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Earlier this year a researcher from the University of Tennessee ate a chocolate cake representing his boxer shorts. This week some of the research that prompted that underwear themed gateau was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a new paper Francis McCubbin, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and his colleagues describe a new analysis of Moon rocks showing the interior of our satellite contains far more water than previously believed. McCubbin’s team looked at the amount of water in the form of hydroxyl (an oxygen plus a hydrogen atom) present in the mineral apatite in these lunar samples.

Their conclusion: “water may be ubiquitous within the lunar interior”.

This and other work was previously presented at the 2010 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, as reported by Nature’s Eric Hand in March. To discover why this led to man eating his shorts, read his story: Old rocks drown dry Moon theory.