If my children come home from a party wearing glitter facepaint, I make sure they don’t wash it off. Not with a flannel down the sink, anyway. Every tiny piece of glitter is a sparkly microplastic. So I make sure it all gets wiped off and put in the bin because every plughole eventually leads to the ocean. But environmental scientists at Trinity College Dublin have discovered that glitter is more than just litter.

Their new research shows glitter that makes its way into the sea is actively disrupting a crystal-forming process known as biomineralisation, which affects how marine life such as sea urchins, corals and oysters form their shells and skeletons. This mineral formation also contributes to how the ocean helps regulate Earth’s climate by moving carbon through the planet. So the consequences could be far from pretty.

Meanwhile, can you tell a Persian from a flat-faced pug? In a new study, US researchers scanned 1,810 skulls of domesticated breeds of cats and dogs, plus their wild relatives. They found that the human selection involved in breeding our pets could cause convergence, so different species can evolve similar traits and look more alike.

Finally, if the sun is shining, there could be even more reason to get outside. A professor of biomedical sciences sheds some light on new research that suggests vitamin D could play a valuable role in preventing certain cancers.