New Yorker, December 28, 2020
The US has only 4 percent of the world’s population, yet it accounts for 20 percent of all covid deaths. How did we go so wrong?
STAT, December 19, 2020
For now, the good news is that the United States has two Covid-19 vaccines that have been shown to be highly effective.
The Atlantic, December 29, 2020 (Ed Yong)
As vaccines roll out, the U.S. will face a choice about what to learn and what to forget.
The Guardian, December 29, 2020
Experts tell end of year media briefing that virus is likely to become endemic and the world will have to learn to live with it.
Scientific American, December 24, 2020
There is evidence the new variant could be more transmissible, yet vaccines work very well against it
GENERAL INTEREST
Nature, December 22, 2020
Climate change and COVID-19 vaccines are among the themes set to shape research.
Quanta, December 22, 2020
Today’s information age is only possible thanks to the groundbreaking work of a lone genius.
Sci-News, December 28, 2020
The discovery pushes back the earliest evidence of these exotic foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean).
Science, December 22, 2020
These “epigenetic” alterations are the first evidence that growing up in the mountains can alter not just genes, but how the body uses them.
Phys.Org, December 23, 2020
The genetics trace two major migratory waves in the Caribbean by two distinct groups, thousands of years apart, revealing an archipelago settled by highly mobile people, with distant relatives often living on different islands.
COSMOS
BBC News, December 25, 2020
Astronaut Scott Kelly tells the BBC how he managed to live for a year on the International Space Station and why, four years into his retirement from Nasa, he would go back if someone asked.
Quanta, December 23, 2020
Featuring paradoxical black holes, room-temperature superconductors and a new escape from the prison of time.
Universe Today, December 26, 2020 (great image!)
Located in the southern constellation Fornax (the Furnace), the image depicts an extremely far away galaxy whose light is bent by a much closer galaxy cluster.
Sci-Tech Daily, December 26, 2020
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs – powerful, millisecond-duration radio waves coming from deep space outside the Milky Way Galaxy – have been among the most mysterious astronomical phenomena ever observed.
Science Daily, December 28, 2020
Astronomers are studying black holes that could have formed in the early universe, before stars and galaxies were born. Such primordial black holes (PBHs) could account for all or part of dark matter, be responsible for some of the observed gravitational waves signals, and seed supermassive black holes found in the center of our Galaxy and other galaxies.
INNOVATION
The Narwhal, December 22, 2020
Hidden in their DNA is a growth hormone gene from chinook salmon — spliced into genetic coding from ocean pout, an eel-like fish — that allows them to grow to full size at twice the speed.
The Guardian, December 24, 2020
Four ways to store food while cutting out the plastic, from beeswax to vegan-friendly leaf wrap
Science News, October 14, 2020
The compound conducts electricity without resistance up to 15° C, but only under high pressure
New York Times, December 22, 2020
Meal kits from your favorite restaurant, snacks that help you sleep and other ways the food world may respond in a year of big changes.
Yale Environment 360, December 22, 2020
Aided by advances in deep-drilling technology for fracking, engineers are developing new methods of tapping into the earth’s limitless underground supplies of heat and steam.
HEALTH
Nautilus, December 2020
Computational biology is uncovering the immune system’s tricks for identifying foreign invaders.
Healthline, June 08, 2020
While occasional bouts of stress are difficult to avoid, chronic stress can take a serious toll on your physical and emotional health.
New York Times, December 23, 2020
Including high-intensity training in your workouts provided better protection against premature death than moderate workouts alone.
The Guardian, December 14 2020
Each of us carries these chemicals in our bodies, and people will continue to be exposed for generations to come.
STAT, December 18, 2020
Now a new network of pediatricians nationwide is working on a grassroots effort to raise awareness of the effects of climate change on children’s health.
NATURE
The Guardian, December 24, 2020
Gardening in a wildlife-friendly way can make a massive difference in counteracting biodiversity loss.
Outside, February 25,, 2019
As the country's second most popular park turns 100, Grand Canyon faces an unprecedented number of existential threats.
Atlas Obscura, December 23, 2020
There’s uncertainty, but the eruption is confined to the summit caldera.
The Guardian, December 26, 2020
Necropsy reveals 80% of the thousands of songbirds that died suddenly showed typical signs of emaciation
NPR, December 26, 2020 (text/audio)
The oldest ice on Earth probably is hiding somewhere in Antarctica, because this frozen continent holds ice that's hundreds of thousands and even millions of years old.
ENVIRONMENT
Science Daily, December 23, 2020
The discovery of microplastics in the air above the ocean reveals the spread of this hazardous pollution.
The Revelator, December 14, 2020
In its final days, the administration is rushing to cement its destructive legacy with attacks on clean air, wildlife and public lands that could be difficult to undo.
Inside Climate News, December 23, 2020
Blazes at the imperiled hazardous waste sites could release toxins ranging from acid mine drainage to radioactive smoke.
New York Times, December 28, 2020
For 10 days in September, satellites in orbit sent tragic evidence of climate change’s destructive power.
Phys.Org, December 21, 2020
Climate scientists have been predicting that some of the forest area in Brazil would soon transition from carbon sinks to carbon sources—including the rain forests.
CLIMATE
The Guardian, December 25, 2020
Bright yellow stickers warn drivers burning of gasoline has ‘major consequences on human health and the environment’
Inside Climate News, December 30, 2020
The nitrous oxide emissions from hundreds of chemical plants globally, 300 times more warming than carbon dioxide, are the greenhouse equivalent of 45 million cars.
Yale Climate Connections, December 21, 2020
In an all-around bizarre and largely unpleasant calendar year, extreme weather and climate-related changes contributed to the woes of 2020.
Inside Climate News, December 24, 2020
Of 2020's Atlantic storms, 13 were hurricanes, six of them Category 3 or higher. Warmer ocean waters are fueling an increasing number of storms.
Washington Post, December 23, 2020
Vertical ice caves in Greenland, called ‘moulins,’ drain water from the ice to the sea — and they’re even bigger than we thought.
