High in the French Alps, blooms of microalgae color the snow they live in red each spring. A team of researchers this week published a study detailing some of the algae species found in these streaks of "glacier blood."
The big picture: Very little is known about snow algae — a link in the mountain ecosystem's food web — and how their blooms may be affected by rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate change.
The controversy over the origin of the COVID-19 virus is renewing focus on how the risks and benefits of pathogen-altering experiments are weighed and managed.
Why it matters: Better governance of biorisks would limit the threat of a human-made pandemic — and could help identify the origin of future outbreaks more quickly and with a lot less controversy.
Companies planning to build robots to explore the Moon and track junk in space are among the 10 startups chosen for an Amazon Web Services' program designed to help mature their businesses.
Why it matters: This latest venture is part of Amazon's play to become even more involved with the space industry, helping to support customers as their satellites beam huge amounts of data back from orbit.
The Biden administration will ship the first batch of 500 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines to 92 countries and the African Union from August, the White House announced Thursday morning.
Details: "200 million doses will be delivered by the end of this year and the remaining 300 million will be delivered in the first half of 2022," the White House said in a statement.
Houston Methodist Hospital on Tuesday suspended 178 employees without pay for 14 days for failing to comply with its COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
Driving the news: The Texas hospital's CEO, Marc Boom, said in a message to staff shared with Axios that 24,947 workers had been vaccinated against the virus by Monday's deadline. 27 of those who didn't get fully vaccinated "have received one dose ... so I am hopeful they will get their second doses soon," Boom said.
