The brightest take on this week’s science

As if the tail of a peacock could get any more flamboyant.

Scientists have now discovered yellow-green lasers shooting from the ‘eyes’ of their feathers.

These aren’t vaporizing beams of light that can cut a bird in half or anything. We would have probably noticed that during a courtship display…

The lasers we’re talking about are completely harmless.

The term stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

Essentially, that means if you shine a light on some materials and the atoms excite one another, it can release a flood of photons, producing a faint glow.

Biological lasers like these can be found in butterfly wings and marine mammals. But this is the first time scientists have observed the effect in the feathers of peacocks.

Even the greatest show-offs in the world have a secret or two up their sleeves.

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In October of 2017, a crack of lightning sent a jagged flash of electricity streaking across the Great Plains of North America.

For 829 kilometers (515 miles), the horizontal scribble of light traveled unencumbered through the stormy night sky, from Texas all the way to Kansas.

That’s nearly the entire length of the island of Great Britain, north to south.

Officially, this is the longest bolt of lighting on record.

• Most lightning bolts are vertical and less than 10 miles long.

• The ones that travel horizontal can go for much longer, but they are often obscured by clouds.

• Thanks to satellites we can now watch these megaflashes in all their glory…

… from a safe distance, of course.

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A) Dried paint
B) Pastry
C) Tree bark
D) Dandruff

Answer at the bottom.

It takes two to tango, but when it comes to contraception, the responsibility is disproportionately shouldered by one sex.

A new form of male birth control could help share the load.

In the first human tests, the novel drug proved both safe and effective at temporarily reducing sperm count.

The medicine doesn’t rely on artificial hormones or affect testosterone production, which means the side effects are limited.

Importantly, the impact to fertility is fully reversible when the drug is stopped.

The last time a fresh male contraceptive hit the market was in the 1980s. That’s when scientists figured out how to do a minimally invasive vasectomy.

It’s about time we had more options.

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The duck-billed platypus is an absolute weirdo. This warm-blooded, egg-laying, venom-producing oddity has genes that are part-bird, part-reptile, and part-mammal.

Its reproduction is so mysterious, no one has ever documented seeing one lay an egg. Even during controlled studies, scientists have never witnessed the literal moment the egg enters the world.

They just seem to appear out of nowhere. Even hatching is an adorable rarity.

Find some time to breathe this weekend.

Microscope answer: Dandruff.

Mammals aren’t the only animals dealing with dry, flaky scalps. Birds can get dandruff too, and long ago, so could dinosaurs. In 2018, scientists discovered a 125-million-year-old dinosaur fossil containing the oldest dandruff ever discovered. 🦕