‘Large'-eyed river creature with bumpy lips discovered as a new species in China
In a river of southern China, an 'elongated' creature with pink fins swam through the waters. Its 'large' eyes scanned the watery world, but it wasn't the only one looking around.
Passing scientists caught the aquatic animal — and discovered a new species.
A team of researchers visited several streams in Guangxi province in 2005 and 2024 as part of a project to survey aquatic ecosystems, according to a study published June 2 in the peer-reviewed journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.
During their surveys, researchers found several 'unique'-looking fish, the study said. They took a closer look at the fish, analyzed its DNA and realized they'd discovered a new species: Traccatichthys punctulatus, or the spotted stone loach.
Spotted stone loaches have 'elongated' bodies, reaching about 3 inches in length, the study said. They are 'completely covered with small scales and embedded under (the) skin.' Their heads have 'blunt' snouts, bumpy lips, 'large' eyes and whisker-like barbels.
A photo shows the yellow-gray coloring of the new species. Its fins are 'pale pink,' and its sides have 'bright green stripes.' Researchers said they named the new species after the Latin word for ''spot' or 'point'' because of the 'numerous spots' along its body.
Much about the lifestyle of spotted stone loaches remains unknown.
So far, spotted stone loaches have only been found 'in streams on the western slope of Dayao mountains in Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County,' a region of Guangxi province in southern China
The new species was identified by its DNA, coloring and other subtle physical features, the study said.
The research team included Zhi-Xian Qin, Jia-Jun Zhou, Li-Na Du and Feng Lin.
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The British military base preparing for war in space
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It is now home to the UK Space Operations Centre, opened officially by government ministers this week. The RAF base is the former headquarters of Bomber Command, a military unit responsible for strategic bombing during the Second World War. With its winding streets, faux church towers and manor house office blocks, it was designed to look like a quintessential Home Counties village, should the Luftwaffe be passing over. The Bomber Command motto 'Strike Hard, Strike Sure' has been replaced with Space Command's 'Ad Stellas Usque' – Latin for 'up to the stars'. While Bomber Harris's team had its eyes fixed firmly on the ground, Space Command's are turned skywards. Maria Eagle, minister for defence procurement, who helped open the operations centre this week, said: 'From a national security point of view, space is a contested and congested and competitive domain, and we need to make sure, as our adversaries advance their capabilities, that we're able to deal with what that throws up.' She added: 'It's an extension of the more earthbound worries that we've got. The usual kind of things that you worry about on Earth, it's just extended upwards, because that's now a domain that is as important as land, sea or air to the potential of war-fighting or defending national security. 'The National Space Operations Centre does vital work in monitoring and protecting our interests. It's a recognition of the fact that our adversaries are active there, and we need to know what's going on.' Although the United States performed the first anti-satellite tests in 1959, space warfare has largely been consigned to Hollywood and science fiction until recently. Fears began to ramp up in January 2007, when China shot down one of its own ageing weather satellites with a ballistic missile creating a cloud of space junk, which is still causing problems. In November 2021, Russia conducted its own direct-ascent anti-satellite test, destroying the Soviet intelligence satellite Kosmos-1408, and generating a debris field that forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter. However it is not just anti-satellite missiles that are causing concern. According to the latest Space Threat Assessment, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, nations are developing evermore elaborate space weapons. These weapons include electro-magnetic pulses, microwaves and lasers to fry electronics, dazzlers to blind optical sensors, and grapplers to latch on to satellites and pull them out of orbit. