August 2025

SUTD’s maple seed-inspired monocopter achieves a record 26-minute flight with a single rotor. Lightweight, efficient, and simple, it offers promising uses in environmental monitoring and research. The project reflects a 10-year journey from large endurance drones to compact, power-efficient designs.

On July 24, 2025, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured an image of a small, coral-shaped rock in Gale Crater using its ChemCam Remote Micro Imager. The light-colored, 1-inch (2.5 cm) formation likely formed billions of years ago when mineral-rich water seeped into tiny fractures in the rock, leaving behind hardened mineral veins after evaporation. Over time, relentless Martian winds sandblasted the surrounding material, revealing the rock’s intricate, branching structure. While its appearance closely resembles marine coral, scientists stress it is a geological artifact—known as a pseudofossil—rather than evidence of life. The discovery reinforces mounting evidence that ancient Mars had abundant liquid water and could have supported microbial life. Since landing in 2012, Curiosity has explored Gale Crater’s layered terrain, uncovering clues to the Red Planet’s wet history and its potential habitability in the distant past.

The habitable zone, or “Goldilocks zone”, is the region around a star where conditions allow liquid water to exist. Varying with star type, this zone is key in the search for life. Earth’s location in the Sun’s habitable zone has made life possible, and astronomers seek similar rocky exoplanets in other systems to explore the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

A 3D-printed robot crab named “Wavy Dave” was deployed among real fiddler crabs in Portugal to mimic mating displays. The study revealed surprising reactions—rival males waved longer, avoided conflict with larger claws, and even attacked the robot. These findings offer new insights into how crabs adjust their courtship behavior in response to perceived competition in dynamic environments.