Hydrogen, the lightest element on the periodic table, is a master of escaping almost any container it’s stored in...

Four mice went to space as astronauts. One came back and became a mother. And that simple fact might matter more than you’d think for humanity’s future beyond Earth.

On 31 October, China launched four mice numbered 6, 98, 154, and 186, aboard the Shenzhou-21 spacecraft to the country’s space station, roughly 400 kilometers above Earth. For two weeks, the rodents lived in microgravity, exposed to space radiation and the peculiar conditions of orbital life. They returned safely on 14 November. Then, on 10 December, one of the females gave birth to nine healthy pups.

In a previous study, sperm from mice that had been in space had been used to fertilize female mice back ...

Quantum particles have a social life, of a sort...

The only way astronomers have been able to detect rogue planets is through microlensing events caused by the slight gravitational effect of an object on background light. This occurs when the light from a distant star suddenly appears magnified to an observer (telescopes on Earth), as if a lens were placed in front of it. The magnification of light lets astronomers know that something has passed in front of the distant star.

Theoretically, microlensing can allow for the calculation of the mass of the object passing in front of the star by analyzing how much the light was bent and thus magnified...