This week, researchers reported the world's second-tiniest toad, winning the silver in the Brachycephalus contest. Chemists at UCLA disproved a 100-year-old organic chemistry rule. And researchers in Kenya report that elephants don't like bees, which could be a conservation boon (for the elephants. And maybe also the bees?). Additionally, scientists addressed an old thought experiment about monkeys and the theater, physicists correlated dark energy with the black hole population in the universe, and a group of Antarctic seals were found to be highly strategic and also adorable:

Africa's Sahara Desert may be considered a vast expanse of barren sand with limited vegetation, an extreme environment for plants and animals to thrive, but life always finds a way. Indeed, vegetation growth in the desert has waxed and waned over millennia, with periods of enhanced growth termed "greening."

A team of materials scientists, medical researchers and engineers affiliated with a large number of institutions across Australia has developed a new way to conduct digital light manufacturing that overcomes problems with current methods. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes their new technique, how it works and ways it might be used.

The fastest animal on land is the cheetah, capable of reaching top speeds of 104 kilometers per hour. In the water, the fastest animals are yellowfin tuna and wahoo, which can reach speeds of 75 and 77 km per hour respectively. In the air, the title of the fastest level flight (excluding diving) goes to the white-throated needletail swift, at more than 112 km per hour.

New studies about the Thwaites Glacier, also called the "Doomsday Glacier," have sparked a conversation about geoengineering as a climate change solution.

A team of researchers led by Duke University, the University of California San Francisco, and the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope have engineered odorant receptors to reveal the molecular basis of odor discrimination.

A team of biochemists at the University of California, San Diego, working with a group of biochemical engineers from the University of California, Los Angeles, has found that the development of short lipids might have led to the development of the first cell membranes on early Earth.

Increased land management by Aboriginal people in southeastern Australia around 6,000 years ago cut forest shrub cover in half, according to our new study published in Science of fossil pollen trapped in ancient mud.

A study published in the journal One Earth explores how marine biodiversity conservation, human health and well-being are connected. The results suggest that marine protected areas can be good for both planet and people.

Cratons are fascinating yet enigmatic geological formations. Known to be relatively stable portions of the Earth's continental crust, cratons have remained largely unchanged for billions of years. Although cratons have survived many geological events, some are undergoing decratonization—a process characterized by their deformation and eventual destruction.