NOVA's top 5 science stories of 2021
Scientific advancements helped humans push through both the pandemic and the atmosphere this year, and a long-awaited visit from some underground insects set the country abuzz.
A brood X cicada photgraphed in New Jersey in 2004. Image Credit: Pmjacoby, Wikimedia Commons
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Victory! Ingenuity conducts its first powered flight on Mars
American Indians have the highest Covid vaccination rate in the US
The James Webb Space Telescope team prepares for launch
NOVA's top science education stories of 2021
As 2021 began, scientists, along with the rest of us, confronted many of the same issues that dominated 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and the continued disruption of school and work. But unlike last year, when scientific progress was hindered by shutdowns and isolation, this year marked new successes in medicine, climate science, and astronomy. With the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines and boosters, people were able to emerge and come closer together. (And in spring, a cohort of insects also emerged and came close to people living in the mid-Atlantic region.)
2021 was also a year of learning. We have a better understanding of the coronavirus and its variants, and are also now armed with vaccines and pills to protect against illness. Scientists delivered new climate information and recommendations for curbing the effects of climate change on the planet. And scientific breakthroughs even had some out-of-this-world results: Just ask the civilians who flew into space. As we say goodbye to 2021, here’s a look back at some of the biggest science stories of the year:
COVID-19 vaccine advancements and campaigns—for humans and animals
On December 20, Omicron overtook Delta as the most common coronavirus variant circulating in the U.S., now responsible for more than 70% of infections in the country, according to CDC data. Epidemiologists and other scientists around the world are parsing the potential dangers of the new variant, whose transmissibility has been compared by doctors to that of the highly contagious measles virus. Already, Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccines have been used most in the U.S.’s coronavirus vaccination campaign, have released early data showing the effectiveness of their booster shots against Omicron. Pfizer’s latest development, an antiviral pill called Paxlovid, also hit the market this month. The pill—which works as a protease inhibitor, blocking the virus’s ability to replicate in the body—is currently in limited supply, but with a reported 88% efficacy in preventing hospitalization of those sick with COVID-19, it appears to be a promising treatment for the ill as we enter another year of the pandemic, and the potential future where COVID-19 is endemic.
The rollout of boosters is another big milestone in the coronavirus pandemic, first marked by the development and distribution of highly effective vaccines. According to CDC data, more than 200 million people are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the U.S., with more than 67 million having received a booster dose. Even some zoo animals, particularly mammal species that are able to contract and spread the virus, were vaccinated against COVID-19
A man receives a coronavirus vaccine at Mass General Brigham's mobile clinic in Chelsea, Mass. Image Credit: Arlo Pérez Esquivel, WGBH
Taking religious- or history-related vaccine hesitancy into account, many vaccination campaigns targeted particularly vulnerable populations. For example, Chelsea, Massachusetts, a primarily Hispanic city that in 2020 had the highest infection rate in the state, tapped its healthcare providers, religious leaders, and public health officials to lead a vaccination campaign that would best reach community members. As of today, 85% of its eligible population is vaccinated against COVID-19.
Nationwide, Native American communities carried a burden of disease unlike any other: As of November 2021, American Indians and Alaskan Natives had 1.6 times the coronavirus infection rate, more than three times the hospitalization rate, and a more than twice the mortality rate of white Americans. Despite limited healthcare access for Native Americans living in urban communities, successful vaccination campaigns, many of which centered Indigenous values of keeping family members and the larger community safe, helped Native Americans reach the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country back in July.
Vaccination campaigns have had varied success worldwide. As some places—like the U.K. and Israel, both of which have higher vaccination rates than the U.S.—receive boosters, others, including the majority of the African continent, still face lower access to vaccines. The World Health Organization, which advocates for equitable vaccine access and set a target for all countries to vaccinate 10% of their populations by the end of September, has reported on this problem and a potential solution—especially in the face of new coronavirus variants like Omicron.
Space tourism and Mars exploration
A concept once limited to science fiction, civilian space travel quite literally took off in 2021. Blue Origin, a private space company owned by multibillionaire Jeff Bezos, launched several American celebrities, including actor William Shatner and former athlete Michael Strahan, into suborbital spaceflight. These flights, however, were not courtesy of Bezos: The approximately $28 million price tag turned off actor Tom Hanks, who, despite playing an astronaut in the 1995 film Apollo 13, had no interest in becoming one for such a cost.
The space tourism market hasn’t been cornered by Bezos alone. Other aerospace and tech companies, including SpaceX, Rolls Royce, and Virgin Galactic, have entered the commercial space race, expanding the definition of an astronaut and allowing those who can afford it the opportunity to venture beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
A dynamic duo: In this illustration, the Mars Perseverance rover and first-ever space helicopter, Ingenuity, stand upon the Martian surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/CalTech
Meanwhile, NASA also hit exploration milestones this year, many of which took place on Mars. NASA’s fifth Mars rover, Perseverance, successfully landed on the red planet in February 2021, carrying with it a small space helicopter. Perseverance spent 2021 searching for the remains of microscopic life in Mars’ Jezero Crater, a dry, 28-mile-wide valley that scientists believe was a river delta on the planet 3.5 billion years ago. If Perseverance can find signs of past microbial life in Jezero Crater’s sediment, scientists will be able to piece together more clues about Mars’ past and present.
