Blowhole blockage
It鈥檚 the David and Goliath story replayed as tragedy. Two pilot whales have been killed by sole fish 1000 times smaller. The fish were found stuck in the whales鈥� blowholes, probably trying to escape while being eaten (PLOS One, ).
One tiny leap
Time is out of joint. To keep the time according to Earth鈥檚 rotation in sync with that of atomic clocks, a 鈥渓eap second鈥� must be added to the year. But some think the update would be too expensive, so representatives at the World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva this month postponed a vote about whether to add the second until 2023.
Chimps retire
The last 50 research chimps belonging to the US National Institutes of Health are set to retire, following the NIH鈥檚 announcement that it will no longer back medical research on chimpanzees. No new proposals using chimps have been approved since June 2013.
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CubeSat boom
It鈥檚 the age of the CubeSat. Rocket firm United Launch Alliance has announced that these small, cheap and easy-to-build satellites will be getting a boost from 2017. The company is developing a standard carrier for its Atlas V rocket that will be capable of deploying up to 24 CubeSats every launch.
Jolie effect
The number of women having preventative double mastectomies has more than doubled in a year, according to records at one clinic in Manchester, UK (Breast Cancer Research, ). Researchers say the increase may be due to a raised awareness of cancer-associated BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, prompted by actor Angelina Jolie鈥檚 decision to talk publicly about her own preventative surgery in 2013.