News This Week: Life on Mars and Other Stories

Each week we round up our favorite stories for your weekend-clicking pleasure.

1. A high-tech greenhouse just yielded the first crop of vegetables in Antarctica. Now scientists are exploring the possibility of growing food on Mars. Read more

2. What goes better with plants than bees? Coming soon to outer space, a hive of robotic bees. NASA plans to send “Marsbees” to space to explore and colonize—you guessed it—Mars’ rocky terrain. Unlike rovers, they won’t get stuck in the sand. Read more

3. How did the Vikings get around? A new study shows they may have relied upon “sunstones”—a.k.a translucent crystals—as their navigational guides. Not so woo-woo now, are they? Read more

4. A new trove of geoglyphs, ancient and massive etchings carved into the earth’s surface, add more meaning—and  more mystery—to archaeologists’ understanding of ancient cultures. Read more

Photos by Joshua Hoehne, Oscar Sutton, Eric Ward (all courtesy of Unsplash) and Courtesy of the New York Times