In April, the four-pound space helicopter Ingenuity became the first human-made craft to lift off on another planet when it achieved controlled, powered flight only weeks after arriving on Mars. The flying rotorcraft’s mission is to chronicle Mars’ terrain in a way rovers haven’t been able to. While its engineers initially planned for a total of five flights, Ingenuity has logged 18 flights and counting–totaling more than 30 minutes aloft.
Brood X cicadas
In May and June, 15 states braced themselves for a noisy invasion. Brood X cicadas, X being the Roman numeral for 10, are one of 15 broods that appear in the continental U.S. After gestating for 17 years underground, the cicadas emerged in huge numbers this year, becoming a source of fascination for citizen scientists, nature lovers, and insect-eating enthusiasts alike.
Cicadas are essentially defenseless after crawling above ground. Unlike other bugs that sting and bite, male cicadas use their distinctive song—the loudest noise in the entire insect world—to keep predators at bay. Their screaming, rattling “song” is created by expanding and contracting a membrane in their abdomen called a tymbal. And while the sound may annoy predators and humans, the call is irresistible to female cicadas. To indicate they want to mate, females make clicking sounds in response to males’ mating calls. In a matter of weeks, cicadas breed, lay eggs, and die. Another 17 years later, a new batch of Brood X—their offspring—will emerge.
Before having a chance to mate, some of Brood X’s cicadas fell victim to birds, squirrels, dogs, and other predators, including people. After all, “cicadas are an extremely versatile and tasty ingredient. You can fry them, roast them, pulverize them, or even eat them raw, as if they were oysters,” Sandra Gutierrez G. wrote for Popular Science in May. The consumption of insects, called entomophagy, could benefit human health and help curb greenhouse gas emissions tied to the meat industry, NOVA reported in October. If you missed your chance to eat cicadas this year, take note for 2038: Chef Joseph Yoon of Brooklyn Bugs says a freshly molted cicada is the tastiest of all.
Climate change and extreme weather
In August, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth climate assessment report, detailing the changes necessary to stop global temperatures from rising to levels that would cause undue environmental harm as well as potential steps to keep greenhouse gas emissions low enough to prevent widespread climate-related disasters. There were temporary declines in carbon emissions in 2020 as a result of pandemic shutdowns, but the switch to remote work for many office-goers was not exactly friendlier for the environment. The IPCC’s conclusion? Yes—humans are warming the planet. It’s warmed to 1.09℃ since preindustrial times, and many of the changes as a result of this are irreversible. If global warming stays below 1.5℃, particular damages, such as marine heatwaves and sea level rise, may reduce in frequency in the coming years. But if it exceeds 1.5℃ or even 2℃, the planet will see a significant and harmful shift in the frequency and progression of these and other climate damages. Extreme weather has become more frequent and intense since 1950, the IPCC also reported, a shift perhaps exemplified this year by sandstorms, hurricanes, and typhoons.
On December 13, in a virtual press briefing at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, researchers warned that Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier could collapse within three years. Nicknamed the “doomsday glacier," Thwaites is the size of Florida and could cause sea levels to rise as much as two feet. As of 2020, the gradual melting of Thwaites already accounts for 4% of global sea level rise on an ongoing basis. The amount of ice flowing from it and its glacial neighbors has almost doubled in the last 30 years. According to the latest reports, “Warming ocean water is not just melting Thwaites from below; it's also loosening the glacier's grip on the submerged seamount below, making it even more unstable,” Mindy Weisberger writes for Space.com. Current mathematical models illustrate that if the glacier were to collapse, much of western Antarctica’s remaining ice would become unstable.
Bidding farewell to Hubble; saying hello to James Webb
The Hubble Space Telescope launched on April 24, 1990, and for more than 30 years has delivered images of the cosmos, detected the chemical composition of exoplanet atmospheres, and illustrated how stars form (and explode). Though Hubble is still working, the aging telescope—last updated in 2009—was succeeded by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which launched from French Guiana on Christmas Day 2021. During its 30-day, one-million-mile journey to a spot about four times farther away than the Moon, the JWST will gradually unfold into its final form. With a 21-foot-wide mirror and a cost of $10 billion, the JWST is the largest, most powerful, and most expensive telescope ever to be launched into space.
Twenty-nine days after its launch, the world’s most advanced telescope will unfurl in its entirety—assuming it skirts past nearly 350 points of failure. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Completed in 2019, right before the pandemic slowed most operations, the telescope sports gold-plated beryllium mirrors optimized for reflecting infrared light, which will help it observe distant galaxies—including those that formed shortly after the Big Bang. (As the universe constantly expands, the light from stars and galaxies shifts over time from our perspective here on Earth. By the time the light from the Big Bang’s earliest creations reaches Earth, it’s stretched from visible blue light to heat radiation that’s invisible to the naked eye and optical telescopes, but whose infrared waves can be detected by a colossal infrared telescope like the JWST.)
Besides observing some of the earliest galaxies in our universe, the JWST will peer through the dense dust clouds where stars and planets form, helping scientists better understand the evolution of these celestial bodies once the telescope reaches its targeted location in space. The telescope will also help researchers study the atmospheres of exoplanets, using its infrared instruments to peer at water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, and other chemical compounds. The JWST team hopes that the telescope’s observations could help reveal clues about our universe’s future. One thing is for certain: The possibilities of an astronomical telescope with years of universe-gazing ahead of it seem endless.
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