David Attenborough turned 100 and a newly discovered Chilean wasp was named Attenboroughnculus tau in his honor. NASA’s Curiosity briefly had a nearly 30‑pound rock stick to its drill sleeve on April 29 but teams freed it by May 1. A camera and hydrophone at 260 m in Greenland documented 478 species and near‑daily narwhal sounds. NASA also released thousands of images from the Artemis II lunar flyaround.
Curiosity’s Drill Snags a 30‑lb Martian Slab; Arctic Seafloor Reveals 478 Species — Artemis II Photo Drop
A black and white image showing Curiosity's drill apparatus with a slab of rock stuck to it, with an expanse of rocky terrain all around - NASA/JPL-Caltech
It was a busy week for science: naturalist David Attenborough turned 100 and a newly discovered Chilean wasp was named in his honor, NASA's Curiosity rover had an unusual drilling mishap on Mars, researchers captured extensive video and sound from the Arctic seafloor, and NASA released thousands of images from the Artemis II lunar mission.
Attenborough Honored With New Wasp Species
To mark David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, scientists named a newly discovered Chilean wasp Attenboroughnculus tau. The wasp joins more than 50 other species that carry Attenborough’s name — a fitting tribute to his decades of public-facing natural history work.
Podolskiy et al.
Curiosity’s Drill Jammed by a Slab Nicknamed “Atacama”
On April 29, NASA’s Curiosity rover encountered a rare problem during a coring attempt: a roughly 1.5‑foot-wide slab of rock — informally nicknamed Atacama — became stuck to the fixed sleeve that surrounds the rover’s rotating drill bit. NASA estimated the slab weighed nearly 30 pounds, and imagery captured the stuck rock after the coring attempt.
"When the rover retracted its arm, the entire rock lifted out of the ground, suspended by the fixed sleeve that surrounds the rotating drill bit," NASA wrote in a blog post.
Initial vibration attempts failed to free the slab. Over the next two days the operations team combined several techniques — tilting the drill more, rotating and vibrating the tool, and spinning the bit — and by May 1 the rock separated and fell away, fragmenting on release. Curiosity has now resumed its sampling campaign, delivering powdered rock to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry & Mineralogy (CheMin) instruments for analysis.
NASA
Arctic Seafloor: 478 Species and Persistent Narwhal Vocalizations
Researchers deployed a video camera and hydrophone at a depth of 260 meters in Inglefield Bredning, northwest Greenland, for a week in August 2025. The study, published in PLOS One, documented 478 distinct organisms — including comb jellies, arrowworms, snailfish and shrimp — and recorded narwhal vocalizations on every day except one.
Footage shows striking behaviors, such as a snailfish passively drifting backward on a current, extensive "marine snow" (organic detritus falling from upper waters), the sounds of cracking and melting ice, and distant boat engines. The authors suggest compact, low-cost video-and-hydrophone moorings could help close the gap in direct underwater Arctic ecological observations.
Artemis II Image Archive Released
NASA published thousands of images from the recent Artemis II mission around the Moon. The archive contains close and wide views of the Moon as well as compelling shots of Earth and the Milky Way. While the agency’s browsing interface is functional rather than sleek, the imagery offers rewarding views for those willing to explore the catalog.
Other Quick Notes
- A government office launched a new UFO-focused website that currently contains limited content.
- A recent study found that bans on cellphones in U.S. schools did not produce measurable improvements in student test scores.
If you want to dive deeper: check the NASA updates for Curiosity and Artemis II, and the PLOS One paper for detailed Arctic footage and analysis.
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