Venus's clouds are made almost entirely of sulfuric acid, a solvent long assumed to destroy the molecules needed for life. Chemists thought concentrated sulfuric acid breaks apart peptides, the short chains of amino acids that make up proteins. A team led by Sara Seager at MIT tested synthetic peptides and found that some survive in the acid. In water they lie flat, but in concentrated sulfuric acid three tested peptides folded into omega loops, a knotted shape found in proteins on Earth. The researchers caution that this does not show life exists in the clouds, only that acid chemistry may be far richer than expected, which matters for where we look for life elsewhere.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.