This Week in Science: Tramp Stamps, Moon Missions, and Edible Drones

It’s time for “Nerd News,” covering the most important news for your brain. Here’s a quick rundown of this week in science . . .

1.  The Artemis 1 moon mission launched Wednesday morning.  It’s unmanned, so no astronauts on board.  And it won’t land on the moon, just orbit it and come home.  But it’s step one in sending people back there, hopefully in 2025.

(Here’s a photo of Earth it sent back nine hours later.)

2.  A team at NASA thinks this is why aliens haven’t made contact:  Complex civilizations just tend to destroy themselves before they can reach out.  (Fun!)

3.  In more optimistic space news:  Scientists in Bulgaria think “wormholes” exist, basically shortcuts through space.  And we may have already detected them without realizing it.  The theory is they’re almost identical to black holes.

4.  In tattoo news:  Even women in ancient Egypt got lower back tattoos, a.k.a. “tramp stamps.”  Now researchers think pregnant women and midwives got them, maybe as a sort of good luck charm for childbirth.

5.  And in survival news:  A team in Switzerland invented edible drones with wings made of rice cakes.  You’d fly a few in if someone got stranded, and they could eat them.  Each drone is 300 calories.