What We Know about Omicron's BA.2 Variant So Far

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April 08, 2022

Epidemiology What We Know about Omicron's BA.2 Variant So Far Does the new strain sweeping the globe mean COVID will become ever more contagious? By Charles Schmidt

Astronomy New Revelations Raise Pressure on NASA to Rename the James Webb Space Telescope E-mailed exchanges show the space agency's internal struggle to address pleas to change the controversial name of its latest, greatest observatory By Adam Mann

Robotics Birds Make Better Bipedal Bots Than Humans Do A new machine called BirdBot balances walking efficiency and speed By Joanna Thompson

Sponsor Content Provided by Macmillan Audio Listen to the WIRED FOR LOVE audiobook From the world's foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Particle Physics Elementary Particle's Unexpected Heft Stuns Physicists A new analysis by the CDF collaboration is a bolt from the blue, finding that the W boson is significantly heavier than suggested by previous measurements and theoretical prediction By Daniel Garisto

Quantum Physics Poem: 'Schrödinger's Cat' Science in meter and verse By Peggy Landsman

Conservation 60 Years after Silent Spring Warned Us, Birds--and Humanity--Are Still in Trouble Data show alarming declines in wildlife but also point to ways to save it By Naomi Oreskes

Public Health Second Boosters, Masks in the Next Wave and Smart Risk Decisions: COVID Quickly, Episode 27 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 Josh Fischman,Tanya Lewis,Jeffery DelViscio | 09:09

Conservation To Revive a River, Restore Its Liver Radical reconstruction in Seattle is bringing nearly dead urban streams back to productive life By Erica Gies

Materials Science New 'Ionogels' Are Tough, Stretchable and Easy to Make They could find use as protective material, 3-D printer "ink" or longer-lasting batteries By Sophie Bushwick

Natural Disasters Mysteries Shroud the Cause of Colorado's Worst Wildfire The Marshall Fire destroyed more than 1,000 homes in December By John Fialka,E&E News

Inequality A 630-Billion-Word Internet Analysis Shows 'People' Is Interpreted as 'Men' Gender bias turns up in the way we think of the most neutral of words By Dana G. Smith

Black Holes Swarms of Black Holes at the Milky Way's Heart? Maybe Not Revisiting a controversial claim, astronomers are laying bare deep uncertainties about our understanding of galactic centers By Lyndie Chiou

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 31, Issue 2s

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BRING SCIENCE HOME Build a Catapult Ready, aim, fire! Learn about physics as you build and modify your own catapult--and launch cotton balls through the air! How far can you make your soft missiles soar? Credit: George Retseck Catapults were mighty handy for pirates in the golden age of piracy (during the 17th century). And medieval knights used them centuries earlier for taking down massive castle walls. Even Greeks and Romans used catapults about 2,000 years ago! These simple machines are quite handy, as long as you know how to aim them! In this science activity you will try your hand at catapult technology. Can you predict where your missile will land?

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