Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, uses cookies to personalize your experience and improve our services. For more information on how we use cookies on our websites, visit our Cookie Policy.
Feature Environment

Year in review: Microbes exploit their killer

Triclosan promotes antibiotic resistance

person washing hands

ANTIBACTERIAL BACKFIRE  Triclosan, an unregulated antimicrobial chemical found in consumer products such as soaps and toothpaste, may aid, rather than deter, microbes that invade people’s bodies.

© EMPPhotography/iStockPhoto

By Beth Mole

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Environment

  1. Climate

    These women endured a winter in the high Arctic for citizen science

    By Maria Temming
  2. Environment

    Legos may take hundreds of years to break down in the ocean

    By Maria Temming
  3. Toro Negro State Forest
    Climate

    How Hurricane Maria’s heavy rains devastated Puerto Rico’s forests

    By Maria Temming
  4. gas burning
    Climate

    Fossil fuel use may emit 40 percent more methane than we thought

    By Carolyn Gramling
  5. Person holding sample of composted cow
    Science & Society

    Turning human bodies into compost works, a small trial suggests

    By Laura Sanders
  6. Trans-Alaska Pipeline
    Environment

    50 years ago, protests and promises launched the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

    By Mike Denison
  7. microplastic contamination
    Ecosystems

    Fewer worms live in mud littered with lots of microplastics

    By Maria Temming
  8. Amazon fire
    Earth

    Wildfires could flip parts of the Amazon from a carbon sponge to a source by 2050

    By Carolyn Gramling

From the Nature Index

Paid Content