AUTO ATROCITY: On Tuesday, Volkswagen agreed to pay a record $15.3 billion in the biggest-ever automotive buyback offer in U.S. history. The agreement comes ten months after the German automaker admitted to cheating U.S. diesel emissions tests and selling vehicles that emitted up to 40 times more than the legal limit for pollutants.

WHAT’S IN THE WATER: More than 18 million Americans were at risk of ingesting lead through their tap water last year, according to a new report by the National Resource Defense Council.

LIGHT-MARE: A new study has found that plants in the UK are processing light pollution as the early arrival of spring. The researchers found that trees can bloom up to a week early where light pollution is especially severe.

COP21 FALLS SHORT: The COP21 Paris agreement might not cut it when it comes to preventing a drastic rise in world temperature. The historic agreement committed 195 countries to limiting global warming to well below 2 degress Celsius, but a new study shows that the world may still warm up to 3 degrees under the current COP21 terms.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING: Danish researchers have found that environmental factors may impact when girls and boys enter puberty. Although pubertal timing is largely inherited, chemical modifications of the human genome may also factor in.