Glowing Amphibians, Extreme Weather Satellites, and More News

Frogs are reflecting and satellites are detecting, but first: a cartoon about self-driving without a license.

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Today’s News

Amphibians glow. Humans just couldn’t see it—until now

New research in Scientific Reports reveals that amphibians actually glow, and always have—scientists just couldn’t see it. You can’t go outside and enjoy this phenomenon in regular daylight though; you need a specific kind of blue light that amphibian skin absorbs only to emit a completely different color back—usually an electric green. Researchers looked at 32 different amphibian species and found every single one of them glows. Now all scientists have to do is figure out why.

Extreme weather-tracking satellites prepare for launch

Extreme weather requires extreme satellites to track it, and that’s exactly what a new generation of satellites is aiming to do. A set of four new GOES satellites—or Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites—can track everything from plumes of volcanic ash to space weather. These sats can detect nearly every bolt of lightning in the western hemisphere, and the first of the $10.8 billion fleet, which launched in 2016, collected more data in six months than all 15 previous GOES satellites over the last 40 years. Another launched in 2018, and two more are slated to be sent to the skies in 2021 and 2024.

Fast Fact: 2.8 Million

That’s how many images from the Smithsonian’s archive have now been released to the public domain. The Smithsonian is not the first organization to do this, but the move stands out not only for the breadth of the collection but for the institution’s permissiveness. You can download all of these images and models for free, and use them however you want—no strings attached.

WIRED Recommends: Pet Cameras

Check in on your sweet home-alone pet and even feed them treats from afar with one of these pet cameras.

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