Slithering snakes: The science behind the motion of a young anaconda
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 12-Sep-2025 18:11 ET (12-Sep-2025 22:11 GMT/UTC)
Harvard scientists have described a particular movement observed mostly in young, teenaged anacondas, called an S-start. A mathematical model shows that young anacondas, as opposed to babies and adults, exist in a “goldilocks zone” of relative weight and strength to allow them to execute the movement.
Chemists have discovered for the first time a unique way to control and modify a type of compound widely used in medicines, including a drug used to treat breast cancer.
Astronomers using the European Space Agency’s Cheops mission have caught an exoplanet that seems to be triggering flares of radiation from the star it orbits. These tremendous explosions are blasting away the planet’s wispy atmosphere, causing it to shrink every year.
This is the first-ever evidence for a ‘planet with a death wish’. Though it was theorised to be possible since the nineties, the flares seen in this research are around 100 times more energetic than expected.