Science News - USA (2021-02-27)

http://www.sciencenews.org | February 27, 2021 1

FROM TOP: NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER;

KATIE ASKEW/CAJAL EMBROIDERY PROJECT; BERNARD SPRAGG. NZ/FLICKR

VOL. 199 | NO. 4

News

Departments

2 EDITOR’S NOTE

4 NOTEBOOK

Knitting’s knotty math

inspires a physicist;

a plant-based robot

gets a grip

29 REVIEWS & PREVIEWS

Gross science deserves

your attention

31 FEEDBACK

32 SCIENCE VISUALIZED

Embroiderers stitch

iconic images of brain cells

Features

16 Solar Storm Preparedness

COVER STORY There’s got to be a better way to

predict when the sun is going to send a burst of

charged particles our way. Communication and

transportation systems and the power grid depend

on it. By Ramin Skibba

22 COVID-19 on Campus

Many U.S. colleges opened for fall semester last year,

throwing a mixed bag of testing, surveillance and

social distancing at students and staff. Did it keep the

coronavirus at bay? By Betsy Ladyzhets

16

COVER A bright cloud of

particles blew out from

the sun in 2013. Activity in

the current solar cycle is

expected to peak in 2025.

SDO/Goddard/NASA/Flickr

6 Earth’s early fossil record

may be filled with

microbe mimics

7 An antidepressant shows

promise in preventing

severe cases of COVID-

8 Ancient giant worms may

have burrowed into the

seafloor to ambush prey

Naked mole-rat colonies

have distinctive dialects

9 Thumbs with humanlike

dexterity evolved by

2 million years ago

10 The tuatara is the first

vertebrate discovered

to have two sets of

mitochondrial DNA

11 An upwelling of rock

beneath the Atlantic

Ocean may be driving

continents apart

12 The Milky Way basks

in a glow of extremely

energetic gamma rays

Scientists bake

pulverized meteorites

to re-create exoplanet

atmospheres

13 Some spiders have their

own version of a pulley to

lift massive meals

14 Skink-biting ticks may

help explain why Lyme

disease is uncommon

in the U.S. South

15 News in Briefs

An ancient Egyptian

mummy wore a shell

of mud

Diamond doesn’t

succumb to high pressure

Gestational diabetes

may increase a woman’s

risk of having hardened

arteries later in life

32

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