From an Andean peak in Chile, a revolution in astronomy has quietly begun. The Vera Rubin Observatory’s unique camera has entered regular operations, and Der Spiegel reports it will discover billions of new stars over the coming years. But the telescope’s ambitions go further: it could identify a previously unknown planet in our solar system or, more urgently, detect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. The observatory represents a generational leap in humanity’s ability to map the cosmos, scanning the entire visible sky every few nights in unprecedented detail.
In a quirky parallel from the world of museum science, researchers are deploying “superworms” to clean skeletal specimens — gnawing away cartilage and tissue far more efficiently than traditional preparation methods, which can take weeks and carry their own drawbacks.