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea all have the capability of jamming and hijacking satellite signals and launching cyber attacks. A 10-second delay in Google Chrome loading may seem like a domestic internet glitch, but bad actors could also be behind it, Space Command has warned. Space Command is particularly worried about China, which in the past year has launched increasingly advanced and highly-manoeuvrable satellites for purposes that remain unclear. CSIS believes Beijing may be creating a 'formidable on-orbit counter-space arsenal' and that manoeuvrability testing is allowing Chinese operators to develop 'tactics and procedures that can be used for space war-fighting'. US Space force commanders have also warned that Chinese satellites have been spotted 'dogfighting' in space, moving within less than a mile of each other. 'China continues to develop and field a broad set of counter-space capabilities,' a member of Space Command told The Telegraph. 'It's certainly one of the more capable adversaries. Space is no longer a sanctuary, it's a space of contest. It's the modern battlefield.' Russia's Luch satellites have also been spotted stalking European communications and broadcast satellites, moving close to their orbits for reasons not fully understood. 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‘A trip of a lifetime:' Fallen American soldiers honored in French ceremony
A soldier with the 28th Division stands amid the ruins of Gathemo, France, in August 1944. (Screenshot from National Archives film) Shaun Nadolny is finally making the trip from Wisconsin to visit his great-uncle's grave in the Brittany American Cemetery in France. Last in a two-part series on Pennsylvania's 28th Division and a new memorial to soldiers who were killed in the fight to liberate Gathemo, France. Read the first part here. Tradition holds that for visiting family members, staff will place moistened sand on the engraving on the marker for Jerome Nadolny, who was killed in the fierce fighting around Gathemo, a small village in Normandy, using a wet sponge. The process brings the name out on the marble Latin cross, so it can easily be seen from 15 to 20 feet away. An American and French flag – standing about knee high – will be placed in front of the grave. Traditionally, the U.S. marker is symbolically on the right side – as if it were in the soldier's right hand and facing home. The French will be on the left – always toward inland territory. Then, he and his cousin, Kurt, will travel to Gathemo, where nine soldiers of the 28th Division, including three from Pennsylvania, lost their lives as the Allies pushed inland from the beaches of Normany to liberate Europe. They'll be the sole American relatives of the fallen soldiers who will be on hand for a ceremony Saturday honoring their sacrifice during the fight for the town 81 summers ago. The gathering will include the dedication of a plaque and memorial and a renaming of a street in honor of the 28th Division, a Pennsylvania National Guard unit before the war. The trip is the culmination of an improbable sequence of events that began when Nadolny went in search of the war history of a long-lost great-uncle. Nadolny admits to feeling a little pressure, because he doesn't want to let his family down or any of the other families. 'I know it's going to be a heavy experience for me personally. I wish I could share this with my dad,' he said. 'It was on my bucket list to just go to that cemetery, but now to actually go to the cemetery? It's obviously a trip of a lifetime, right?' Visitors to Normandy will notice Allied flags – American, British, and Canadian – hanging not just on poles, but in windows and on doors in village after village. This isn't just a phenomenon that happens in the typical tourist areas around the landing beaches or landmarks made famous in the 1962 movie, The Longest Day, or the HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers. The Battle of Normandy stretched beyond what happened on June 6, 1944. Allied troops applied relentless pressure in an effort to push the German occupiers back. The clash lasted for more than two months, as it became a war of attrition. Allied troops had to constantly resupply the front lines, while the enemy dealt with losses – in terms of men and machines – it simply couldn't replace In the end, the Allies suffered 210,000 casualties,while the Germans dealt with losses of 400,000 men. Town and after town touched by the Battle of Normandy has its own monuments or historical markers to pilots whose downed aircraft crashed nearby, soldiers who died in their streets or units that helped liberate them. In Periers for example, The Four Braves memorial honors the 90th Infantry Division — which liberated the town as part of Operation Cobra. This was a piece of the successful U.S. breakout — which played a big role in the rapid collapse of the Germans' defense in Normandy. Two Pennsylvanians who lost their lives — Private 2nd Class Andrew J. Speese III of Philadelphia and Sgt. Tullio Micaloni of Oneida — are immortalized as part of the memorial. One tour group recounted how in the