New DNA analysis solves 'lost prince' mystery

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09.21.24

Welcome to your weekly space

and science digest.

By Katie Hunt

Komodo dragons with iron-tipped teeth. Thirteen-foot-long pythons. Attacking crocs. Of the five main classes of vertebrate animals, reptiles often inspire the most fear.

But reptiles deserve our sympathy — and conservation dollars — just as much as mammals, which may seem more charismatic. One in five reptile species are under threat.

I'm trying to replace my own unease of these creatures with wonder. Reptiles are astonishingly diverse, with extraordinary adaptations such as a tiny lizard in Costa Rica that has evolved a way to "scuba dive," according to new research.

The diving anole lives in Costa Rica's rainforest, where it's able to form small air bubbles atop its head (above) as a source of oxygen when submerged. This ability allows the lizard to stay underwater for a prolonged period of time.

The unusual and specialized behavior, filmed by researchers as part of a new study, could help anoles hide from predators on land.

The wee anole relies mostly on camouflage to hide from predators such as birds, snakes, mammals and other lizards. And when camouflage fails, waiting out a threat underwater is an effective survival strategy.

Kaspar Hauser, an enigmatic man thought by some to be a "lost prince," died in 1833. Much less is known about his origin story.

Hauser appeared seemingly out of nowhere in what is now Nuremberg, Germany, on May 26, 1828, when he was about 16 years old. He was found wandering the town square with no identification and with an unsigned letter clutched in his hand.

Nearly 200 years later, scientists have used a new DNA analysis to solve a longstanding mystery about Hauser's suspected ties to royalty.

Since 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft (shown in an artist's concept) has been exploring the solar system and beyond.

The probe was the first spacecraft to cross the heliosphere — the sun's bubble of magnetic fields and particles that extends beyond planetary orbits — and venture into interstellar space, or space between stars. Along the way, Voyager 1 found a thin ring around Jupiter and two new Jovian moons as well as five new moons orbiting Saturn.

Now, the space agency may have found a way to keep the 47-year-old probe communicating with Earth from billions of miles away.

NASA engineers successfully fired up a set of thrusters Voyager 1 hasn't used in decades, which could help keep its antenna pointed at Earth.

In other space news, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will be able to vote via absentee ballot from low-Earth orbit in November's election. The duo's stay aboard the International Space Station was extended until 2025 after arriving in June on a test flight of Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft. The trip was initially expected to last about eight days.

A flooded quarry near Bristol, England, is a testing ground for a bold plan to develop an underwater habitat.

The goal of DEEP, a UK-based ocean technology company, is to build interconnected modules that would allow people to live and work at a depth of 656 feet (200 meters) for up to a month.

A 40-by-25-foot (12-by-7.5-meter) habitat with enough space for three people to stay underwater for up to a week will be ready to go into the water at DEEP's UK campus in early 2025.

The company hopes that its habitats can achieve a permanent human presence underwater, akin to the International Space Station — which has allowed humans to live and work in space since 2000 — but for the ocean.

Camping in the crisp fall weather? Our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, suggest the Kelty Deluxe Lounge Chair. With two cup holders, this camp chair reclines for maximum comfort and folds up as well.

Vincent van Gogh's masterpiece "The Starry Night" is a beguiling work of art. It's also surprisingly scientifically accurate.

A new analysis of the painting (above) by physicists based in China and France suggests the artist had a deep, intuitive understanding of the mathematical structure of turbulent flow, a common natural phenomenon observed in fluids such as moving water, ocean currents and billowing storm clouds.

The scientists determined that the sizes of the 14 whorls or eddies in "The Starry Night," and their relative distance and intensity, follow a physical law that governs fluid dynamics known as Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence.

The physics hidden in Van Gogh's depiction of the night sky may be one reason why people are so drawn to the painting. 

Immerse yourself in these remarkable reads:

— A still-shiny bronze sword engraved with the name of King Ramses II in hieroglyphics has been unearthed in Egypt.

— Helga and Zohar, two mannequins that flew aboard the Orion space capsule during the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, are revealing how much radiation astronauts may experience on future Artemis missions.

— The full harvest supermoon shone brightly in the night sky earlier this week. A partial lunar eclipse, with a "bite" taken from the moon, was also visible to sky-gazers.

— Earth will soon gain a new "mini-moon," a recently discovered asteroid named 2024 PT5. The space rock will temporarily be captured by Earth's gravity and orbit our world for a few weeks, according to astronomers. 

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