Which sounds more objective: Nutrition Facts, Nutrition Values or Nutrition Guide? Does 2,000 calories meet your daily energy needs, or would 2,350? Such are a few of the consequential decisions the FDA, USDA and other agencies pondered when designing that staid, black-and-white label gracing the side of your cereal box and countless other food items.

You might have glanced at the Nutrition Facts label while deciding between two similar products at the grocery store – a little more fiber here or a little less salt there might have cinched your choice. But, as historian Xaq Frohlich of Auburn University notes, this label does much more than just provide consumers with nutritional information. “While envisioned as an education tool, I believe the Nutrition Facts label in practice has worked more like a market infrastructure,” he writes, “reshaping the food supply to meet shifting dietary trends and public health goals long before consumers find those foods at the supermarket.”

Frohlich unpacks some of the political and technical choices behind the daily values percentages and serving sizes, among others – exploring how the way food is translated into information shapes the health of the nation.

Also in this week’s science news:

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Vivian Lam

Associate Health and Biomedicine Editor
The Nutrition Facts label is designed to meet shifting dietary trends and public health goals. NoDerog/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Nutrition Facts labels have a complicated legacy – a historian explains the science and politics of translating food into information

Xaq Frohlich, Auburn University

The process of converting food into nutritional information is more than just a scientific process. It involves many political and technical compromises that continue to shape the food industry today.

AI supercharges data center energy use – straining the grid and slowing sustainability efforts

Ayse Coskun, Boston University

AI is everywhere these days, which means more data centers eating up more electricity. There’s no easy fix, but some combination of efficiency, flexibility and new technologies could ease the burden.

A new ‘Twisters’ movie is coming – two tornado scientists take us inside the world of real storm chasing

Yvette Richardson, Penn State; Paul Markowski, Penn State

To capture the data needed to understand how tornadoes behave, scientists have to be near the storm. The ‘Twister’ movies get some of it right.

Could people turn Mars into another Earth? Here’s what it would take to transform its barren landscape into a life-friendly world

Sven Bilén, Penn State

Liquid water, breathable air and a sustainable food supply are three of the essentials Mars would need for people to live comfortably there.

Baby bull sharks are thriving in Texas and Alabama bays as the Gulf of Mexico warms

James Marcus Drymon, Mississippi State University; Lindsay Mullins, Mississippi State University; Philip Matich, Texas A&M University

The Gulf Coast has seen big jumps in baby bull shark numbers. As adults, these are among the most aggressive species of sharks, but the babies aren’t cause for concern, as three scientists explain.

New research suggests estrogen and progesterone could play role in opioid addiction and relapse

Jessica Loweth, Rowan University; Daniel Manvich, Rowan University

Why are some individuals at greater risk for developing opioid dependence and addiction? Two neuroscientists at Rowan University discuss their latest findings.

America faces a power disconnection crisis amid dangerous heat: In 27 states, utilities can shut off electricity for nonpayment even in a heat wave

Sanya Carley, University of Pennsylvania; David Konisky, Indiana University

One in 4 American households is at risk of losing power because of the high cost of energy. Over 30% of those disconnections are in summer, when heat gets dangerous.