Saturn spokes

The spokes that appear fleetingly on Saturn’s rings may be visible again by July, the journal Science reports. The spokes are made up of tiny dust particles. The right conditions cause them to gain an extra electron, allowing them to leap en masse from the rings’ surface for brief periods to form the giant (6,000 miles long and 1,500 miles wide) spokes, say researchers at the University of Colorado.

Fainting plants

A team of German-Italian researchers has shown that when insects eat plant tissue, it causes a decrease in electric voltage. This “electrical black out” reduces the ability of the plant’s cells to protect themselves against getting eaten by the worms, the team writes in the journal Plant Physiology.

Storm study

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have published a study in the journal Science that strengthens the link between the increase in hurricane intensity and the increase in sea surface temperature. It found that other factors such as wind shear don’t account for the global 35-year increase in the number of intense hurricanes.