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Media at the Indian space agency's tracking and command centre, which lost contact with its Moon lander on 7 September.Credit: Jagadeesh NV/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

India’s space agency lost contact with its Vikram Moon lander during the final few minutes of its descent early on 7 September. The Indian Space Research Organization is still trying to regain contact with the craft, which relied on an innovative automated landing system. On the plus side, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft continues to gather its scientific data from orbit. Vikram is the second Moon lander this year to meet a sad fate: in April, the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crash-landed on the surface.

Nature | 3 min read

Geologists have reconstructed a detailed history of Greater Adria — a continent that lies submerged largely below southern Europe. Researchers examined the surface remnants of Greater Adria to determine how the land mass broke away from the southern supercontinent of Gondwana about 240 million years ago, spun anticlockwise as it moved north and eventually collided with what is now Europe between 100 million and 120 million years ago.

Science | 5 min read

Reference: Gondwana Research paper

Spurred by research that raised alarm all over the world, Germany has pledged €100 million (US$111 million) to protect insects. A 2017 study found that flying-insect biomass fell by 76% over 27 years in wildlife reserves in western Germany. The money will go to protecting habitats, decreasing light pollution and developing a nationwide insect monitoring network. The country also plans to phase out all use of the weed killer glyphosate.

Science | 5 min read

Reference: PLoS ONE paper

FEATURES & OPINION

Funding that is earmarked for fighting the opioid epidemic is just another example of the government playing ‘whack-a-mole’ against the drug du jour, writes behavioural medicine researcher Judith Feinberg. Offering a first-hand view from central Appalachia, Feinberg argues that short-sighted drug policies are failing to address the real problem: the fraying of the socio-economic fabric of the rural United States.

Nature | 5 min read

Millions of mice and rats are used in research each year. But one-third to one-half of animal experiments are never published, and of those that are, many are conducted too poorly to be reliable. Advocates for better animal research and reproducibility are promoting a strategy established in other fields to counter publication bias, improve investigations and increase transparency: study registries.

Nature | 6 min read

“To assume the best about another is the trait that has created modern society,” writes journalist Malcolm Gladwell — but when we fail to read others correctly, it can lead to catastrophe. His latest book probes mutual misunderstanding and violations of trust.

Nature | 6 min read