town of La Haye du Puits, a man noticed they were Americans. He hurried home and later found the group at a restaurant eating lunch. He excitedly, in French, described what it was like as a boy in the summer of 1944 to see his home liberated. As his story was translated, he pulled a piece of silk parachute from his jacket — given to him by a U.S. soldier. He simply wanted to share his gratitude for the sacrifice made by the Allies. Even in 2025, people in Normandy's villages and towns still think there is history to be acknowledged and a debt owed. Gathemo, with a population of 267, will join the others Saturday, with a permanent 'thank you.' Over several days in early August, 1944, the 28th attacked German troops occupying the town. Progress was slow, measured in a few hundred yards at times, but by the afternoon Aug. 10, the 28th had liberated Gathemo. The division's losses were nine men killed, including three from Pennsylvania, and an estimated 235 wounded. 'For those few who bring up the Battle of Gathemo in some remote barroom in years to come – there will always be a lifting of glasses to our buddies whom we left behind in the orchards and wheat fields of that hallowed ground!' – From The Bloody Patch: A True Story of the Daring 28th Infantry Division – – From The Bloody Patch: A True Story of the Daring 28th Infantry Division The 77-day Battle of Normandy came to an end on Aug. 19, after tens of thousands of German troopers were captured when the Falaise pocket was closed by Allied troops. A mere 10 days after that, the men of the 28th Division were in Paris, taking part in the liberation day parade through the city. Located nearly 90 minutes from the English Channel and Omaha Beach, Mayor Christelle Errard describes Gathemo as having all the hallmarks of a quaint Norman community – a bakery, a bar, gift shops and five farms. The church, destroyed in the fight, was rebuilt after the war and features a pointed bell tower. According to the mayor, the granite used for the altar and the cross came from Gathemo's quarries. The town's role in the Allied push to encircle and destroy part of the German Army in the final weeks and days of the clash has largely been forgotten – overshadowed by the fight in Mortain and Saint-Lambert-sur-Dives, among others. Errard became mayor of Gathemo in July of 2020 and has lived in the community for a decade. She was born in another historically significant part of France – Verdun. It's the site of one the longest and most ferocious battles of the First World War. 'We have a mission in our world: to listen to our history, to transcribe it, so as not to forget Our duty to remember is here. And the witnesses of this period will soon all be gone. I also understood that many don't want to share what they experienced,' she wrote in an email exchange using Google Translate to go from French to English. 'My father never spoke about this period when he was 6-years-old, yet four years ago, on his deathbed, he relived the scenes he had witnessed.' Now, she said, it's Gathemo's turn to pay tribute to the young Americans who fought to liberate Europe. 'Many returned home with physical and mental injuries, but many, like Pvt. Nadolny, did not return to their families,' Errard wrote. 'My son will be 23 in June, the same age Pvt. Nadolny was when he lost his life in Gathemo, for Gathemo. I cannot remain indifferent. The tribute is small, but I hope it is the beginning of another story for Gathemo and all the people who will stop and pay their respects at this memorial.' The monument with the names of the nine men killed will be located close to the back of the church in Gathemo. It will be on a granite stone with an M1 helmet featuring the division logo placed on top. A plaque honoring the entire division will be dedicated, and a street will be renamed in honor of the 28th Division, which, according to unit lore was nicknamed the 'Bloody Bucket' by the Germans because of the red keystone patches worn on their uniforms. The Mike Pride Museum in Normandy covered the 1,800 Euro price tag. 'Dear American friends, there are no words strong enough to express our gratitude and respect,' Errard said. 'I would like to say BRAVO and THANK YOU.' Two men who were just children at the time of the battle will be on hand for the ceremony – 87-year-old Guy Lelandais and 80-year-old Michele Golonde. Errard says for Lelandais, whose cousin was killed by an exploding shell in front of his eyes, preserving the history of the liberation of his hometown has been a lifelong passion. He has – collecteding testimonies from around the region. Galonde was just six months old when the 28th Division pushed the Germans out of Gathemo, hiding in a cellar with his family, according to Gerrard. His older sister was in front of the baby carriage he was in when a shell exploded – wounding her in the leg, which left her permanently disabled. But as fate would have it, she likely saved Galonde's life because of where she was standing. Nadolny plans to have dinner with the mayor and hopes to shake Lelandais' hand and ask him what he remembers about the fight to free the town. 