Air pollution is throwing off bees and butterflies’ pollinating skills: Diesel exhaust and ozone pollution can alter floral odors, making bees and butterflies — whose pollination abilities are essential to agriculture and plant health — less likely to smell the flowers, according to new UK research. The research results are significant, as the insects’ smelling ability was impaired even within the pollutant concentration range deemed safe by some countries. Bees and butterflies not smelling the roses is a huge threat to global agriculture as pollinators play a role in up to USD 577 bn-worth of global crops cultivated each year, according to a 2016 report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The Wall Street Journal has the story.

The EU wants to become a “leader in chip production” with the help of proposed legislation set to be revealed next month that will provide chip production facilities with public support, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, according to Bloomberg. The EU is aiming to produce 20% of the world’s value of semiconductors by 2030, up from 10% currently. The value stems from chip research and production equipment, but not so much from chips themselves, which come from abroad — a dependency the EU needs to nip, von der Leyen added. Major chipmakers are already eyeing EU investments, with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company exploring a new manufacturing location in Germany while US’ Intel is planning a number of investments in Germany, France and Italy.

If not for social responsibility, keep your facemask on to appear more attractive: Aside from limiting the transmission of covid-19 and other bugs, a new study from Cardiff University suggests that a facemask — especially a blue surgical one — makes males more appealing. The attraction could be because of the mental association between masks and people in caring and medical professions, experts suggest, while the researchers believe the masks imply a sense of reassurance that makes others feel safe and comfortable, Reuters.

SIGN OF THE TIMES- Your next bag of M&M’s is going to be gender neutral: The marketing minds behind M&M’s are rebranding the chocolate characters to make them more inclusive by creating “more nuanced personalities to underscore the importance of self-expression and power of community through storytelling.” The relatively small changes include giving the green character — which was originally designed to look like an attractive woman — more gender-neutral shoes, as well as dropping the gender-specific prefixes. The Wall Street Journal has the story.