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From today's featured article

Lactarius torminosus, the woolly milkcap, is a large agaric fungus. First described scientifically by Jacob Christian Schäffer in 1774, it is a common species, found in North Africa, northern Asia, Europe, and North America. It grows on the roots of various trees, most commonly birch in mixed forests. The cap of the L. torminosus mushroom, up to 10 cm (3.9 in) wide, is convex with a central depression. A blend of pink and ochre hues, the cap sometimes has concentric zones of alternating lighter and darker shades. On the underside are narrow flesh-colored gills, crowded closely together. The cylindrical stem is a pale flesh color with a delicately downy surface, up to 8 cm (3.1 in) long and 0.6–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) thick. When cut or injured, the mushroom oozes a bitter white latex. The species is highly irritating to the digestive system when eaten raw, but is valued for its peppery flavor in Russia and Finland after being cooked to destroy its toxins. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Renate Brümmer

... that Renate Brümmer (pictured) and Heike Walpot were the only two women originally selected for the German astronaut team, but neither has gone to space?
... that fan-recorded footage of a live DJ set revealed the existence of 100 Gecs' song "Ringtone (Remix)" a month prior to its release?
... that cloth face masks were routinely used by surgeons before being replaced by modern surgical masks in the 1960s?
... that St Augustine's Church, Wrangthorn, raised money for a stained-glass window in 1934, but ended up spending it on a church hall instead?
... that A Case of Spring Fever, a film in which springs disappear, was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons?
... that the Vietnam mouse-deer, which had been feared to have gone extinct nearly 30 years ago, was sighted again in 2019?
... that Zofia Nehringowa set speed-skating world records in all individual distances?
... that Aquarium has a problem with water getting in?

In the news

COVID-19 pandemic

Netanyahu and Gantz

Canada bans the sale of assault-style firearms after a mass killing in Nova Scotia leaves twenty-two victims dead.
After seventeen months of stalemate, the Likud and Blue and White parties reach an agreement for Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz (pictured) to share power in Israel.
In the South Korean legislative election, the ruling Democratic Party and their allies increase their majority in the National Assembly.

On this day

May 4: Star Wars Day

Manaslu

1493 – Pope Alexander VI issued the papal bull Inter caetera, establishing a line of demarcation dividing the New World between Spain and Portugal.
1974 – An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu (pictured) in the Himalayas, becoming the first women to climb a peak higher than 8,000 metres (26,247 ft) above sea level.
1990 – The Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR declared the restoration of Latvia's independence, stating that the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 were illegal.
2000 – Ken Livingstone took office as the first mayor of London.

Julia Gardiner Tyler (b. 1820)
Gotse Delchev (d. 1903)
Amos Oz (b. 1939)

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From today's featured list

Alabama

Fifty-one different songs topped the Hot Country Singles chart in 1985. Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine under the title Hot Country Singles in 1985. Alabama (pictured), one of the most successful bands in country music history, had the highest number of chart-toppers by a single act in 1985, with four: "(There's A) Fire in the Night", "There's No Way", "40 Hour Week (For a Livin')" and "Can't Keep a Good Man Down". When the group achieved its third number one of the year in August, Billboard regarded it as Alabama's seventeenth consecutive Hot Country number one, breaking the record for consecutive chart-toppers previously held by Sonny James. Earl Thomas Conley, Exile, the Judds and the Oak Ridge Boys each had three number ones in 1985. Ray Charles topped the chart for the only time that year. He went all the way to the top spot with the Willie Nelson collaboration "Seven Spanish Angels", taken from the album Friendship, on which Charles duetted with a range of contemporary country singers. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

Michael L. Gernhardt (born May 4, 1956) is a NASA astronaut and bioengineer. Before becoming an astronaut, he worked as a professional diver and project engineer on a variety of subsea oil field construction and repair projects. A four-flight veteran, Gernhardt has logged over 43 days in space, including four spacewalks totaling 23 hours and 16 minutes. In October 2011, he participated in the NEEMO 15 mission in the DeepWorker submersible, a small submarine used as an underwater stand-in for the Space Exploration Vehicle, which might someday be used to explore the surface of an asteroid.

This photograph shows Gernhardt attached to the robotic arm of Space Shuttle Endeavour during a spacewalk as part of the STS-69 mission in 1995, with the pale blue Earth serving as a backdrop. Unlike earlier spacewalking astronauts, Gernhardt was able to use an electronic cuff checklist, a prototype developed for the assembly of the International Space Station.

Photograph credit: NASA

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