This Week in Science: Jupiter Meets Venus, Seahorse Tails, and the Scent of a Rose

(The Week of June 29, 2015)

Seven days, lots of science in the news. Here’s our roundup of some of the week’s most notable and quotable items:

Researchers unlocked the genetic secrets behind the sweet scent of roses.

The New Horizons spacecraft drew ever closer to Pluto, beaming back color images showing enigmatic dark spots 300 miles across along the planet’s equator.

In the Amazon, many birds follow roving bands of noisy monkeys around; the primate parade flushes out tasty insects and also scares away predators.

New memories, a new study suggests, can be linked to individual neurons in the brain.

A SpaceX unmanned cargo craft blew up on its way to the International Space Station, destroying an experiment created by high school students—for the second time.

The seahorse’s tail is square to better resist damage and offer a better grip than a round tail.

A new study that compares spates of mass shootings to contagious diseases finds that 20 to 30 percent of mass killings in the United States are directly influenced by other shootings that make headlines.

A rare conjunction of Jupiter and Venus lit up the night sky.

We have an evolutionary arms race between plants and caterpillars to thank for flavorful condiments like mustard, horseradish, and wasabi.

NASA is developing a boomerang-shaped unmanned glider to help us explore the surface of Mars.

It took up to three years for saber-toothed cats to grow their iconic canine teeth.

Physicists are baffled by the weird black crystal samarium hexaboride, which seems to straddle the line between metallic and insulating materials.