Today, we examine the ruins of the Odysseion, welcome a newly identified monkey, answer a reader’s question about space dust and watch a robot inspired by diving birds take flight. Plus: the most read science article this week and a quiz. The worshipers of Odysseus
For nearly 3,000 years, Homer’s “The Odyssey” has reigned as literature’s ultimate road trip. It has at least 60 translations into English alone and more than three dozen film interpretations, including Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster version, which hits theaters worldwide on Friday. Was Odysseus, the crafty monarch who dreamed up the Trojan horse, a flesh-and-blood ruler? Or just a figment of Homer’s imagination? A must-see monkey
Blurry photos are often held up as supposed evidence of elusive creatures like Nessie and Bigfoot. But the subject of a fuzzy photo taken nearly two decades ago in remote forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo — a strange, orange-faced monkey — has turned out to be the real deal. Now, it has officially been recognized as a new species, only the fifth new African monkey described in the past 75 years. “This is a big deal for sure. To find a relatively large-bodied primate that we’ve never seen before is really amazing.” — Joshua Linder, a co-founder and president of the Forest Collective, a conservation nonprofit, who was not involved with the study. Your questions, answeredOur understanding of the Milky Way just got a little bit sweeter: This week, scientists announced that they had spotted sugar in interstellar space for the first time. Below, we answer one reader’s question. This is tangential, but every article relating to cosmic events makes reference to “gases and dust.” I’ll leave the gases aside for now. But what is the “dust”? It just seems like a scientific cop-out when speculating about cosmic events. — John, N.Y. The dust is far from uniform across space. The amount of those components varies between nebulae, in different galaxies, and at different phases of star and planetary formation or ages of the star system. So finding sugar in all that dust provides scientists with another possible ingredient in the origins of carbon-based life. — Rebecca Dzombak Do you have a question you’d like the Science desk to answer? Send it to sciencenewsletter@nytimes.com. Inspired by a puffin
Scientists have hoped for years to emulate the movements of diving birds, such as puffins, to create robots that can quietly dip in and out of the water. But building a robot that is as capable in the water as it is in the sky is a complex engineering challenge. Now, a team of researchers at M.I.T. have made a waterproof winged robot with all the right moves.
One more thingTEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE This quiz question comes from an article featured in Tuesday’s Science Times newsletter. Click an answer to see if you’re right. (The link will be free.) Imagine a lawn sprinkler submerged underwater, with water being sucked into its arms instead of sprayed out. Does the sprinkler: Rotate in the same direction as before. Spin in the opposite direction.
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