Are New Omicron Subvariants a Threat? How Scientists are Keeping Watch

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April 18, 2022

Epidemiology Are New Omicron Subvariants a Threat? How Scientists are Keeping Watch In South Africa, a network of researchers are studying whether new lineages BA.4 and BA.5 escape immunity from COVID-19 vaccines and prior infections By Amy Maxmen,Nature magazine

Climate Change Responses to Rising Hunger Could Threaten Climate Goals European policymakers are considering easing environmental protection measures to allow for increased crop production By Sara Schonhardt,E&E News

Cosmology Astronomers Gear Up to Grapple with the High-Tension Cosmos A debate over conflicting measurements of key cosmological properties is set to shape the next decade of astronomy and astrophysics By Anil Ananthaswamy

Animals Groovy Monkey Teeth Pose a Tool-Use Mystery Weird dental scratches in humans can indicate tool use, but in some macaques, they mean something entirely different By Joanna Thompson

Politics Russia's War in Ukraine Follow our ongoing coverage of the conflict, from the humanitarian crisis to the global impact on food supply and the catastrophic potential of nuclear weapons

Public Health Venturing Back to the Office and the Benefits of Hybrid Immunity: COVID Quickly, Episode 28 Today we bring you a new episode in our podcast series COVID, Quickly. Every two weeks, Scientific American's senior health editors Tanya Lewis and Josh Fischman catch you up on the essential developments in the pandemic: from vaccines to new variants and everything in between. You can listen to all past episodes here. By Tanya Lewis,Josh Fischman,Tulika Bose | 06:52

Ecology New Vaccine Could Save Rabbits from Fatal Disease Veterinarians and rabbit owners are racing to protect bunnies as a hemorrhagic disease spreads By Tatum McConnell

Animals Social Animals Seek Power in Surprisingly Complex Ways It's not just physical combat—animals have a host of strategies for building clout By Lee Alan Dugatkin

Epidemiology New Cases of Childhood Diabetes Rose during the Pandemic It isn't clear why, but researchers are investigating a possible COVID link By Carolyn Barber

Psychology A New Dimension to a Meaningful Life Studies suggest that appreciating beauty in the everyday may be just as powerful as a sense of overarching purpose By Joshua Hicks,Frank Martela

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 31, Issue 2s

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FROM THE ARCHIVE Vaccines Remain Effective against BA.2, but Protection from Infection Wanes over Time Such protection declines within months of the mRNA COVID vaccines' third dose. Yet the vaccines continue to ward off severe disease By Saima May Sidik,Nature magazine | March 2022

QUOTE OF THE DAY "It would be great if these new variants are part of a trend in which the virus is becoming milder, but there's no biological reason to believe that will always be the case." Wendy Barclay, virologist at Imperial College London

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