The Lab-Leak Hypothesis Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth

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February 18, 2022

Policy The Lab-Leak Hypothesis Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth Virus origin stories have always been prone to conspiracy theories. COVID disinformation has threatened research—and lives By Stephan Lewandowsky,Peter Jacobs,Stuart Neil

Electronics Holographic Camera Instantly Peeks around Obstacles New imaging tech could probe beyond corners, inside the body, and more By Nikk Ogasa

Space Exploration Billionaire Space Tourism Has Become Insufferable From brave exploration to just another playground for the 0.0000001 percent By Clara Moskowitz

Policy Two Scientists Will Replace U.S. Science Adviser Eric Lander Celebrated sociologist Alondra Nelson and genome leader Francis Collins will temporarily split Lander's duties By Lauren Wolf,Jeff Tollefson,Amy Maxmen,Nature magazine

Education Dangerous Lies Fuel a New Kind of Butterfly Effect The National Butterfly Center is closed because of threats from conspiracy theorists, robbing children in an underserved area of a chance to learn By Jeffrey Glassberg

Climate Change Why the White House Never Released Its 2030 Climate Strategy Political turmoil in Congress and uncertainty about climate regulations has hampered release of the report showing how the U.S. would cut emissions in half By Jean Chemnick,E&E News

Policy COVID's Uneven Toll Captured in Data Visualizing ongoing stories of loss, adaptation and inequality By Amanda Montañez,Jen Christiansen,Sabine Devins,Mariana Surillo,Ashley P. Taylor

Space Exploration NASA Eyes Electric Car Tech for Future Moon Rovers Space agencies are partnering with car manufacturers to custom build new rovers—or retrofit commercial vehicles—for future missions to the moon and Mars By Maddie Bender

Public Health Discovery of New HIV Variant Sends Warning for COVID Pandemic Infectious disease expert William A. Haseltine cautions that a coronavirus variant could emerge with the transmissibility of Omicron and the deadliness of the original SARS By Marla Broadfoot

Planetary Science What We Learned from the Perseverance Rover's First Year on Mars Despite some unexpected challenges, team members are setting lofty goals for the rover in 2022 By Nadia Drake

Pharmaceuticals Nasal Spray COVID Preventives Are Finally in Development Different methods of drug delivery give us more tools to fight disease By Megha Satyanarayana

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 31, Issue 1s

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FROM THE ARCHIVE The COVID Lab-Leak Hypothesis: What Scientists Do and Do Not Know An examination of the arguments that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a lab in China and the science behind them By Amy Maxmen,Smriti Mallapaty,Nature magazine | June 2021

QUOTE OF THE DAY "We are not doomed to keep repeating the mistakes of past intersections of science and conspiracy should we choose to learn from them instead." Stephan Lewandowsky, Peter Jacobs and Stuart Neil

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