12/29/14-01/05/15

A Week in Science by Claire Goul

Claire Goul, Academic Editor|January 9, 2015

Five things you didn’t know…

1. 12/29/14- NASA launched an atmostpheric balloon that can withstand significant amounts of pressure. Its airtime is estimated to be 100 days or longer, thus breaking the previous 55-day record for NASA’s atmospheric balloons.

launch0160

2. 12/30/14- Scientists may have identified the Ebola Epidemic starting site: a bat-filled tree in Meliandou, Guinea.

A colony of Angolan free-tailed bats (<i>left</i>) lived in this tree in Meliandou, Guinea.

4. 12/31/14 – Thousands of scientists (as of 12/31/14, 1,500 scientists and 100,000 students) have fled easter Ukraine due to the conflict, which has caused divisions among academics and scientists.

5. Scientists found that the flashing lights emitted by the “Disco Clam” may be a warning signal against predators. These lights also might just be reflections of environmental light and not even produced by the clams.

(image from The Huffington Post)