them as my parents, that doesn’t matter to me. This is a fight for my Kevin chetan and I will fight as long as I can.”

She says that she feels safe in Kevin’s house and his parents have welcomed her with an open heart. As I tell her the story of Kausalya and Shankar, a young couple who had been torn apart by her family, Neenu listens patiently. Shankar was hacked to death in broad daylight and Kausalya fought to get him justice. Her father was sentenced to death a few months ago by a court in Tiruppur and Kausalya has taken it as her mission to speak against caste prejudices.

Neenu repeats. “I will also fight.”

Living to defy caste: Kausalya's incredible journey since her husband was hacked forNorthern Arizona University and the U.S. Geological Survey has discovered 15 new species of invertebrates in lava tubes and other southwestern caves.

Many animals find shelter in lava tubes from eyeless millipedes to amphibians and bats. But it's the smallest organisms that are making big news these days. Scientists in New Mexico recently reported that colorful deposits on the walls of lava tubes, once thought to be minerals, are actually the waste products of microbes that feed on minerals in the volcanic rock.

This discovery may have implications far beyond the Four Corners region. Unlike most habitats found on Earth, lava tubes exist on other planets. On Mars, where surface conditions fluctuate between inhospitable extremes, lava caves offer a protected, stable environment, and possibly a good place to search for