Lab notes: Tim Peake on falling back to Earth, 'baby' planets and driverless cars

The Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft carrying astronauts Tim Peake, Tim Kopra and Yuri Malenchenko descends over Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Photograph: Bill Ingalls/NASA/REX/Shutterstock

This week’s biggest stories

Ground control to major Tim: how does it feel? “I was told that it would stop with a big jolt as the main chute opened, but in our case, it didn’t,” said Tim Peake as he recalled the moment when he feared his spacecraft’s main parachute had failed to open. In related news, the discovery of two “baby” planets this week (awww) is exciting for a number of reasons, not least because they’re still developing, giving us “a glimpse of planet formation as it occurs”. And finally, researchers explore the moral dilemma of programming driverless cars.

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

Stop blaming mental illness for violent crimes | Brain flapping

The idea that certain mental illnesses inevitably cause violence is far more prevalent than the evidence warrants. Numerous studies have shown that those with mental health problems are more often the victims of violence, not perpetrators. And many of these are from the USA, where violent gun crime is a very big problem.

Fossil plant stem cells from 300 million years ago | Lost Worlds Revisited

We often talk about fossils as snapshots of the past, and permineralised specimens are a prime example. The biological limits of ‘fossil snapshots’ were extended in a new paper this month from Alexander Hetherington and colleagues, which identified actively-growing plant stem cells from over 300 million years ago.

Biology would leave the Game of Thrones dragons grounded | Lost Worlds Revisited

Applying a bit of science to these animals might well leave them stranded but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy them for the creations that they are, and I’d love to dissect one if there ever an option!

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Science Weekly podcast

Artist’s rendition of Earth, left, and the planet Kepler-452b – the first near-Earth-size planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. Photograph: T. Pyle/AP

Ian Sample talks to Stuart Clark about his new book The Search for Earth’s Twin, exploring the themes of discovering exoplanets, alien worlds and the chance of finding another Earth.

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Alex Bellos’s Monday puzzle

Can you solve it? Are you smarter than Andy Murray?

You’ll need to bring your best game for this puzzle. Andy has. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

To celebrate Andy Murray’s triumph at Queen’s, and in anticipation of Wimbledon, which starts next week, lets smash some neurons around the grass court of your brains.

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Eye on science - this week’s top video

Astronaut Tim Peake says return to Earth ‘like world’s worst hangover’

Tim Peake says adjusting to life back on Earth after spending six months in space is like having the world’s worst hangover. The British astronaut landed safely in Kazakhstan on Saturday inside a Soyuz capsule, alongside US astronaut Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko in Kazakhstan.