Solar sail is late bloomer
More than a month after NASA鈥檚 NanoSail-D solar sail was supposed to deploy from its mothership, it finally 鈥� and unexpectedly 鈥� flew the nest last week. In a few months, the 9-square-metre sail will be pulled towards Earth by atmospheric drag before burning up in our atmosphere, showing a way to clear space junk.
Heat fuels obesity
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An upward trend in domestic central heating temperatures in rich countries may have stoked obesity by making brown fat, the body鈥檚 natural 鈥渞adiator鈥�, redundant. US bedroom temperatures rose from 19.3 to 20.2 掳C between 1987 and 2005, mirroring a rise in obesity (Obesity Reviews, ).
E-health record woes
Electronic health records have done little to improve the quality of healthcare in the US. Randall Stafford at Stanford University studied their use between 2005 and 2007 and found they had made little difference to care quality 鈥� perhaps because medics lack the training needed to make best use of them.
One-fingered dinosaur
Palaeontologists have unearthed a distant cousin of T. rex in China. The parrot-sized Linhenykus monodactylus had just one stubby finger at the end of each arm 鈥� the only dinosaur found with this adaptation. It may have been used to dig for food (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ).
Cuban invasion
Two invasive frog species known in Florida since the mid-1800s originated from Cuba, an analysis of their DNA has shown. The greenhouse frog and the Cuban tree frog probably used the Florida Keys as a stepping stone into temperate Florida (Biology Letters, ).