What are vaccine developers' takes on the new coronavirus strain? How do the Oxford and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines work? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Dec 28 2020 - Jan 03 2021 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

We're ringing in the new year with the first picks from the new (and hopefully less cartoonishly dreadful) 2021. Read a rundown of the good news about the environment from 2020 and explore the weird world of slime moulds, and how they're helping to map the cosmic web. ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise also cover many other important and exciting topics. Why not have a read, inform yourself, and indulge your scientific curiosity?

• How does the Oxford and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine work? by Andy Brunning at Compound Interest.

It’s not a “get out of jail free” card for the current wave of COVID-19 cases, and the weeks and months ahead will still be incredibly challenging, but it will hopefully help blunt COVID’s threat later in 2021.
Image and text credit: Andy Brunning at Compound Interest.

• COVID-19 vaccine developers respond to new strain by Lucy Parsons for PMLive.
• Some Covid survivors haunted by loss of smell and taste by Roni Caryn Rabin for The New York Times.
• Sir Isaac Newton: The scientist born on Christmas day (or was he?) by Mikael Angelo Francisco for Flip Science.
• Can two snowflakes be exactly the same? by Mikael Angelo Francisco for Flip Science.
• This frog was once named after Dr. Jose Rizal by Mikael Angelo Francisco for Flip Science.
• Ozone in the air is bad for birds by Carla Germani for Massive Science.
• Top positive environmental stories from 2020 by Liz Kimbrough for Mongabay.
• Surviving a PhD defence at the end of the world (aka at the end of 2020) by Alex Fitzpatrick at Animal Archaeology.
• How to fortify your (and your kids’) screen time with a dose of physics by Rebecca and Chrystian Vieyra at Physics Central.
• Astronomers detect large-scale X-ray bubbles in Milky Way’s halo by Sci-News.com.
• How the humble slime mold helped physicists map the cosmic web by Jennifer Ouelette for Ars Technica.
• How to make artificial intelligence more democratic by Ryan Khurana for Scientific American.
• What's going on with nanomedicine? by Michael Berger for Nanowerk.
• Flexible hybrid sensor systems with feedback functions by Mika Kontiainen for Edinburgh University Science Magazine.
• Has 2020 ended as the warmest year on record? by Tom Yulsman for Discover magazine.
• Stem cells seed a new thymus, clinical hope? by Dr. Ricki Lewis and Dr. Paul Knoepfler for The Niche.

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Check back next week for more great picks