Lab notes: would you let your boss zap your brain with electricity?

Don’t let anyone near your head with these. This is not good science. Photograph: Martti Salmela/Getty Images

This week’s biggest stories

It sounds a little sci-fi, but this week the US military revealed that it had successfully tested electrical brain stimulation to enhance staff skills. Obviously this raises a lot of ethical questions, but could this be the future of certain roles? Something that very well might be the future is some extraordinarily exciting work on paralysis, announced this week. Scientists have developed a brain implant that allowed partially paralysed monkeys to walk again. It could be ready for human trials within five years and raises the prospect of radical new therapies for people with spinal injuries. Which leads us to another important human health breakthrough, this time concerning the seasonal joy that is flu. Will you get nasty flu this year? According to a new study the year in which you were born influences which strains of flu will affect you most. And while flu might leave you feeling like you have a head full of mud it could be worse - spare a thought for poor old Tongtianlong limosus, a new species of bird-like dinosaur discovered in China. Its name means “muddy dragon on the road to heaven” - the dinosaur appears to have died after getting stuck in the mud. And finally, I hope you’re enjoying reading this, but maybe not on your phone in bed: a new study has added to the growing body of evidence linking smartphone use to poor-quality sleep.

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Friday feature

Supermoon! Coming to a sky near you on Monday. Photograph: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images

On Monday, 14 November, the moon will be the biggest and brightest it has been in more than 60 years. It’s what is commonly called a “supermoon”, or technically a “perigee full moon” – a phenomenon that occurs when a full moon coincides with the moon being the closest it gets to the Earth on its orbit.

Wondering what’s really going on and how to catch a glimpse? We’ve got you covered.

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

Autumn: season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. And nuts. Lots and lots of lovely nuts. Photograph: Richard Aspinall

Hips, haws and drupes: when is a nut not a nut? | Notes & Theories

Any self-respecting pub quiz bore will tell you a peanut is a legume, a relative of the pea. If they are on top of their game, they will take pride in their certain knowledge that pineapples are, in fact, coalesced berries; there’ll be discussion of bananas no doubt. But, what of hips and haws? What about drupes? And, perhaps of more seasonal importance: what makes a “true nut”, in the strictest biological definition?

Think of the universe as a skateboard park: Supernovas and sphalerons | Life and Physics

It is a marvellous fact that the heavy elements on Earth were all created in violent astrophysical cataclysms, but the story of this supernova is especially specific, because the actual atoms can be dated (at least statistically). An isotope of iron, Fe⁶⁰, was measured at a particular depth in the ocean’s crust. The position in the crust sets the date, and the presence of the isotope betrays the supernova.

Is citizen science the future of research or a recipe for bad science? | Political science

Proponents of citizen science are often met with the argument that it produces poor quality data. Some university scientists might respond that their quality control isn’t that great either. But this would be to miss the point that citizen science often plays by different rules – different motivations, different standards of evidence and different thresholds for action. For people in search of new treatments, clean water or political attention, the purity of a scientific laboratory may be a problem rather than an ideal.

Visit the Science blog network

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Alex Bellos’s Monday puzzle

He was obviously up all night working on a tricky bit of maths. Photograph: Homer Sykes/Alamy

Last week some of the smartest sixth formers in the UK sat Oxford University’s annual Mathematics Admissions Test. So this week, Alex Bellos is offering you the chance to tackle one of the most fun questions set by Oxford in recent years. So, would you get into Oxford? Find out here.

Visit Alex Bellos’s Adventures in Numberland blog for more marvellous maths

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Science Weekly podcast

How did life begin? Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

The latest in the Science Weekly podcast’s Big Unknowns series tackles the biggest topic there is: life itself. According to our best estimates, life first appeared on planet Earth around 3.8bn years ago. But what happened leading up to it? What conditions were necessary? And what is “life” anyway’?

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Eye on science – this week’s top video

What is the supermoon? The science behind the lunar wonder

On Monday 14 November, the moon will be the biggest and brightest it has been in almost 60 years. Here is what you need to know to make the most of this rare close encounter of the lunar kind