Notebook
- Materials Science
A new plastic film glows to flag food contaminated with dangerous microbes
Plastic patches that glow when they touch some types of bacteria could be built into food packaging to reduce the spread of foodborne illness.
- Health & Medicine
50 years on, vaccines have eliminated measles from the Americas
Thanks to high vaccination rates, measles has mostly disappeared from the Americas.
- Oceans
Ocean heat waves are becoming more common and lasting longer
Over the last 100 years, the world’s oceans have sweltered through a rising number of heat waves.
- Health & Medicine
Delusions of skin infestation may not be so rare
Delusional infestation, an unwavering belief that one’s skin is overrun with creatures or objects, may not be as rare as previously thought, researchers say.
- Animals
Humpback whale bumps have marine biologists stumped
Christine Gabriele is taking tissue samples from humpback whales in Hawaii to determine why more and more have nodular dermatitis.
- Physics
A single atom can gauge teensy electromagnetic forces
The force of scattering particles of light was measured in zeptonewtons, a billionth of a trillionth of a newton.
- Ecosystems
50 years ago, invasive species traveled the Suez Canal
Hundreds of Red Sea species used the Suez Canal to migrate to the Mediterranean Sea, leading to the decline of some native species.
- Environment
The great Pacific garbage patch may be 16 times as massive as we thought
The giant garbage patch between Hawaii and California weighs at least 79,000 tons, a new estimate suggests.
- Science & Society
Kids are starting to picture scientists as women
An analysis of studies asking kids to draw a scientist finds that the number of females drawn has increased over the last 50 years.
- Life
Inked mice hint at how tattoos persist in people
Tattoos in mice may persist due to an immune response, challenging currently held beliefs about how the skin retains tattoos.
- Physics
STEVE the aurora makes its debut in mauve
A newly discovered type of aurora is a visible version of usually invisible charged particles drifting in the upper atmosphere.
- Astronomy
New Horizons’ next target has been dubbed Ultima Thule
NASA has named New Horizons spacecraft’s next target Ultima Thule after the public suggested tens of thousands of monikers for the Kuiper Belt object.
