Brain Cells Read Braille, Neanderthal Bears Old Wound, and a Green Star Appears

THE INTERNET — The science site The Debrief has issued its weekly digest of curiosities, led by a report from the University of Bristol. According to the roundup, researchers there have shown that small organoids grown from living human brain cells can process information from Braille characters. The write-up notes the work stops short of demonstrating actual learning, though it is described as a step toward biological computing.

From Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan comes a more somber item. Researchers examining a Neanderthal skeleton about 75,000 years old have, the digest says, identified an unusual puncture wound in the shoulder blade that may have been caused by a wooden spear. The same individual is reported to have survived earlier severe facial injuries, raising questions about conflict and care in Neanderthal communities.

Astronomers, meanwhile, have reportedly found that white dwarf stars display a wider palette than their name suggests. The findings include a green example, along with white dwarfs that would appear pink or purple, and are said to shed light on the unusual chemistry of stars in the last stages of their lives.

Elsewhere, physicists at the University of Southampton and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur have proposed that a long-lived particle might have briefly altered the universe's expansion and so influenced the imbalance between matter and antimatter. The digest also lists a bronze sword about 3,000 years old recovered beneath Italy's Lake Mezzano, where researchers are weighing whether it was lost or left as a ritual offering.

The roundup closes with a list of further headlines, among them a planetary defense exercise for a Tunguska-sized asteroid and an Israeli military search for an unidentified aerial object near the Lebanese border.