Reuters Science News Summary

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Google ​plans first test of AI chips ​in space under Project Suncatcher

Alphabet's Google ‌said ​on Thursday it will launch a prototype satellite next week in its first in-orbit test of Project Suncatcher, a research ‌effort to explore whether space could potentially host large-scale AI computing infrastructure. Companies including SpaceX and Starcloud are pursuing plans to deploy data centers in low Earth orbit, aiming to harness near-continuous sunlight ‌to power energy-intensive AI computing and sidestep terrestrial constraints on electricity supplies.

Chile seizes more ‌than 200 fossils of extinct mollusks

Customs officials in Chile discovered and seized more than 200 fossils of ammonites in a shipping container from Madagascar that had been declared as containing household ornaments, the customs authority of ⁠the ​South American country said ⁠on Friday.

Ammonites are mollusks closely related to octopuses and squids that became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, ⁠a major mass extinction that wiped out all of the non-avian dinosaurs around 66 million years ​ago.

Study reveals evolutionary history of bats, dating back 65 million years

Bats are critical players ⁠in global ecosystems, pollinating plants, dispersing seeds and eating huge numbers of insects. One of only three lineages of ⁠flying ​vertebrates in Earth's history, there are more than 1,500 bat species living today. But their evolutionary history has been a bit of a puzzle for scientists.

The largest ⁠combined bat genome and fossil study ever conducted is now bringing some clarity. Its findings ⁠indicate that these flying ⁠mammals first appeared in Europe about 65 million years ago, in the aftermath of the mass extinction event that doomed the dinosaurs, before ‌spreading around ‌the world, not in North America, Asia or ​Africa as previously hypothesized.