The Crucial Vaccine Benefit We're Not Talking about Enough

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Public Health The Crucial Vaccine Benefit We're Not Talking about Enough The vaccines not only prevent people from getting sick; they also cut down on transmission by those who get infected after immunization By Daniel P. Oran,Eric Topol

Space & Physics Announcing a New Plan for Solving the Mystery of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena The newly organized Galileo Project will use a three-pronged approach to replace unreliable eyewitness reports with reproducible scientific observations By Avi Loeb

Behavior The Olympics without Fans Is Harming Athletes' Performance Simone Biles drops out of an event, citing the lack of an audience By Maddie Bender

Medicine Fauci on COVID Drugs, Vaccines and Getting Back to Normal The U.S.'s top infectious disease specialist describes a new Biden administration program to develop and test antivirals—and what he's most worried about as the nation reopens By Charles Schmidt

Cognition Quantum Mechanics, Plato's Cave and the Blind Piranha Can we ever really know the world? By John Horgan

Space & Physics Learning to Live in Steven Weinberg's Pointless Universe The late physicist's most infamous statement still beguiles scientists and vexes believers By Dan Falk

Climate Change 'Advanced' Nuclear Reactors? Don't Hold Your Breath With little hard evidence, their developers maintain they'll be cheaper, safer and more secure than existing power plants By Elliott Negin

Space & Physics Avi Loeb's Galileo Project Will Search for Evidence of Alien Visitation With nearly $2 million in private funding, the controversial new initiative is targeting unidentified phenomena in Earth's skies and beyond By Adam Mann

Behavior Why So Many Young People Hate STEM Courses Take it from someone who almost gave up on her dream of being a scientist By Rhea Wanchoo

Animals Caffeine Boosts Bees' Focus and Helps Them Learn By associating caffeinated sugar water and a target scent, researchers teach bumblebees to stay on task By Tess Joosse

Engineering Entire Buildings Can Be Wrapped in Jackets to Save Energy Apartment buildings, or blocks of row houses, can be upgraded in one installation By Willem Marx

Astronomy Why an Asteroid Strike Is like a Pandemic Both are low-probability but catastrophic events—and both can be mitigated if we act early enough By Casey Dreier

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BRING SCIENCE HOME Paper Bridges What shape makes the best bridge? Become a paper bridge engineer and learn about how shape plays a role in designing sturdy structures. Can you come up with an even stronger shape? Credit: George Retseck Have you ever walked, ridden your bike or driven in a car over a long bridge? Bridges have to be sturdy enough to support the weight of many people and cars without collapsing. One important part of designing a bridge is selecting the right materials. Another is making sure those materials comprising it are shaped in a way to make them strongest. In this project you will build a simple "bridge" using materials you already have on hand—paper and tape! Can you build a miniature bridge that doesn't collapse?

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