Fungus Turns Cave-Dwelling Spiders Into 'Zombies'

Several scientists in Europe discovered a previously unknown species of fungus that turns cave spiders into "walking zombies." The fungus lures them out of their webs before instigating an untimely death and then uses the spiders’ corpses to spread its spores.

The newly discovered species, named Gibellula attenboroughii, acts in a similar way as the zombie ant fungus, seemingly manipulating its prey to move to a more suitable spot for the fungus to spread, according to a study published 24 January in the journal Fungal Systematics and Evolution.

But the way in which the fungus affects the arachnid’s brain is still a mystery, and a multitude of questions remain about the fungus’ evolutionary pathway and ecological impacts.

"We know very well the ants, the wasps, and very few other examples. And now this is in a different family, so it’s a new origin of behavior manipulation," said study coauthor Dr. João Araújo, a mycologist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen. "It’s something really interesting that’s not super common in the parasitic world."

The finding opens up new research opportunities to better understand animal-controlling fungus and illuminates the diversity of fungi yet to be uncovered, researchers said.

The newfound species is part of a larger branch of fungi that exclusively infects spiders.

Researchers observed a different species of Gibellula (G. aurea found in Brazil) possibly manipulating spiders to move to the underside of leaves before death, as described in a November 2022 study coauthored by Araújo. However, the maneuver was not as strikingly evident as it is when G. attenboroughii targets cave spiders, Araújo said.

So far, scientists have only observed G. attenboroughii infecting the spiders Metellina merianae and Meta menardi, both cave-dwelling orb weavers that are found in Europe.

The first sighting of the peculiar fungus has a colorful backstory: In 2021, a television crew first spotted the fungus on an orb weaver spider while filming a show in an abandoned gunpowder storeroom at Castle Espie Wetland Centre in Northern Ireland’s County Down.

The crew noticed that the spider placed itself in an exposed position before death, away from its web, suggesting the fungus had caused behavioral change.

Further observations revealed more infected spiders in caves in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, all positioned in exposed areas of the roof or walls of the chambers, according to the study.

"Most spiders that are web-building spiders very much like to stay on their web. They’re built to be good inside of a web, but then they’re actually quite bad at walking around on the ground," said Dr. Jay Stafstrom, an expert on arachnid sensory ecology and postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

"The fact that a fungus can infect something and then behaviorally alter that animal so that it then helps the fungus spread, I think it’s just very intriguing," said Stafstrom, who was not part of the study.

The researchers said they are unsure of the exact mechanics and inner workings of the fungus. But the team hypothesizes the fungus lures the spiders out of their lairs where they are exposed to circulating air currents, which helps spread its spores, said Araújo, who is also an honorary research associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the United Kingdom.

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Meet The New Names Of Chinese Spacesuit and Rover

Chinese scientist and inventors continue to surge and break through several barries toward discovery and innovation. This time, they unveiled the official names for a spacesuit and rover to be used in the country's moon landing mission before the end of the decade.

The China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) announced last 12 February that the lunar extravehicular suit is named "Wangyu", which means "gazing into the cosmos." It echoes the name for the "Feitain" suit—meaning "flying into space"—currently used by Chinese astronauts to venture outside of the Tiangong space station in low Earth orbit.

Meanwhile, the unpressurized rover designed to carry two astronauts has been dubbed "Tansuo", meaning "to explore." The name reflects the lunar rover's mission and practical value in aiding the Chinese people to uncover the mysteries of the moon, which is in line with China's yearning to explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build itself into a space power, CMSA said in a statement.

The names were chosen following a public call for suggestions issued in September and October 2024. More than 9,000 submissions from people from all walks of life. Asides from the names, development of the hardware is proceeding well.

"The (crew lunar rover) prototype we made has completed experiments in a simulated lunar surface test site and has also carried out a large amount of experimental work in a field test site," Zhang Chongfeng, a spacecraft designer with CMSA, told China Central Television (CCTV). "Currently, the crew lunar rover has entered the prototype stage and is undergoing detailed design and subsequent engineering tests."

"During the early stages of development, we have mastered key technologies such as the manufacture of lightweight and smaller-sized moon-landing spacesuits, as well as comprehensive protection against complex environments," Zhang Wanxin, director of the spacesuit engineering office at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told CCTV. "We have now fully entered the prototype development stage, and are currently conducting comprehensive performance and function assessments and verifications of the prototype products."

