With the Omicron variant causing infections to surge to record levels, masking is more important than ever— and increasing evidence indicates the quality of mask makes a significant difference.
The big picture: Fitted particle-filtering masks like N95s are up to 75 times more effective at preventing infection with COVID-19 than surgical masks, according to a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
A team of scientists using archival data has spotted a black hole shredding a star in deep space.
Why it matters: This kind of stellar sleuthing can be used to find more of these types of events and piece together the details of how galaxies evolve through time.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is fully deployed in space, and it should be able to perform its science for decades to come.
Why it matters: The longer the JWST can perform its science, the more data it can gather about the evolution of the universe. The $10 billion space telescope is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been in space for more than 30 years.
Future lunar ambitions, scientific advances and national prestige are front and center for missions to the Moon launching this year.
Why it matters: As the International Space Station program winds down, the Moon is only going to take on more strategic importance in the coming years. The lunar alliances of space-faring nations have implications for science, business and geopolitics back on Earth.
Why it matters: The patient, 57-year-old David Bennett, is still doing well three days later, proving for the first time a "genetically-modified animal heart can function like a human heart without immediate rejection by the body," UMMC said. The surgery has the potential to provide hope to hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide, the New York Times notes.
Last year featured the second-highest number of billion-dollar weather and climate disasters on record in the contiguous U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Why it matters: The extreme events of 2021 affected the public health of millions of Americans, destroyed homes and upended livelihoods, and demonstrated the escalating human and financial costs of global warming.
The past seven years have been the seven hottest on record, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, which released new global temperature data this morning.
Why it matters: The data shows in vivid detail that, even though 2021 was relatively cool compared to other recent years, it still ranked as the fifth warmest year and continued a trend driven by ever-growing amounts of greenhouse gases in the air.
