The scientific community has long believed that polymers—very large molecules—are too big to migrate out of products into people and therefore pose no health risks. As a result, polymers have largely evaded regulation. For example, polymers are exempt from the major toxics acts: Toxic Substances Control Act in the U.S. and REACH in the E.U. However, a breakthrough peer-reviewed study published today in Nature Sustainability demonstrates that polymers used as flame retardants can break down into smaller harmful chemicals.

On February 7, 2025, the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced a decision to cap indirect cost reimbursement—which supports the critical infrastructure and staff that make biomedical research possible—at 15%. In a commentary published February 28 in the Cell Press journal Cell, molecular biologist Tom Maniatis of the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute reflects on the impact NIH funding has had on his own career and science, explores the value indirect investment has brought to U.S. science over the last five decades, and calls for urgent, unified action from the scientific community to prevent the cap from taking effect.

A study by the IBeA research group of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) revealed relatively high concentrations of three groups of organic pollutants. The study concluded that some of these pollutants come from nearby urban areas; others originate from combustion processes currently taking place in agriculture; and finally the ones corresponding to pollution caused by pesticides and some electrical insulators before they were banned several years ago.