Column
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After a year like no other, new challenges and hope
Editor in chief Nancy Shute reflects on covering COVID-19, the things we've learned along the way, and some of the stories that sparked joy this year.
- Space
Top 10 questions I’d ask an alien from the Galactic Federation
An interview with E.T. would be a journalist’s dream, but it’s not very likely.
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Amid winter’s darkness, flashes of brilliance
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about the celestial conundrums of the Geminids meteor shower, the dimming of Betelgeuse and STEVE (the sky glow that is not an aurora).
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With a pandemic, impatience can be deadly
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about pandemic fatigue and the importance of patience in the face of uncertainty.
- Science & Society
These are science’s Top 10 erroneous results
A weird form of life, a weird form of water and faster-than-light neutrinos are among the science findings that have not survived closer scrutiny.
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In praise of serendipity — and scientific obsession
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about the role of serendipity and scientific obsession played in this month's feature stories.
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Seeing a bright future for science in these innovators
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about the process of finding and profiling the scientists who make up the SN10.
- Space
Hope for life on Venus survives for centuries against all odds
Early scientists often assumed that Venus, though hotter than Earth, hosted life.
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When the human body outwits a deadly virus
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about triumphs of the human immune system over HIV.
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Where do we draw the line between life and death?
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about the challenges of defining brain death and the first GM mosquitoes in the United States.
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When science doesn’t yet have the answers
Editor in chief Nancy Shute writes about going back to school in the midst of a pandemic.
- Physics
How understanding nature made the atomic bomb inevitable
On the anniversary of Hiroshima, here’s a look back at the chain reaction of basic discoveries that led to nuclear weapons.
