Ethics
High-Profile Autism Genetics Project Paused Amid Backlash
Study aimed at collecting DNA from 10,000 autistic people and their families has drawn criticism for failing to consult the autism community
Nature
Extraterrestrial Life
A Mysterious ‘Alien Beacon’ Was Actually a False Alarm
Radio signal seemed to originate from the star Proxima Centauri, and provided a helpful drill for future searches
Vaccines
COVID Vaccine Makers Prepare for a Variant Worse Than Delta
Companies are updating vaccines and testing them on people to prepare for whatever comes next in the pandemic
Planetary Science
Lucy, the First Mission to Jupiter’s Asteroids, Could Reveal Solar System Origins
The NASA spacecraft will loop past the never before explored Trojan asteroids during a 12-year journey
Pharmaceuticals
How Antiviral Pill Molnupiravir Shot Ahead in the COVID Drug Hunt
The Merck pill, which could become the first oral antiviral COVID treatment, forces the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to mutate itself to death
Vaccines
Scientists Hail Historic Malaria Vaccine Approval—But Point to Challenges Ahead
The WHO-approved RTS,S vaccine has a modest efficacy and requires a complex regimen of doses, so ample funding and clear communication are crucial to success
Materials Science
This Is What a Solid Made of Electrons Looks Like
Physicists have imaged elusive ‘Wigner crystals’ for the first time
Politics
Francis Collins, Head of NIH Who Led Human Genome Project, to Step Down
After 12 years at the helm of the top biomedical research agency, the geneticist will return to running his lab by year’s end
Astronomy
NASA Won’t Rename the James Webb Space Telescope—and Astronomers Are Angry
The agency found no evidence that the flagship observatory’s namesake was involved in anti-LGBT+ activities, but some say that Webb bears responsibility
Space Exploration
Mercury Dazzles in New Close-up from BepiColombo Mission
The European and Japanese spacecraft performed the first of six slingshot maneuvers around the planet. It will ultimately insert two probes into orbit in 2025
