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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Health & Medicine
Why 6 feet may not be enough social distance to avoid COVID-19
Scientists who study airflow warn that virus-laden drops may travel farther than thought.
- Physics
Here’s how the periodic table gets new elements
Today’s scientists keep adding to the periodic table. But an element has to earn its spot.
- Climate
The largest Arctic ozone hole ever measured is hovering over the North Pole
A strong polar vortex in early 2020 led to what may be a record-breaking hole in the ozone layer over the Arctic.
- Life
Algae use flagella to trot, gallop and move with gaits all their own
Single-celled microalgae, with no brains, can coordinate their “limbs” into a trot or fancier gait.
By Susan Milius - Health & Medicine
You can help fight the coronavirus. All you need is a computer
With Folding@home, people can donate computing time on their home computers to the search for a chemical Achilles’ heel in the coronavirus.
- Chemistry
Evaporating mixtures of two liquids create hypnotic designs
Through the magic of surface tension, mixtures of two liquids form fingerlike protrusions and other patterns as droplets evaporate.
- Life
A new lizard parasite is the first known to move from mom to baby
Nematodes were found living in a lizard’s ovaries and the braincase of her embryos — the first evidence of a reptile parasite that jumps generations.
By Pratik Pawar - Physics
How to make the best fried rice, according to physics
Researchers show exactly how rocking and sliding a wok can launch fried rice into the air, letting it cook at a high temperature without burning.
- Life
Wolves regurgitate blueberries for their pups to eat
The behavior, documented for the first time, suggests that fruit may be more important to wolves than previously thought.
By Jake Buehler - Life
How thin, delicate butterfly wings keep from overheating
Structures in butterfly wings help living tissues such as veins release more heat than the rest of the wing.
- Space
ESA’s Solar Orbiter will be the first spacecraft to study the sun’s polar zones
ESA's Solar Orbiter is now on its way to the sun, beginning a nearly two-year journey.
- Earth
Here are 5 of the weirdest auroras, including the newly spotted ‘dunes’
A newfound type of aurora dubbed the “dunes” joins the ranks of black auroras, STEVE and other obscure auroral phenomena.