White smoke at the Vatican (National Geographic)

A small taste of science on the web this week:

• Habemus Papam! Now we can finally find out what the Vatican uses to make the conclave smoke black or white.
  
• DNA does more than make great blueprints for life. It might also make a great flame retardant for clothing and fabrics. One downside: they’d have to be dry clean only.
• Bring extinct animals and plants back from the dead? That’s the topic of today’s TEDxDeExtinction conference in Washington, DC. Catch the livestream here.
• I think it’s pretty safe to say that most people hate the whole spring forward-fall back daylight savings thing. And that makes sense, because we’re not biologically programmed for it.
• Cicadas like to keep their wings clean of bacteria. They’re favorite method? Nanoscale knives.
• We’re not the only creatures to get a jolt from caffeine. Bees can get a memory boost from caffeinated nectar, like the kind made by coffee and citrus plants.
• It’s alive!! Or at least it could have been: Mars’s environment was once friendly to life.
• This weekend kicks off roller derby season in Boston. And just in time, we learn how contact during bouts can mix players’ bacteria together.
• Two weeks ago it was a baby reportedly cured of HIV. Now there might be another 14 adults, too.
• A belated Happy Pi Day to you all.