As World Environment Day is celebrated around the globe on 5 June, new reef manta ray research led by the University of the Sunshine Coast offers hope for the future of a species listed as vulnerable to extinction.

Minute warty birch caterpillars ardently defend their leaf tip homes from invading caterpillars, but how do they defend against lethal ladybeetle attacks? Jayne Yack reports in Journal of Experimental Biology that the tiny day-old caterpillars are able to distinguish between the footsteps of approaching adult ladybeetles and shuffling caterpillar attackers, allowing the defending caterpillar to evade deadly ladybeetle attacks by first falling silent and then by hurling themselves from the leaf on a silken safety thread.

In hopes of preventing home-exercise injuries and extending the expert guidance of coaches, researchers from Drexel University and Michigan State University have developed a prototype of a program that uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to analyze video and provide form coaching in real time.

A recent study identified hundreds of counties in the South where HIV prevention and health care may not be keeping pace with the local needs, leaving communities without resources to address the persistent problem.

Scientists at the SETI Institute searched for technological signals from 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object observed in our Solar System. Using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California, the team scanned a wide range of radio frequencies for signs of extraterrestrial technology and found none, as expected based on other astronomical observations showing that the object exhibits natural comet-like composition and behavior.

“Eventually, our own Voyager spacecraft will be extraterrestrial artifacts in other stellar systems,” said Dr. Sofia Sheikh, lead author on the paper. “Given that, it is important that we understand the natural distribution of interstellar objects so that we will be able to identify any anomalies that could one day be signs of an artificial interstellar object.”

The team observed 3I/ATLAS for more than seven hours with the ATA, covering 1 to 9 gigahertz. This broad range allows scientists to search for narrowband radio signals, which are not produced by in nature and would be evidence of technology.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo and Yokohama City University have discovered an unexpected transport principle in artificial nanoscale molecular gates. Using self-assembled nanocubes with dynamic pores, they found that linear hydrocarbon molecules pass through the gates faster as the molecules become longer—opposite to ordinary macroscopic intuition. The study reveals that molecular transport is controlled not only by pore size but also by pore fluctuations and transient interactions at the outer surface of the gate.