Science Daily

• Scientists discover why snake embryos twist into spirals

  Snake embryos begin life curled into a distinctive right-handed spiral, and scientists may finally know why. Their bodies grow faster than their guts, creating a tether that forces the lengthening embryo to buckle and twist inside the egg. Researchers reached the conclusion after studying more than 900 embryos and using CT scans to reveal the hidden anatomy behind the coils.

• One of Earth’s driest places was just covered in snow

  Rare storms covered huge stretches of Chile’s Atacama Desert in snow and dumped extraordinary amounts of rain on one of the driest regions on Earth. The extreme weather shut down observatories, triggered damaging floods and mudflows, and unfolded against the backdrop of a strengthening El Niño.

• A massive plume deep beneath Africa is pulling the continent apart

  A vast plume rising from deep inside Earth may be responsible for mysterious movements along the East African Rift. The discovery reveals how forces deep in the mantle are working alongside shallower geological forces as the continent slowly pulls apart.

• Fossil feet may be misleading scientists about human evolution

  Wild monkeys in West Africa can climb vertical tree trunks using foot flexibility scientists did not realize they possessed. The discovery challenges a key assumption about what the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees looked like and how it moved.

• Hundreds of hidden earthquakes found at Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier

  Hundreds of previously overlooked seismic events have been detected beneath Antarctica, including 245 near the marine edge of the Thwaites Glacier. Many appear to be glacial earthquakes caused when huge icebergs break off, capsize, and collide with the glacier. The surge in activity coincided with a period when Thwaites was flowing faster toward the ocean, hinting that changing ocean conditions may be destabilizing the ice.