Climate science was in the news again, spurred by a new estimate of CO2's impact and another release of e-mails from climate scientists. We also saw questions raised about the Universe's fundamental constants, tests done on the facial recognition of wasps, and a long, sordid tale that ended with a scientist in jail. But we'll start off this week's roundup by celebrating the Voyager spacecraft, which are still producing valuable data as they skim the very edges of our solar system.
Voyagers travel far enough to see our own galaxy without the Sun's interference: Normally, the Sun is too bright for us to see most hydrogen emissions from our own galaxy. Starting in the '90s, however, the Voyager spacecraft got far enough away from the Sun to see through the haze.
How a collapsing scientific hypothesis led to a lawsuit and arrest: Two years ago, Judy Mikovits had a paper in Science suggesting that chronic fatigue syndrome was caused by a virus. This month, she ended up in jail, accused of stealing research materials from the institute she once directed.
Last big chill suggests lower climate impact of carbon : Researchers use the conditions that prevailed during the peak of the last glaciation to estimate how our climate will respond to changes in carbon dioxide.
Hacker releases new batch of climatology e-mails just before climate conference: Another batch of emails has been released from the original collection stolen from the University of East Anglia. This time around, climatologists have reacted quickly to try to provide the context that is missing from the excerpts that are appearing online.
Fundamental constants are not constant—or maybe they are, we don't really know: Researchers use quasars to map the value of the fine structure constant, finding that it may not be constant. The results are still tentative, but this is pretty exciting stuff for physicists.
Robot without a skeleton inspired by squid, crawls on land: Researchers build a soft-bodied, air-powered robot that can crawl under barriers.
Science education prize goes to Open Source Physics: A site called Open Source Physics earns an education prize for providing high quality simulation software for the classroom.
How California can hit its mid-century emissions reduction goals: California can still meet its 2050 emissions reduction goals if it focuses on improving energy efficiency, decarbonizes the electricity supply, and, most importantly, replaces most direct uses of fossil fuels with electricity.
Wasps with many queens will remember your face as they sting you: A species of wasp with multiple queens has the ability to recognize other wasps' faces, while a closely related species with a single queen does not.
Listing image by Photograph by nasa.gov