Russia's Fast-Track Coronavirus Vaccine Draws Outrage over Safety

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August 12, 2020

Dear Reader, Russia's president Vladimir Putin announced this week that the country's health regulator had become the world's first to approve a coronavirus vaccine— but scientists worldwide have condemned the decision as dangerously rushed. Today's lead story has the details. In space news, NASA's exoplanet-hunting TESS space telescope is done with its primary mission, having discovered 66 confirmed alien planets and nearly 2,100 "candidates," but its search for strange new worlds goes on. And lastly, scientists say Antarctic ice shelves have lost nearly 4 trillion metric tons of ice since the mid-1990s. Ocean water is melting them from the bottom up, causing them to lose mass faster than they can refreeze. That spells bad news for the hundreds of glaciers spread out along the Antarctic coastline.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Public Health Russia's Fast-Track Coronavirus Vaccine Draws Outrage over Safety The immunization could be dangerous because it hasn't been tested in large trials, researchers say By Ewen Callaway,Nature magazine

Space Claims of 'Ocean' inside Ceres May Not Hold Water Final results from NASA's Dawn spacecraft suggest a brine reservoir exists within the dwarf planet, but some experts remain unconvinced By Scott Hershberger

Climate Antarctica's Ice Shelves Have Lost Millions of Metric Tons of Ice As these platforms are winnowed away, they imperil the continent's glaciers and set the stage for further sea level rise By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Policy & Ethics Women in Science May Suffer Lasting Career Damage from COVID-19 They bear a greater proportion of childcare and household responsibilities, making it much harder for them to publish their work and get ahead By Jillian Kramer

Behavior & Society Our Temporary Moratorium against Handshakes Should Become Permanent The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in an overdue development By Steve Mirsky

Space NASA's TESS Planet-Hunting Space Telescope Completes Its Primary Mission The observatory has found 66 confirmed worlds, plus 2,100 additional candidates—and the search goes on By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Climate How Climate Change Strategies That Use Biomass Can Be More Realistic Current plans for drawing down carbon dioxide call for more trees, grasses and crop residues than Earth can spare By Eric Toensmeier,Dennis Garrity

Climate America Is Preparing for the Wrong Arctic Crisis The first U.S. coordinator for the Arctic is mostly a veteran of Afghan war diplomacy—but the issues in the far North aren't primarily military ones By Victoria Herrmann

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 29, Issue 3s

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