New stars

Astronomers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, US, have found a record-breaking number of dead, rapidly spinning stars in Terzan 5, a 10-billion-year-old crowded star clu-ster 28,000 light-years away from the Milky Way. Using the 100-metre Green Bank Telescope, they have discovered 21 new pulsars ' small, dense stellar corpses that emit radio beams as they spin.

Feather appeal

It may not be true that migratory birds moult before they migrate. Researchers at the Queen's University, UK, and the Smithsonian Institution, US, have found that that some shed their old feathers at 'stopover' sites, reports Science. Measuring hydrogen isotopes in the newly grown feathers, the study has found that moulting enhances sex appeal for migrating songbirds.

Bacteria code

An international team of experts, including UK ministry of defence scientists, has mapped the complete DNA sequence of a bacterium, Francisella tularensis, which causes tularemia or 'rabbit fever' in humans. The sequence will help search for a vaccine against this potentially deadly bug.