Public Health Focuses on Childhood, Magnetic Poles Once Wandered, and Colossal Squid Discovered
This week’s news roundup covers measles and whooping cough cases, evidence of a carbon cycle on Mars and the first glimpse at a colossal squid in its natural habitat.
Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific American
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. Let’s kick off the week with a quick roundup of the latest science news.
First, some public health updates. Measles is continuing to spread in the U.S., with 712 cases confirmed so far in 2025 as of April 11, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For reference, there were just 285 confirmed cases in all of 2024. The CDC has confirmed two deaths from measles this year and is investigating a third.
Last week the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met after its planned meeting in February was postponed. During the meeting last Tuesday a scientist leading the CDC’s measles response said the number of measles cases is likely underreported.
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But measles isn’t the only illness that’s increasingly putting kids at risk. Cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, are up more than 1,500 percent nationwide compared with 2021, according to recent reporting by ProPublica. Deaths from whooping cough are also on the rise.
Caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis, whooping cough spreads easily between humans. Even people with mild symptoms can pass the microbe along, and the resulting illness can be much worse in vulnerable individuals like babies. While some infants will have cold symptoms, others may develop pneumonia and difficulty breathing.
The best way to prevent the spread of pertussis—and to avoid serious symptoms—is with the DTaP or Tdap vaccine, both of which offer combined protection against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. The CDC recommends that all children get doses of the DTaP vaccine at two months, four months, six months, sometime between 15 and 18 months, and again sometime from age four to six. Kids should then get a Tdap booster from age 11 to 12. The CDC also recommends that people get a Tdap booster while pregnant—ideally between 27 and 36 weeks—to help confer immunity to their newborns. If you’re an adult who’s never been immunized against pertussis, you can get a Tdap shot at any age. You can also opt to get a Tdap jab when it’s time for a tetanus booster in case your immunity against whooping cough has waned.
According to ProPublica, vaccination rates among kindergarten students have fallen for measles, mumps and rubella; pertussis; diphtheria; tetanus; hepatitis B; and polio.
In other public health news a new CDC study published last Tuesday shows a rise in the autism rate in children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is helmed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., put out a statement about the report that claimed it showed “a persistent rise in [autism spectrum disorder] prevalence [and] an alarming escalation in case severity,” but this contradicts the conclusion of the study’s own authors. The report suggests that rates of autism spectrum disorder are likely rising because early detection is improving, especially in groups that previously had less access to diagnostics. Kristin Sohl, who chairs the Autism Subcommittee of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Children with Disabilities, told CNN that the results of the report were “encouraging.”
Looking back to simpler times, a study published last Wednesday in the journal Science Advances explored how ancient humans survived something called the Laschamp event. This incident about 41,000 years ago was a geomagnetic “excursion,” which is where the Earth’s magnetic poles move around. While the North and South poles didn’t completely flip, they did kind of wander. The planet’s magnetic field was much weaker than usual during this period. According to the authors of the new study, it was running at something like 10 percent of its current strength. Given that Earth’s magnetic field helps protect us from cosmic radiation, it’s likely that people were exposed to more UV light as a result.
During this time Homo sapiens seem to have started using the naturally occurring pigment ochre more often, according to the study. Ochre has been shown to provide sun protection. The researchers also saw an uptick in humans’ use of caves in times and places that solar radiation would have posed more of a threat.
Speaking of cosmic happenings: another study from last week’s Science Advances describes a planet with an unprecedented orbit.
The story starts with a pair of rare “failed stars” about 120 light-years away. They’re both brown dwarfs, which sit somewhere between gas giants and small stars on the planet-to-star spectrum. Brown dwarfs interest scientists because they seem to form the way stars do, but they don’t actually manage the hydrogen fusion that gives stars their light. Back in 2020 this couple made the news because scientists caught one of them eclipsing the other. Eclipsing brown dwarf pairs are really rare, and the passage of one star in front of the other helps scientists make certain observations to calculate their masses.
Now this binary system is proving to be even more rare than we thought: it features a planet that orbits perpendicularly around them, instead of orbiting roughly along the same plane on which the brown dwarfs themselves orbit. That’s never been seen in a binary star system before.
Still in space, but much closer to home, scientists have found new evidence that Mars once had a carbon cycle. In a study published last Thursday in Science, researchers report that the Curiosity rover dug up a mineral called siderite when drilling the Gale crater. This mineral is made of iron and carbonate, and it indicates that carbon once moved through the Red Planet’s environment similarly to how it does on Earth. That supports the idea that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere that could support liquid water.
And speaking of making a splash, we’ll end on a fun note with a very, very tiny colossal squid. The species, which was first discovered a century ago, has never been caught on camera in its natural habitat. Now, using a remote-controlled vessel at 1,968 feet [600 meters] below the surface, scientists have finally spotted a colossal squid in the comfort of its deep-sea home. This one is young, so it’s only about a foot [30 centimeters] long. But it could grow to be as long as 23 feet [seven meters] in adulthood and might weigh as much as 1,100 pounds [500 pounds]. You can check out the footage for yourself on our YouTube channel. You’ll find a link in our show notes.
That’s all for this week’s science news roundup. We’ll be back on Wednesday.
Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!