In February, the University of California, Los Angeles held its 11th Symposium on Sources and Detection of Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe - "Dark Matter 2014" was aimed at discussing the latest progress in the quest to identify dark matter, the umbrella term for the unknown stuff that makes up more than a quarter of the universe yet remains a mystery.

So where does the hunt stand? Between sessions, three leading physicists at the conference spent an hour discussing the search for dark matter on several fronts.

An unusual hexagonal shape surrounding Saturn's north pole was spotted on the planet for the first time thirty years ago and nothing similar, with such a regular geometry, has been found on any other (non-Earth, obviously) planet in the Solar System. 

That's not the only mystery. Saturn is the only planet in the Solar System whose rotation time remains unknown.  

Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, the University of the Basque Country Planetary Sciences Group has now been able to study and measure the phenomenon and, among other achievements, establish its rotation period. What is more, this period could be the same as that of the planet itself. 

Rubén Martínez, a graduate in Biology and Biochemistry at Elhuyar Fundazioa, and colleagues have developed a new methodology that makes it possible to know what physiological state the yeast is in at each point in the wine fermentation process. 

This knowledge is of particular interest for producers, since changes in the grape directly affect the chemical composition of the must.

Some of the carbon, like the black soot and charcoal residue of fires, that finds its way into Earth's oceans stays there for thousands for years, and some of the black carbon breaks away and hitches a ride to the ocean floor on passing particles.

Virtually all black carbon results from combustion. Soot, the airborne version of black carbon, is a key element of smoke. Charcoal is another form of black carbon. Each form is produced naturally by wildfires, as well by industry and other human activities.

Research that  evaluated whether the drug cetuximab and chemotherapy together worked better than chemotherapy alone as a treatment in addition to surgery for people with bowel cancer that had spread to the liver but could be surgically removed, found it is not effective in some settings, and indeed may result in more rapid cancer progression.

The New EPOC study in The Lancet Oncology details that the trial patients either received chemotherapy on its own or chemotherapy combined with cetuximab. Patients received their specified treatment for 12 weeks. They then had surgery and followed by their specified treatment for another 12 weeks. Patients were then monitored via CT or MRI scans.

Want to turn a liberal into a conservative? Present the prospect of a racial minority becoming the overall majority in the United States, according to an analysis of Pew Research data.

White Americans across the spectrum move more toward the conservative end of the political spectrum, according to a paper in Psychological Science which suggests that increased diversity in the United States could actually lead to a wider partisan divide. Of course, it depends on the minority. Legal immigrant minorities are overwhelmingly more conservative already.