New Issue: Science’s Impossible Questions. Read Now

In Case You Missed It: U.S. Navy Limits Sonar Use, First Withdrawal from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and more!

Top news from around the world

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

U.K.

A clinical trial investigating a treatment for blindness is under way this winter to evaluate the safety and efficacy of replacing diseased eye cells with stem cells.

U.S.


On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Following a federal court hearing, the U.S. Navy has agreed to limit its use of sonar in specified areas around the Hawaiian Islands and southern California. Sonar activity has been shown to harm marine animals.

NETHERLANDS

Delta Flume, a facility that produces the world's largest man-made waves to study and improve coastal protection systems, opened in Delft. Waves reach as high as 4.5 meters.

NORWAY

After a local seed bank in Syria was damaged in the country's civil war, researchers have made the first-ever withdrawal from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The master vault holds more than 860,000 seed samples collected from around the world in an effort to ensure against their loss in the wild. The replacement seeds will be stored in Lebanon and Morocco.

SOLOMON ISLANDS

Biologists captured underwater footage of a glow-in-the-dark sea turtle, the first reptile known to exhibit biofluorescence.

AUSTRALIA

The government approved a new curriculum for elementary school students, who will now learn computer coding and programming.*

*Editor's Note (11/23/15): This sentence from the print article was edited after it was posted online. The original had erroneously stated the new curriculum will replace history and geography with computer coding. Those subjects will still be taught, although within a new single humanities and social sciences subject.

 

Scientific American Magazine Vol 313 Issue 6This article was published with the title “Quick Hits” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 313 No. 6 (), p. 23
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1215-23

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe