for making holes — shaped from a piece of horse bone.