FULL STORY:  It’s time for “Nerd News,” covering the most important news for your brain.

Here’s a quick rundown of this week in science . . .

1.  Boeing’s faulty Starliner ship that’s been docked to the Space Station since June is slated to head home today, but with no one on board because it’s too risky.  A SpaceX ship will launch later this month to bring the two astronauts home, but they’ll still be up there until early next year.  The return flight is in February.

And there may be another solution to chaos like this in the future . . .

Researchers have thought about constructing an “elevator” between Earth and distant space.  Supposedly, we have the technology to do it . . . there just needs to be “a will to do it . . . and funding.”

2.  Good news, bad news:  A study found cell phones don’t cause brain cancer . . . but a separate study found they might cause heart disease.

3.  In big fish news:  Researchers think an eight-foot shark they’d been tracking for several months got eaten by an even bigger shark.  If so, it’s the first time anyone’s seen a shark that big get hunted down by a larger predator.

4.  In monkey news:  A study found marmosets have specific calls or “names” for each other.  It’s something we thought only humans, dolphins, and elephants did.

5.  In engineering news:  A team in South Korea is trying to reinvent the wheel and create a new type that can morph into difference shapes when rolling over rough terrain.  It’s intended to make more places wheelchair accessible.

6.  In bug news:  Mosquitoes can apparently use “heat vision” to hunt us down.

And a tiny bug called the “globular springtail” has been caught (in slow motion) doing the fastest BACKFLIPS on Earth.