China is targeting landing a pair of astronauts on the moon before 2030 and is already making progress on the various pieces of hardware needed to emulate a feat so far only achieved by the United States, such as the crew spacecraft, lander and a new launch vehicle.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 Is Breaking Reusability Record

The SpaceX has never stopped breaking its rocket-reuse record. It has done so again.

A Falcon 9 rocket launched 21 of the company's Starlink broadband satellites to orbit early this morning (15 February), rising off a pad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 1:14 A.M. EST (0614 GMT).

It was the 26th liftoff for the rocket's first stage, breaking a reuse mark that SpaceX set just last month. Fifteen of those 26 missions have sent Starlink satellites skyward, according to a company mission description.

The booster came back to Earth as planned today, touching down on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.

"Falcon 9 lands on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, completing the first 26th launch and landing of an orbital class rocket," SpaceX wrote in a post on X this morning that shared video of the descent and landing.

The Falcon 9's upper stage, meanwhile, deployed the 21 Starlink satelites, 13 of which have direct-to-cell capability, into low Earth orbit about 65 minutes after launch as planned.

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A Breakthrough In Solar Energy

A new tech startup company called SunHydrogen just demonstrated a working prototype of its product that promises a significant advancement in renewable energy.

SunHydrogen claims its unit can effectively turn water and sunlight into readily usable energy. The demonstration unit used nine modular solar panels in a square-meter array to produce hydrogen at a 10 percent ratio.

While other devices tend to use solar power to create an electrical current to separate hydrogen from water, SunHydrogen has been able to start the electrolysis process directly from the panels without needing an electrical conversion.

The company demonstrated the device working in freezing temperatures with overcast conditions in order to show its versatility. SunHydrogen is also angling to promote on-site production, so hydrogen needn't add to its environmental footprint due to transportation.

Hydrogen power has been a little contentious as a renewable power source.

It hinges on separating hydrogen from water, but doing so takes energy. If that energy comes from a dirty energy source, the resulting hydrogen isn't "green."

Hydrogen power is finding the most promise in aviation, where heavy batteries with limited power output make electric planes less practical. The possibility of producing green hydrogen at scale means more hope for lowered aviation pollution by switching off dirty energy.

As it stands, green hydrogen is still too expensive to produce.

With advancements in efficiency like this, green hydrogen may yet become economically viable. SunHydrogen isn't the only one banking on that progression. One startup has already landed a green hydrogen agreement with a major steel producer. So what's next for SunHydrogen?

"With this 1 m² demonstration under our belt, we can begin the site selection process for larger pilot demonstrations," said SunHydrogen Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Syed Mubeen. "Our next steps include continuously improving the technology, incorporating even more cost-effective materials without sacrificing efficiency, and scaling it to 25 m² and larger."

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New Vast Space Station Aims For 2026 Launch

New tech company Vast Space is taking big steps toward putting the first commercial space station in orbit.

The California-based startup recently completed a major testing milestone for the qualification vessel of its upcoming Haven-1 station, a benchmark Vast also used to reevaluate the launch date for the company's first flight-ready module.

"With the completion of our primary structure qualification test and a fully assembled team, we now have greater clarity on our build and launch schedule. As a result, we are updating our timeline," Vast said in a statement.

Haven-1 will ride a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to low-Earth orbit — a mission that was initially slated for this August. Now, Vast expects Haven-1 to launch no earlier than May 2026.

Even with the delay, it's still an "ambitious timeline," the company said. But Vast remains optimistic: "If all goes as planned, we will have designed, built, and launched the world’s first commercial space station in three years — a pace never before achieved in human spaceflight."

Vast began manufacturing the Haven-1 qualification article at its Long Beach headquarters in July 2024 and transported the module to the company's test stand in Mojave, California, last month. There, the module began a series of campaigns to qualify the module's structural integrity. Those campaigns are ongoing, but one passed recently was a significant hurdle for the module's continued development.

Using dry nitrogen, Vast pressurized the module on the test stand twice — the first for a duration of five hours, and the second for 48 hours. According to the company's data, Haven-1's pressure sensors showed an "indiscernible" leak rate, exceeding the vessel's requirements and falling within compliance for NASA's crew-rated spacecraft qualifications.

