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• Almost 20 years after his death, Elliott Smith, born on August 6, 1969, has just received a very unusual tribute: a minor planet discovered in 2014 will officially bear his name in the solar system
• What looks like a beautiful dance in the Kushiro wetlands could be a secret conversation between two cranes, featuring a series of bows, poses, and movements that last up to three minutes and respond to each other’s gestures
• A man with severe paralysis caused by ALS used a brain implant at home for more than 3,800 hours and was able to convert his attempts to speak into text, computer-generated information, and a voice similar to his own
• A frightened bat ray could warn the others without making a sound or splashing, by releasing a chemical signal into the water that its neighbors detect within seconds
• A community that was driven from its forest lands in the 1970s now protects 71,700 acres in the Congo and has managed to reduce deforestation by 87% in just one year
• The famous Himalayan viper, first described in 1864, has just lost its unique identity, as scientists have discovered that five species were previously grouped under that name
• Ancient teeth preserved in museums may harbor a vast microbial archive, and a new preliminary article suggests that dental plaque reveals how diet has influenced the oral bacteria of mammals
• A Montana county commissioner wanted to prepare his county in case coal revenues dried up, and voters ousted him from office in a Republican primary that served as a warning to other mining communities
• The plague may have claimed the lives of children in hunter-gatherer communities in Siberia 5,500 years ago, long before medieval cities, flea-infested rats, and the dreaded Black Death existed