Lab notes: get the lowdown on Juno probe's stellar success

Artist’s impression of the Nasa probe, Juno, orbiting Jupiter. Photograph: Nasa/Rex/Shutterstock

This week’s biggest stories

Scientists were elated by the success of Nasa’s Juno mission, this week. After an epic five-year voyage across 1.8bn miles (2.8bn km), the spacecraft approached Jupiter and successfully entered its orbit. Back on Earth, a Danish study had positive news for women undergoing fertility treatment. It found that almost three-quarters of women will give birth with five years of beginning treatment. Experts issued a word of caution though, saying the chances of success are strongly linked to age. Speaking of kids, it’s time for dogs to make way for goats as man’s best friend! Really, no kidding, the gruff animals seek to develop social relationships with us, suggests a study in the Biology Letters journal. Though, there is still no consensus whether this means they need to be on the too clever/too cute to eat list.

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Straight from the lab - top picks from our experts on the blog network

Once upon a time, poisoning victims were told that a unicorn’s horn would cure them. Photograph: PraxisPhotography/Getty Images/Flickr RF

Toxic legacy: a brief history of poison remedies | Notes & Theories

In the past, when the cause of poisoning was poorly understood, all kinds of crazy remedies were tried, often in vain, to save those who were suffering. ‘Unicorn’s horn’, amulets and bezoar stone were once all highly recommended for those who felt their life might be under threat from a poisoner.

Dolly the celebrity sheep: a short biograph

Having come from a mammary cell, she was named after Dolly Parton, a risqué joke by an animal technician that stuck; much more memorable than her experimental name ‘lamb number 6LL3’.

Why science needs progressive voices more than ever

the way we do modern science and engineering sits at the heart of some of the inequalities that underline the divisions behind Brexit.

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Alex Bellos’s Monday puzzle

Among the potential casualties of last month’s Brexit vote are the jobs of many British interpreters in Brussels. In their honour, here is a polyglot puzzle.

Stop! Don’t guess, use logic to solve this one. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

Did you solve it?

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Science Weekly podcast

Nasa scientists cheer following the success of Juno mission. Photograph: Nasa via Getty Images

Following the news this week that the spacecraft successfully dropped into Jupiter’s orbit, Ian is joined by planetary scientists professor Fran Bagenal - a co-investigator on the mission - and Dr Adam Masters to discuss the probe.

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Eye on science - this week’s top video

The newly discovered planet is in a three-star system. Photograph: ESO/L. Calcada/PA

A gaseous planet with three suns and a mass four times that of Jupiter has been spotted by astronomers. Located 320 light years away in the constellation of Centaurus the planet, known as HD 131399Ab, goes one better than Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine in the film Star Wars, which famously boasted two sunrises.