What is the best way to shed water? Researchers writing in the journal Nature recently published some amazing water-repelling results that mimic butterfly wings’ tiny scales.¹ These insects’ wings resist water with a marvelous efficiency that could inspire better design in everything from textiles to windfarms and even aircraft engines.

Researchers are now suggesting that iron embedded in blood proteins preserved the still-soft tissues, cells, and molecules discovered inside dinosaurs and other fossils after the creatures were buried in sediments. The ability to justify millions of years is at stake, and this study promises to do just that. What are its merits and demerits?

Scientists age-dated a cache of stone-tipped throwing spears unearthed from Ethiopia's Gademotta Formation at 280,000 years old. This find appears to pierce the conventional story of human evolution—a narrative about modern man evolving from some pre-human type only 200,000 years ago. How will this date discrepancy be resolved?