Science Friday - October 11

 Each Friday we publish a recap of the most exciting science news for the week. Enjoy!

• General - The Nobel Prize winners for 2013 have been announced. We love the Nobels, they're like the Oscars for nerds. The Medicine prize went to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof for discovering how materials are transported within cells. The Chemistry prize went to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for producing a modeling system that's something like "instant replay" for chemical reactions. And François Englert and Peter W. Higgs received the Physics prize for proposing that a particle was responsible for the weird symmetries of the Standard Model. The Higgs Boson is believed to have been discovered, but rumors held that Higgs himself was elusive after the announcement. Not true, apparently, but he did learn of his prize from a neighbor—he was out to lunch when the announcement was made.
• Biology - Biologists from Thailand, the UK, and Laos have discovered a new species of squirrel in Laos. It's not often a new species of large mammal is discovered, much less a three-foot-long flying one. Flying squirrels use a flaps of skin to glide through the air from tree to tree. The newfound Biswamoyopterus laoensis is thought to be a relative of the mysterious Namdapha flying squirrel of India. No news yet on whether this one likes to pal around with a cartoon moose.
• Astronomy - A black rock found near the Libya-Egypt border has been analyzed and scientists from South Africa believe it to be the first piece of a comet ever found on Earth. The rocks aren't new, though—it's been suggested that rocks from the same impact site were used by ancient Egyptians as jewelry for Pharaohs. Other scientists disagree, and aren't sure the material isn't from an asteroid. Here's the article.