Science Stories: Space Station Leaks, Mosquito Mysteries and Tiny T. Rex Arms

The International Space Station’s latest air leak, new research on mosquito repellents, and the mystery of Tyrannosaurus rex’s tiny arms were among the topics explored this week by Radio Catskill’s resident science guy Joe Johnson.

Earlier this month, engineers tracked down a persistent air leak aboard the aging International Space Station. Despite using advanced tools such as thermal imaging and ultrasound, the breakthrough came from a surprisingly simple technique.

“They took some finely ground tea leaves and they suspended them in the air in the module,” Johnson said. “And they saw where they collected. They obviously they’re going to move towards, you know, where the air is flowing out.”

The leak was traced to a Russian-built module that dates back to hardware originally intended for the Soviet Mir space station program. NASA plans to retire the ISS before the end of the decade and transition to commercially operated space stations.

Closer to home, new research from scientists in France suggest mosquitoes can be conditioned to associate the smell of DEET with a blood meal. In laboratory experiments, some trained mosquitoes were actually attracted to DEET-treated skin.

“The researchers say that this means the DEET should be applied and reapplied according to instructions because it does evaporate off the body,” Johnson said. “It does lose its effectiveness after a little while.”

Johnson noted that DEET remains one of the most effective tools against mosquitoes and ticks, which are responsible for a growing number of diseases in the Northeast.

And new research may help explain one of paleontology’s most enduring questions: why T. rex had such small arms. Researchers analyzed dozens of predatory dinosaur species and found that as heads and jaws became larger and more powerful, forelimbs tended to shrink.

“The explanation that they came up with is that the head and the jaws were the primary weapons of these creatures,” Johnson said. “This is essentially an evolutionary trade-off where the forelimbs become almost vestigial as they become less necessary and less useful.”

Image Credit: Illustration by Zhao Chuang; Courtesy of PNSO/American Museum of Natural History