Week in Science: COVID's six-foot rule made scientific sense

June 7—This week, fossils of a 500-lb "giga-goose," Fauci faces a Congressional committee, and NASA won't rescue the Hubble Telescope. All that and more below! --Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

Top Stories

500-Pound Prehistoric Bird Was a 'Giga-Goose,' Fossils Reveal Scientists reveal the face of Australia's massive, extinct "giga-goose" Kate Evans

How Many Holes Does the Universe Have? The shape of the cosmos could be much more complex than anyone had ever imagined Manon Bischoff

COVID's Six-Foot Rule Made Scientific Sense at the Time Attacks on Anthony Fauci over guidance on masking and social distancing issued during the COVID pandemic ignore the science on viral spread Tanya Lewis

NASA Refuses Hubble Rescue Mission and Trims the Space Telescope's Science Failing hardware on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope may lead to less science, officials say, but the space agency isn't ready to pursue a private repair mission Lee Billings

H5N1 Bird Flu Isn't a Human Pandemic—Yet. American Contrariness Could Turn It into One Americans don't like being told what to do, and many don't trust government. These stubborn attitudes might turn H5N1 bird flu into a pandemic Maggie Fox, contract writer

New 'FLiRT' COVID Variants Could Be Driving an Uptick in Cases. Here's How to Avoid Them COVID numbers are low, but some evidence suggests they could be rising. Here's how to protect yourself this summer, according to experts Lauren J. Young

Why Bird Flu Is Infecting People's Eyes Three U.S. dairy workers have been infected with H5N1 after contact with sick cows, and all of them developed eye symptoms Tanya Lewis

Ice Age 'Spa' Kept Trees Alive in Freezing Conditions Fossils from an ice age "spa" reveal a cluster of hot springs kept trees alive in the frozen Alps Tom Metcalfe

The North Star Has an Age-Defying Secret: Stellar Cannibalism The iconic star Polaris appears to be much younger than its true age. The secret: it's eating another star Phil Plait

Exotic Quantum State Achieved after Decades-Long Quest Molecular Bose-Einstein condensates could help to provide the answers to fundamental questions or form the basis of new quantum computers Elizabeth Gibney; Nature magazine

The 180-Year-Old Endnotes That Foretold the Future of Computation Ada Lovelace's wisdom about the first general-purpose computer can be found buried in the appendix of another paper Jack Murtagh

'If Not Friend, Why Friend-Shaped?' A Beary Scientific Investigation Why are bears both adorable and deadly? Scientific American investigates why these apex predators are "friend-shaped" Carin Leong; Allison Parshall

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