Involving a cutting-edge gravitational wave detector roaring back to life and the discovery of a three,000-year-old bakery nonetheless covered in flour, the globe of science as soon as once more thrilled us with one more week of groundbreaking news. And nothing at all is a lot more groundbreaking appropriate now than the combined mass of New York City’s 1,084,954 buildings, which are actually causing the city to sink at the price of about .08 inches (two.1 millimeters) per year.

Speaking of weighty objects, paleontologists in Argentina found the remains of a ginormous extended-necked titanosaur, which measured about one hundred feet (30 meters) extended. The dinosaur’s fossils have been so heavy that when getting transported to Buenos Aires for study they triggered a website traffic accident and smashed the asphalt on the road. Fortunately no bones, human or dinosaur, have been broken.

Ultimately, we know that life is complete of small mysteries (and we really should know a factor or two about them), but what has been definitely taxing us this week are whether or not octopuses have nightmares, what China is dropping off in space, and whether or not we’ll ever discover proof of a “dark matter star”. Even so, a single factor we are now a small a lot more particular of is the answer to evolutionary scientists’ chicken-or-egg equivalent — which came initial, the comb jelly or the sea sponge?

Image of the week

A image of the all-white echidna Raffie spotted in New South Wales, Australia. (Image credit: Bathurst Regional Council)

This uncommon small critter is an really uncommon albino echidna, a single of two identified mammals in the globe (along with platypuses) in which females lay eggs but also create milk. Spotted earlier this month on a road in New South Wales, Australia, this all-white, quill-covered creature has been named Raffie by neighborhood authorities. 

Albinism is a genetic situation that interferes with the body’s production of melanin, the major pigment that colors animals’ skin, fur, feathers, scales and eyes. When melanin cells do not function adequately, it can make animals seem partially or absolutely white. 

“An albino echidna is a uncommon sight,” representatives of Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Investigation Organization (CSIRO) wrote in a Twitter post on Might 22, 2022. “Spotting a non-albino echidna is also quite uncommon,” officials added. 

Weekend reading

And finally…

The James Webb Space Telescope continues its impressive run of discovering secrets of our universe, spying a gargantuan geyser on Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus blasting water hundreds of miles into space — could it include chemical components for life?