That last bit is important. Vast is hoping to win the bid for NASA's Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) contract in 2026, and wants to put itself ahead of the competition.

With the International Space Station (ISS) approaching retirement at the end of 2030, NASA has been eager for companies to get commercial space stations up and running. Indeed, nearly half a dozen other private contenders have voiced plans to construct their own LEO destinations — namely, Northrop Grumman, Axiom Space, Nanoracks and Sierra Space.

As those companies tread water while they gauge market demand or continue their station developments in the background, Vast says it's on track to get Haven-1 to orbit in record time, and has begun actively seeking out customers and scientists with research they want to fly to space.

In the weeks ahead, the test module will be submitted to simulated launch pressures using hydraulic actuators on the Mojave test stand, as well as undergo structural load tests while under pressure.

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Astronauts Ready For Super Bowl LIX?

On 9 February (Sunday), across the United States and around the world, Americans and American football fans will tune in to watch the top two teams in the National Football League (NFL) go head-to-head in the ultimate post-season game, and even astronauts living in space will have the chance to watch the action live.

Sunday evening, the American Football Conference (AFC) champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, will face off against the National Football Conference (NFC) champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, in Super Bowl LIX. Kickoff for the big matchup is scheduled for 6:30 P.M. ET (2330 GMT), with coverage provided by the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Many Americans will gather at watch parties and sports bars to cheer on their favorite team, contribute to the consumption of an estimated 1.4 billion chicken wings, and exercise general merriment for the occasion. And the watch parties don't have to be limited to Earth.

NASA will be providing a live uplink of the Super Bowl to the International Space Station (ISS), should the astronauts onboard "choose to stay up to watch it," a Johnson Space Center official told Space.com. For them, it will be extra late at night.

An astronaut's day aboard the ISS is not attuned to any time zone in the United States. The "international" in "International Space Station," means that astronauts of multiple nationalities are normally working aboard the space station together, and need to coordinate with mission control teams on opposite sides of the planet.

Another reason lies in the fact that the space station experiences a new sunrise every 45 minutes as it orbits the planet at 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour), so basing you sleep cycle on what daylight peeps through the station's windows would obviously be chaos.

As such, the ISS operates on Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This puts NASA astronauts aboard the station 5-6 hours ahead of mission control in Houston, Texas (depending on Daylight Savings Time). So, for any of NASA's astronaut cohort on orbit to watch the game, kickoff isn't actually until 11:30 P.M.

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There's Something Strange About This Super-Earth Planet

Scientists discovered a fascinating world in Milky Way.

They confirmed the existence of a rocky planet, called a "super-Earth," that's some six times as massive as Earth. While the world HD 20794 d is larger than our planetary home, it's relatively low-mass compared to the huge and inhospitable Jupiter-like gas giants out there. Importantly, it inhabits a compelling part of its solar system, a region called the habitable or "Goldilocks" zone, where liquid water could exist on a world's surface. (Earth, for example, orbits in this special area, where it's neither too hot, nor too cold.)

"For me, it was naturally a huge joy when we could confirm the planet's existence," Michael Cretignier, an exoplanet detection researcher at the University of Oxford who led the research, said in a statement.

Evidence for the initial detection, made in 2022, was thin: Cretignier needed more observations to conclusively prove HD 20794 d's existence. However, there's something unusual about this super-Earth.

Planets orbit their stars in elliptical, or oval, shapes, though these ovals tend to be almost circular (but still can't literally be called circles). Yet Cretignier notes HD 20794 d has a "peculiar orbit." It's highly elliptical, which means as the planet orbits its star, it moves from the inner edge to just beyond the outer edge of the habitable zone every year. This raises questions about its habitability, or likelihood that it harbors conditions that could support life as we know it.

The research was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The exoplanet team harnessed two decades of light observations captured by the HARPS and ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) instruments, located in the profoundly dark and dry Chilean mountains. These sensitive instruments detect minute gravitational effects an exoplanet has on its star. You can think of these effects as faint, almost imperceptible wobbles.

Although HD 20794 d still remains largely mysterious, it's possible that future exoplanet missions — such as NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory — a space telescope that would look for signs of life in the atmospheres of other worlds — will be able to closely investigate this intriguing super-Earth.

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