'I mean sincerely, we are so thankful…my family and I are almost just unbelievably thankful,' he said. '(Jerome) was a blue-collar soldier that gave everything and moved us along, So to me, that's what it's about. A lot of forgotten stories. So, if we can share a little bit of it or be a part of it, I think it's incredible.' The commemoration is a reminder that 'freedom has a cost and that true friendship endures,' Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a letter to the event organizers. 'More than 80 years ago, the sons of Pennsylvania crossed an ocean to stand in defense of liberty and peace, forging a bond of courage and shared sacrifice. The soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division fought with extraordinary bravery, with some making the ultimate sacrifice,' Shapiro said. 'The people of Gathemo have, across generations, honored the legacy of these brave men not only with gratitude, but with a deep and enduring partnership that continues to unite our communities. Pennsylvania is proud of the heritage of the 28th Infantry Division and of the shared history we hold with our friends in Gathemo.' The ceremony is set to begin Saturday, June 7, at 5 a.m. EST and will be livestreamed on the Mike Pride Museum YouTube channel: If you missed part one, read about the battle of Gathemo and the effort to track down the families of the men who died to liberate the town. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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ispace's Resilience spacecraft lands on the moon this week: Here's how to see the landing zone on the lunar surface
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. ISpace's private Resilience Lander will attempt to touch down on the Mare Frigoris region of the moon's surface on June 5, at 3:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT). While you won't be able to see the lander itself from Earth, you can spot its landing zone on the lunar surface — here's how. Mare Frigoris —Latin for the "Sea of Cold" — formed billions of years ago when lava flooded a colossal network of impact basins left behind by brutal asteroid strikes. These vast reservoirs of lava swiftly cooled to form dark scars on the lunar surface that we see today. The Sea of Cold occupies an 18,000 square kilometer (6,950 square mile) swathe of the surface close to the moon's north polar region, though its average depth of just 124 miles (200 km) can make it tricky to pick out with the naked eye. The Japanese-built Resilience lander is aiming to touch down 60.5 degrees north the the lunar equator, with a longitude of 4.6 degrees west, placing it close to Mare Frigoris center, according to the spacecraft's creator ispace. Resilience is far too small to be seen from Earth, but its approximate landing site on the lunar surface is easily identifiable, if you know where to look. In the nights surrounding June 5, look toward the southeastern sky — the moon will become more visible after sunset. A pair of 10x50 binoculars will help you find the slender form of Mare Frigoris darkening the northern region of the moon's surface, but a telescope with an aperture of 6 inches or more will help resolve smaller details and allow you to zero in on Resilience's landing site. A good way to find the Resilience Lander's forever home is to locate the Aristotles Crater, which sits above Mare Serenitatis on the southeastern shore of Mare Frigoris. From there, look to the northwest to find the Archytas Crater scarring the southern shore of Mare Frigoris and beyond that the similarly-sized Timaeus crater. The Resilience Lander will set down in the area below Timaeus, to the left of Archytas, fairly close to the line dividing the dayside and nightside of the lunar surface, known as the terminator. The Resilience Lander is due to touch down on Thursday, June 5, at 3:17 p.m. EDT (1817 GMT), though the exact timing is subject to change based on operational conditions. A live stream of the event will be available here on courtesy of ispace. from 2:10 p.m. EDT on June 5 (1810 GMT/3:10 a.m. JST on June 6), with both English and Japanese language versions available. This will be the ispace's second try at landing a spacecraft on the moon, following the unsuccessful landing attempt of the Japanese company's Hakuto-R spacecraft in April 2023. The company has also selected three backup landing sites further to the west in Mare Frigoris, should conditions make the primary touch down site untenable.
