Could the Olympics be an evolutionary event for the coronavirus? How did the Delta variant come about? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of July 19 - July 25 2021 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's edition of the best and brightest from science news around the world, explore how the film Tenet addresses entropy and Maxwell's demon, and find out how two cups of coffee could reduce the risk of renal cancer. 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?

• The Olympics could be a Covid-19 ‘super-evolutionary event’ by Adam Rogers for Wired.

Whenever you get many people together, there’s the opportunity for large outbreaks—not just super-spreading events, but also multiple generations of transmission, and the infections can then be passed on when people return home,” says Sarah Cobey, an epidemiologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago.
Credit: Jota @ BRAZIL via Flickr (Public Domain)

• Podcast: The Rise of Delta by Tim Harford for More or Less: Behind the Stats.
• Oncolytic viruses: Models and assays for developing viruses that can kill cancer by Johanna Lee for Promega Connections.
• How the film Tenet explores entropy, information, and Maxwell's demon by Hannah Pell for Physics Central.
• Astronomers spy possible moons in the making in a distant star system by Daniel Clery for Science.
• Mutations in white blood cells weaken immunity to infectious diseases by Jayati Sharma for Massive Science.
• Two compounds in your morning coffee could help fight renal cancer by Shawna Stanwood for Massive Science.
• Doctors can use a person's descriptions of a picnic scene to measure their language skills after a stroke by Alberto Osa García for Massive Science.
• What did ancient people eat? Scientists find new clues in old pottery by Caroline Wilke at Knowable Magazine
• Dogs will ignore you if they know you are lying, unlike young children by Christa Lesté-Lasserre for New Scientist.
• The first atomic bomb created this ‘forbidden’ quasicrystal by Marisa Sloan for Discover Magazine.
• Podcast: Slimy cells stop sinking by Jesse Noar at BacterioFiles.

To indulge your curiosity even more, follow us on Facebook or Twitter for honourable mentions of great posts that didn't quite make our #SciSeekPicks list this week. Want #SciSeekPicks to help satisfy your scientific curiosity every week? Sign up here for regular notification emails.