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China plays nice

China has announced its intention to train astronauts from other countries and share its expertise in space. The country has launched five crewed missions to date and plans to build a working space station by 2020. Cooperating with other nations might mean two international outposts orbiting Earth by the end of the decade.

World’s thinnest glass

A pane just one molecule thick is officially the world’s thinnest sheet of glass, according to the Guinness World Records. ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵs accidentally discovered the glass in 2012 when they noticed a layer of silicon and oxygen atoms on top of a sheet of graphene (Nano Letters, ). The ultra-thin glass might one day be used in transistors.

Going down in Japan

For the second time in two years, Japan has no nuclear power. Its last operating reactor was for safety checks. The country previously went without nuclear energy for two months last year. The latest outage may last until the end of the year.

Going up in Japan

Epsilon, Japan’s newest rocket, finally launched on 16 September, having had its original launch cancelled seconds before lift-off in August. Its cargo – Sprint-A – is the first space telescope designed to study planets from afar. Epsilon can be launched with fewer people in mission control than normal, helping to slash launch costs by $38 million.

Phew, what a corker!

The musty aroma of corked wine was thought to stem from the smell of chemical contaminant TCA. In fact, a study in newts reveals that TCA actually suppresses mechanisms for odour perception in olfactory cells, thereby reducing sense of smell, together with the flavour of your favourite tipple (PNAS, ).