Why the coronavirus’s delta variant dominated 2021
2021 was a year of coronavirus variants. Alpha and beta kicked off the year, and several worrisome variants later, omicron is closing it out....
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
The Parker Solar Probe is the first spacecraft to visit the sun’s atmosphere
For the first time, a spacecraft has made contact with the sun. During a recent flyby, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe entered the sun’s atmosphere....
Neandertals were the first hominids to turn forest into grassland 125,000 years ago
Neandertals took Stone Age landscaping to a previously unrecognized level. Around 125,000 years ago, these close human relatives transformed a largely forested area bordering...
Quantum physics requires imaginary numbers to explain reality
Imaginary numbers might seem like unicorns and goblins — interesting but irrelevant to reality. But for describing matter at its roots, imaginary numbers turn...
In 2021, COVID-19 vaccines were put to the test. Here’s what we learned
2021 was the year the COVID-19 vaccines had to prove their mettle. We started the year full of hope: With vaccines in hand in...
How sleep may boost creativity
The twilight time between fully awake and sound asleep may be packed with creative potential. People who recently drifted off into a light sleep...
A bacteria-virus arms race could lead to a new way to treat shigellosis
When some bacteria manage to escape being killed by a virus, the microbes end up hamstringing themselves. And that could be useful in the...
Cicada science heats up when Brood X emerges. 2021 was no exception
In one of history’s weird coincidences, the second summer of a global pandemic brought Johns Hopkins biologist Ethan Allen Andrews out on a Baltimore...
Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier ice shelf could collapse within five years
The demise of a West Antarctic glacier poses the world’s biggest threat to raise sea levels before 2100 — and an ice shelf that’s...
The only known pulsar duo sheds new light on general relativity and more
The only known duo of pulsars has just revealed a one-of-a-kind heap of cosmic insights. For over 16 years, scientists have been observing the...
Estrogen therapy is linked to fewer signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain 
A vest tested on the Artemis I mission blocked some radiation exposure 
Frankenstein in Charge: Netanyahu Rejects Trump’s Gaza Plan 
Malawi Bets on Battery Storage to Climate-Proof Its Fragile Power Grid