July 16, 2024: We're covering why COVID is peaking in the summer, the familiarity of an asteroid sample returned to Earth and how to reach out to long-lost friends. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Our minds associate the spread of viruses, including the one that causes COVID, with wintertime and cool, dry air. It's true that the flu is a winter disease. But since the COVID virus, SARS-CoV-2, came on the scene, it actually has peaked globally in the summer as well as in the winter. Here are some hypotheses to explain summer peaks, reported by Scientific American editor Tanya Lewis. Currently circulating variants, including the latest Omicron sub-variants of SARS-CoV-2, might spread more easily or better slip past our immune defenses, says infectious diseases specialist Peter Chin-Hong, at the University of California, San Francisco. Warm weather also is conducive to vacation travel and social gatherings. These behaviors, along with features of the virus, apparently are more significant in explaining COVID peaks than air temperature and humidity.
What the experts say: "We know that nearly all [COVID] transmission happens indoors, in places with poor ventilation and/or poor filtration. One hypothesis is that these building factors and human behavior are driving the summertime increases in cases," says Joseph Allen, at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
What to do: Everyone should have received at least one COVID vaccination in the past year, Chin-Hong says. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends a second booster of last fall's COVID vaccine for people aged 65 and older. Ching-Hong says the second booster is especially wise for older adults who have weakened immune systems, are planning a trip or are attending a large gathering such as a wedding. Stay tuned for a new, recently authorized version of the COVID vaccine this fall that targets some of the virus's recent variants. Masking and avoiding crowded indoor spaces are also measures to avoid COVID in any season. | | | Amanda Montañez; Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | | | Early results from NASA's recently completed asteroid sample-return mission have revealed that its target, Bennu, is very familiar. The collection of 121.6 grams (more than four ounces) of clay-packed material from the near-Earth asteroid holds clues pointing to an original form that once bore some resemblance to early Earth. Bennu's "parent body" apparently was once a geologically active water world containing amino acids and other prebiotic organic molecules, writes volcanologist Robin George Andrews. In addition, the samples hold the potential to clarify the origins of water and of life on Earth and how our planet itself formed, says geologist Harold Connolly, an OSIRIS-REx mission sample scientist.
Why this matters: In-depth analysis of the once-soggy rock also could provide a better sense of where Bennu's parent body formed in our solar system. Researchers will look more closely at crystals that condensed within Bennu before the sun existed, potentially revealing some of our solar system's building blocks and clues to the system's potentially explosive origins.
What the experts say: Ongoing analysis of grains in the sample's rocks also could provide insight into some fundamental planetary science. "What was that starting mineralogy of the solar system? Where did that dust come from? Did it all come from just one star or multiple generations of stars or different types of stars?" says Ashley King, a meteoriticist and member of the OSIRIS-REx team. | | | A top-down view of the contents of the OSIRIS-REx sample-return capsule. NASA/Erika Blumenfeld and Joseph Aebersold | | | • A brief "warm-up" session of sending messages to current friends could help us overcome the anxiety of reaching out to friends we miss but haven't spoken with in a while, psychologists Lara B. Aknin and Gillian M. Sandstrom write, describing some of their recent experiments. Such reconnections and other social relationships can prove key to one's happiness and long-term mental health, decades of research show. | 5 min read | | | The planet Venus came up in conversation yesterday. As the "ball of fire" that gives us life enthusiastically scorched much of the U.S., one of us took on the sun's voice, if you will, saying, "Quit complaining about the heat. Would you rather go to Venus?" As volcanologist Robin George Andrews notes in this story, the surface temperature at Venus is about 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Venus is on the mind at NASA these days too. On Friday, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sent lyrics from the Missy Elliott song, "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" to Venus–the artist's favorite planet–via the Deep Space Network's (DSN) Goldstone complex, in California. The message traveled 158 million miles (254 million kilometers) to its destination. Back when I was on the JPL beat in Pasadena, I enjoyed an opportunity to tour the vast Goldstone facility. Up close, the radio dishes were spectacularly impressive and unforgettable. Two NASA missions are set to launch to Venus in the next decade and send data back to Earth via the DSN, as Andrews writes in the aforementioned story. Exploration of Venus, as well as dreams of finding life there, may hold lessons for hot summers on Earth. As Andrews puts it: "Venus helps to redefine the meaning of habitability." | Please send your Venusian thoughts and other feedback to: newsletters@sciam.com. We enjoy hearing from you. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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