6 surprising records science set in 2021
From a record-setting black hole to the oldest animal DNA ever recovered, discoveries in 2021 stretched the limits of scientific study — and our...
SCIENTIFIC NEWS
Vikings may have fled Greenland to escape rising seas
In 1721, a Norwegian missionary set sail for Greenland in the hopes of converting the Viking descendants living there to Protestantism. When he arrived,...
50 years ago, scientists were genetically modifying mosquitoes
Sterility gene for mosquito control — Science News, December 18, 1971 Scientists are working hard to find a substitute for DDT in the control...
COVID-19 testing is complicated right now. Here are answers to 6 big questions
A friend texted me recently because her daughter’s class had a coronavirus outbreak and my friend had some questions about COVID-19 testing. Testing has...
These are the viruses that mRNA vaccines may take on next
Tiny molecules came up big in 2021. By year’s end, COVID-19 vaccines based on snippets of mRNA, or messenger RNA, proved to be safe...
A CDC panel recommends mRNA COVID-19 vaccines over J&J’s, citing fewer risks
An advisory committee for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously December 16 to recommend mRNA COVID-19 vaccines over Johnson &...
A terrifying robot can thwart invasive mosquito fish
Invasive mosquito fish are often fearless. Free from the predators of their native range, these mosquito fish run rampant, throwing naive ecosystems from Europe...
Why it matters that health agencies finally said the coronavirus is airborne
This year, health experts around the world revised their views about how the coronavirus spreads. Aerosol scientists, virologists and other researchers had determined in...
How a warming climate may make winter tornadoes stronger
NEW ORLEANS — Warmer winters could make twisters more powerful. Though tornadoes can occur in any season, the United States logs the greatest number...
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....
As El Niño Returns, East Africa’s Urban Poor Brace for Heavy Rains 
Hunger is ‘an avoidable tragedy’ in a world of plenty: Türk 
UN condemns deadly wave of drone strikes in war-torn Sudan 
Guterres honours Indonesian troops who paid ‘ultimate sacrifice’