Emily Smith

New York City is fining people who have not had the measles vaccinePaul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images By Chelsea WhyteThe number of measles cases reported in the US continues to rise. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now reports that there have been 1164 cases of measles in 30 states as of…

Isoxys auritusOxford University Museum of Natural History By Graham LawtonMore than half a billion years ago, this stalk-eyed minibeast (Isoxys auritus) cruised the seas in what is now Yunnan, China. This remarkable fossil is one of 55 from the Chengjiang deposit on loan to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, most of which have never been seen outside…

The record temperature was measured in Cambridge, UKJoe Giddens/PA Wire/PA Images By Michael Le PageAs the world warms, yet another all-time national heat record has been set. The 38.7°C recorded in Cambridge Botanic Garden on 25 July during the recent European heatwave has now been confirmed to be the highest temperature ever recorded in the…

Technology | Analysis 30 July 2019 Facebook is trying to combat fake newsInk Drop / Alamy Stock Photo By Donna LuFacebook is attempting to stop the spread of fake news on its site, but it needs to ramp up its efforts and be more transparent about if it’s working. That’s the conclusion of a report…

A Copula sivickisi jellyfishPatrick Randall Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International By Michael MarshallJellyfish and their relatives are famous for their painful and dangerous stings, which are delivered by special cells called cnidocytes. So readers may wince at the fact that two species of box jellyfish package cnidocytes with their sperm. However, the cnidocytes are…

Consumer DNA testing kits are on the riseZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo By Adam VaughanThree of the biggest home DNA testing companies in the UK have all been the subject of complaints to the data watchdog, figures released under freedom of information rules show. Since January last year, the Information Commissioner’s Office received…

Robots like this one could benefit from stretchy batteriesMASSIMO BREGA, THE LIGHTHOUSE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY By Donna LuWearable devices could soon be more flexible – in future they might be powered by stretchable batteries. Nicholas Kotov at the University of Michigan and his colleagues have developed a conducting component for a lithium-ion battery that maintains its…

Starhopper takes offThe Starhopper, SpaceX’s prototype for its interplanetary spacecraft Starship, made its first flight without a leash tying it to the ground on 25 July By Leah CraneSpaceX’s Starhopper is off its leash. The squat spacecraft had never flown before without being tethered to the ground – and even then it lifted off by…

A new species of monkeyStephen Nash By Chris BaraniukHe peered through his binoculars towards the treetops in awe. Perched in the trees were three small marmosets with white tails. Rodrigo Costa Araújo of the National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil, was gobsmacked: most other Amazonian marmosets’ tails are black. That was the moment that Araújo realised he…

Technology 26 July 2019 A coal power station in Počerady, Czech Republickamilpetran By Adam VaughanElectricity generation from coal power stations across Europe fell by nearly a fifth over the first half of this year, the steepest decline ever recorded. The sudden drop, driven by buoyant carbon prices and new installations of wind and solar farms,…