How can skipping stones help to design sea vehicles and even spacecraft? How can we make sense of the latest CERN findings that challenge the Standard Model? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of April 19 - 25 2021 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's best from the world of science news, explore the amazing breakthrough in malaria vaccination and discover the disturbing link between pregnancy complications and COVID-19 infection. 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?

• Stone skipping physics could help spacecraft land safely on water by Matthew Sparkes for New Scientist.

Despite the paper's promising conclusions for other craft, spacecraft landing on water would have to be spinning fast enough that humans inside would experience dangerous G-forces.
Image Credit: Laughlin Elkind via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• How to make sense of recent CERN finding that challenges the Standard Model of particle physics by Adam Fortais for Massive Science.
• An array of bacteria and fungi help leafcutter ants break down toxic leaves by Sophia Friesen for Massive Science.
• Foam rolling can help athletes hurdle the post-halftime slump by Margaux Lopez for Massive Science.
• Great malaria vaccine news by Derek Lowe at Science Translational Medicine
• Particle physics discoveries that disappeared by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction.
• Save the microbes! by Muhammad Saleem for Knowable magazine.
• My top tips for revising for exams  by Ruby Tomlinson for Durham University Student blogs. 
• Bubbles with titanium trigger titanic explosions by Chandra X-ray Observatory.
• Perseverance extracts pure oxygen from carbon dioxide-rich Martian air by Sci-News.com.
• Clear link emerges between COVID-19 and pregnancy complications by Jocelyn Kaiser for Science magazine.
• LSD: An uncommon treatment for a common problem  by psychneuro for On Psychology and Neuroscience.
• Imaging the living brain in action by Steven Novella for Neurologica.

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What conclusions can we draw from the J&J vaccine pause? What side-effects can you expect when you're vaccinated against Covid-19? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of April 12 - April 18 2021 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's bitesize edition of the best science news from around the world, learn about how HIV activists put policies in place that have saved lives in the current pandemic, and explore the weird new type of uranium scientists have just discovered. 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?

• Podcast: Yes, J&J’s vaccine pause is confusing. here’s why by Ira Flatow and Umair Irfan for Science Friday.

This week, the FDA and CDC both recommended a temporary pause in distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine, after the emergence of a very rare, very unusual blood clotting side effect. 
Text credit: Article; Image credit: El Alvi via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Vaccine side effects Q and A by Derek Lowe at Science Translational Medicine.
• 99.992% of fully vaccinated people have dodged COVID, CDC data shows by Beth Mole for Ars Technica.
• Four ways HIV activists have saved lives during Covid by Monica Gandhi in Knowable magazine.
• Some lucid dreamers can answer questions and math problems in their sleep by Marina Olle Hurtado for Massive Science.
• Telescopes unite in unprecedented observations of famous black hole by Chandra X-ray Observatory.
• Physicists have created a new and extremely rare kind of uranium by Leah Crane for New Scientist 
• Black dwarf supernovae by John Baez at Azimuth.
• What is a comet? Your answer may depend on the language you learn in by Ludving Adolfo Cano Fernandez for Massive Science.
• How many Tyrannosaurus rex individuals ever roamed earth? by Sci-News.com.
• Scientists find the first known nursery for the munk's devil ray by María Rodríguez-Salinas for Massive Science.
• 10 of the Best Student Blogs for Millennial Life by Mathilde Frot for Top Universities Blog.
• Sleep and Eating – There’s a Time for Both by Raj Trikha for Nutribites.
• Dialogues in music therapy and social neuroscience by Filippo Pasqualitto for Knowing Neurons.
• Food for thought: The neuroprotective effects of xanthophylls by Jonathan Cerna for Nutribites.
• The re-emergence of psychedelics in society: a shift from counterculture to cancer treatment by psychneuro for On Psychology and Neuroscience. 

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What can monkeys teach us about recovering from disaster? Why is daydreaming good, actually? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of April 5 - April 11 2021 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

Roll up, roll up, for the best science news from around the world, picked out for you by scientists. This week, find out how Covid-19 has been detrimental to bats, and how scientists are hoping that studying bacterial genetics can help to stop another pandemic. 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?

• What monkeys can teach humans about resilience after disaster by Lydia Denworth for Scientific American.

Broader and more tolerant social networks helped Macaques recover from disasters,according to a new study.
Credit: Ravi Jandhyala via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Don’t take your head out of the clouds! by Rebecca Renner for The New York Times.
• Fermilab’s latest muon measurements hint at cracks in the Standard Model by Jennifer Ouelette for Ars Technica.
• Nature’s most magnetic objects, ripped apart in starquakes, can unleash powerful flashes of light by Joshua Sokol for Science magazine.
• Does the universe have higher dimensions? Part 1 by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction.
• People of the Tiahuanaco civilization engineered their own rocks to build temples and monuments by Maria Teresa Cardozo Robles for Massive Science.
• The thrusters behind NASA's mission to the asteroid Psyche by Eric Berger for WIRED.
• Researchers identify a bacterium that enables its host to breathe nitrate instead of oxygen by Irene Zhang for Massive Science.
• COVID-19 tests encased on coffee machine capsules by Mark Lorch for Chemistry Blog.
• Scientists urge focus on bacterial genetics to prevent outbreaks and other public health threats by Miklos Bolza for Lab Down Under.
• Bats: COVID-19’s unexpected victim by Science Borealis.
• Global warming 101 by Amanda MacMillan and Jeff Turrentine for NRDC.
• Having your desalination and eating it, too by Pip Knight for Hakai magazine.
• Seaspiracy harms more than it educates by Josh Silberg for Hakai magazine.
• When your palace crumbles overnight: Being rejected from PhD Programs (A Personal Experience) by Sabina Sagynbayeva for Astrobites.

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How could cocoa protect against stress-related heart attacks? What's the low-down on Alzheimer drug hopeful Prevagen? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of March 29 - April 4 2021 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's Easter edition of the best of science news, find out how chocolate bunnies are protected so that they don't crumble (It's physics!) and find out why chemical names are so similar and confusing. 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?

• Cocoa flavanols could protect against mental stress-induced cardiovascular events by Sci-News.com.

Blood vessel function was less impaired when the participants drank high-flavanol cocoa. They also found that flavanols improve blood flow during stress.
Credit: lolay via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

• Alzheimer’s treatments in the pipeline and the false promise of Prevagen: Distinguishing hope from hype by Ricki Lewis for DNA Science.
• Protecting large hollow chocolate bunnies by Marc Abrahams for Improbable Research.
• Drinking wine leads to lesser risk of cataract surgery, British study says by Gerry Roberts for The Science Times.
• Drone incinerated by volcano as it takes a shot by Isabella Beltran for Science Times.
• Are #Diamonds Really Forever? Quantum Mechanics says yes by Allison Kubo Hutchison at Physics Central.
• Confusing #chemical ⚗️ names: why do some sound so similiar? by Kat Day at The Chronicle Flask.
• The deep freeze by AShortScientist.
• Interstellar comet Borisov is the most pristine space object ever seen  by Leah Crane for New Scientist.
• Physicists give antimatter the chills by John Timmer for Ars Technica.
• ‘I’m empty.’ Pandemic scientists are burning out—and don’t see an end in sight by Meredith Wadman for Science.
• New travel guidelines, real-world vaccine efficacy, and more Coronavirus news by Eve Sneider for Wired.
• Podcast: Seaweed might help cows go green by Ira Flatow, Albert Straus and Ermias Kebreab for Science Friday.
• Making a movie  by Rose Galbraith for Durham University Student Blog.

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