When oily plastic and glass, as well as rubber, washed onto Florida beaches in 2020, a community group shared the mystery online, attracting scientists’ attention. Working together, they linked the black residue-coated debris to a 2019 oil slick along Brazil’s coastline. Using ocean current models and chemical analysis, the team explains in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology how some of the oily material managed to travel over 5,200 miles (8,500 kilometers) by clinging to debris.

A low-cost, simple robotic apple picker arm developed by Washington State University researchers may someday help with fruit picking and other farm chores. The inflatable arm can see an apple, then extend and retract to pick a piece of fruit in about 25 seconds. Weighing less than 50 pounds with its metal base, the two-foot-long arm is made of a soft fabric filled with air that is similar to, but stronger than, the wacky inflatable arm-flailing tube men that are used in outdoor advertising. The researchers in WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering recently published their work on the robotic arm in the journal, Smart Agricultural Technology.

Giant DNA viruses that infect eukaryotic cells are thought to have played a role in the evolution of life, according to the nuclear virus origin hypothesis. Now, the discovery of a new giant DNA virus in Japan that infects vermamoeba further supports this idea. Named ushikuvirus, it joins a growing number of such viruses being discovered worldwide, suggesting that ancient viruses may have contributed to the evolution and diversity of eukaryotic cells.

Ventilatory ratio (VR) is a simple bedside index reflecting pulmonary dead space and is associated with outcomes in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This study developed and validated separate 30-day mortality prediction models for high and low VR subgroups using multicenter critical care databases. Subgroup-specific models demonstrated superior predictive performance compared with cross-applied models, highlighting the importance of VR-based stratification for improving prognostic accuracy and supporting more individualized ARDS management strategies.