This Week’s NOVA Next Feature Article
Engineers in a small Mexican town are reversing the supply chain, turning waste plastic into economic opportunity. Lucas Laursen reports on this unusual way of dealing with a plastic problem.
In other news from NOVA and around the web:
- “People in hard-hit Ebola areas see children as mini time bombs… they break all the Ebola rules .”
- Birds and humans use essentially the same genes to produce vocalizations, according to a huge new study . The results could shed light on everything from Parkinson’s disease to the nature of creativity .
- Massive meteor-induced climate swings may have made Mars’s valleys .
- Plans for a secure quantum internet take a leap forward .
- Robots are taking over the workplace. But don’t worry. Experts say they complement us and make our skills more valuable.
- The concentration of methane in Mars’ atmosphere keeps mysteriously rising and falling .
- Extreme levels of pollution in Beijing are prompting physical changes to the architecture of the city.
- Join the #NOVAreads group on Goodreads to receive notifications and reminders about our Virtual Book Club, which will take place January 7 & 8.
- Governor Andrew Cuomo will ban hydraulic fracking in New York State. Meanwhile, a new study suggests that fracking output will peak in 2020.
- 11 people ate “almost disturbing” amounts of peanut butter to help neuroscientists decipher a sensory mystery .
Did you miss "Making Stuff Wilder" or "Making Stuff Colder" this week? You can watch it streaming online here and here .
- Nizar Ibrahim , a paleontologist who spearheaded the search for Spinosaurus, has been named a TED fellow. He’s also featured in “Bigger Than T. rex,” which you can watch streaming online .
- Antibiotic resistance will kill 300 million people by 2050, according to a new report.
- Artificial intelligence is making magic tricks more magical .
- NASA just emailed a wrench to space.
- 3D printers made the perfect prosthetic leg for this little dog.