Week in Science: Long COVID is still harming kids

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October 25—This week, gamma rays may spark lightning strikes, and how your brain processes "zero." Plus, why we're so lucky to be living in the golden age of apples. All that and more below! --Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

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Long COVID Is Harming Too Many Kids Pediatric long COVID is more common than many thought, and we keep letting kids be reinfected with new variants Blake Murdoch , expert writer

An Ancient Asteroid Impact Both Harmed and Helped Life A gigantic space rock that slammed into Earth more than three billion years ago grievously wounded the biosphere—and then helped it heal Douglas Fox

Mysterious Gamma-Ray Flashes May Be Missing Link for Lightning Bolts Observations from a retrofitted spy plane hint at a connection between powerful gamma-ray flashes and a thunderstorm's lightning Lee Billings

We Are Living in a Golden Age of Apples Apple experts divide time into "before Honeycrisp" and "after Honeycrisp," and apples have never tasted so good Laura Helmuth

How Your Brain Processes Zero (It's Not Exactly 'Nothing') What we think about when we think about "zilch" is surprisingly complex, neuroscientists find Michaela Maya-Mrschtik ; Daisy Yuhas

Why Does the Moon Look Bigger Near the Horizon? The rising moon looks huge on the horizon, but it's all in your head Phil Plait

Lost Silk Road Cities Discovered High in the Mountains of Central Asia On the Silk Road, these lost twin cities may have sustained themselves in a foreboding landscape with metallurgy and commerce Allison Parshall

How GPS Tracking of Teens 24/7 Impacts Parent-Child Relationships Phone apps can tell whether your kid is playing hooky. But remotely surveilling your child might not be great for navigating the trials of the teen years Sara Novak

Anosmia, the Inability to Smell, Changes How People Breathe A small study of people with congenital anosmia found changes in breathing that suggest the condition may affect more than just the ability to smell Hannah Docter-Loeb

What Brilliant Fall Leaf Colors Tell Us about Tree Health and Climate A tree's fall palette offers a glimpse at its health and the weather it has experienced in a given year Meghan Bartels

Decriminalization Wasn't the Real Culprit in Oregon's Overdose Death Spike Oregon decriminalized hard drugs in 2021 and recriminalized them last month. A new analysis shows the laws likely had little effect on opioid deaths Simar Bajaj

Jeff VanderMeer on How Scientific Uncertainty Inspires His Weird Fiction In Absolution, the fourth novel in Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach saga, scientists try to know the unknowable Amy Brady

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