Notebook
- Climate
Globetrotting tourists are leaving a giant carbon footprint on the Earth
Globetrotters are responsible for about 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
- Health & Medicine
50 years ago, starving tumors of oxygen proposed as weapon in cancer fight
Starving cancerous tumors of oxygen was proposed to help kill them. But the approach can make some cancer cells more aggressive.
- Health & Medicine
Synthetic opioids involved in more deaths than prescription opioids
Winning a ghastly contest, synthetic opioids become most common drug involved in U.S. overdose deaths, bypassing prescription opioids in 2016.
- Tech
Private web browsing doesn’t mean no one is watching
Many people misunderstand what private web browsing actually is. Web browsers’ explanations don’t help.
- Astronomy
Celebrity names now mark places on Pluto’s moon Charon
Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, now has 12 new names for its topological features.
- Physics
How ravens caused a LIGO data glitch
Ravens pecking at frosty pipes caused a glitch in gravitational wave data.
- 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.
