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COVID-19 Lessons From Colleges | Impostor Fossils MAGAZINE OF THE SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE s FEBRUARY 27, 2021 Solar Storms Scientists amp up efforts to protect Earth from what the sun throws at us cover.indd 1 2/10/21 1:52 PM Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Daily Life Taught by Professor Jason M. Satterfi eld TIME ED O , T FF I E IM R L 1. A CBT Toolbox: Toward Wise Living 70% 2. Laying a Foundation: Assessments and Goals 1 O off 3. Behavioral Activation: Potent Mood Boosters R H C DE R 4. Advanced Behavioral Techniques R B MA Y 5. Capturing Thoughts and Making Connections 6. Cognitive Restructuring and Thought Records 7. Worry, Rumination, and Sticky Thoughts 8. Digging Deeper: Rules and Core Beliefs 9. Toolbox in Action: Stress and Assertiveness 10. Understanding and Managing Emotions 11. Key Steps to Solving Problems 12. Grief, Sadness, and Depression 13. Panic Attacks and Anxiety 14. Addiction and Pain Medications 15. Embracing Imperfection 16. Beating Procrastination 17. 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Download or stream TGC ./4 to your laptop or PC, or use our free apps for iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, or Roku. Over 800 1-800-832-2412 courses available at www.TheGreatCourses.com. _C2.indd 2 2/10/21 9:26 AM VOL. 199 | NO. 4 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 16 coronavirus at bay? By Betsy Ladyzhets News 6 Earth’s early fossil record Naked mole-rat colonies 11 An upwelling of rock may be filled with have distinctive dialects beneath the Atlantic microbe mimics Ocean may be driving 9 Thumbs with humanlike continents apart 7 An antidepressant shows dexterity evolved by promise in preventing 2 million years ago 12 The Milky Way basks severe cases of COVID-19 10 The tuatara is the first in a glow of extremely 8 Ancient giant worms may vertebrate discovered energetic gamma rays 32 have burrowed into the to have two sets of Scientists bake seafloor to ambush prey mitochondrial DNA pulverized meteorites Departments to re-create exoplanet atmospheres 2 EDITOR’S NOTE 13 Some spiders have their 4 NOTEBOOK own version of a pulley to Knitting’s knotty math lift massive meals inspires a physicist; a plant-based robot 14 Skink-biting ticks may gets a grip help explain why Lyme disease is uncommon 29 REVIEWS & PREVIEWS Gross science deserves in the U.S. South your attention 15 News in Briefs 31 FEEDBACK An ancient Egyptian mummy wore a shell 32 SCIENCE VISUALIZED of mud Embroiderers stitch iconic images of brain cells Diamond doesn’t succumb to high pressure COVER A bright cloud of particles blew out from Gestational diabetes the sun in 2013. Activity in may increase a woman’s the current solar cycle is risk of having hardened expected to peak in 2025. 10 SDO/Goddard/NASA/Flickr FROM TOP: NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER; FLIGHT CENTER; SPACE NASA GODDARD TOP: FROM NZ/FLICKR BERNARD SPRAGG. PROJECT; EMBROIDERY ASKEW/CAJAL KATIE arteries later in life www.sciencenews.org | February 27, 2021 1 toc.indd 1 2/10/21 1:57 PM EDITOR’S NOTE PUBLISHER Maya Ajmera When a naked mole-rat EDITOR IN CHIEF Nancy Shute EDITORIAL EDITOR, SPECIAL PROJECTS Elizabeth Quill meets a sneaky sea worm NEWS DIRECTOR Macon Morehouse DIGITAL DIRECTOR Kate Travis FEATURES EDITOR Cori Vanchieri What do naked mole-rats and ancient sea worms have in MANAGING EDITOR, MAGAZINE Erin Wayman DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR Emily DeMarco common? Quite a bit, which is why they’re sharing real ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR Ashley Yeager ASSOCIATE EDITOR Cassie Martin estate on Page 8 of this issue. ASSOCIATE DIGITAL EDITOR Helen Thompson AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Mike Denison One of my favorite parts of editing Science News is read- ASTRONOMY Lisa Grossman ing page proofs, one of the last steps in the long magazine BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Bruce Bower BIOMEDICAL Aimee Cunningham production process. Even though I know what’s going into the magazine and EARTH AND CLIMATE Carolyn Gramling LIFE SCIENCES Susan Milius have read the articles before, it’s still like opening up a surprise gift to see the MOLECULAR BIOLOGY, SENIOR WRITER Tina Hesman Saey NEUROSCIENCE Laura Sanders pages come together. It’s the work of dozens of people, a process that starts PHYSICS Emily Conover SOCIAL SCIENCES Sujata Gupta when writers pitch ideas for news and feature articles. News stories get pub- STAFF WRITERS Erin Garcia de Jesus, Jonathan Lambert, Maria Temming lished first on the Science News website, and there are many more than we can EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Aina Abell CONTRIBUTING CORRESPONDENTS fit in a magazine. So it’s up to managing editor Erin Wayman to choose the ones Laura Beil, Tom Siegfried, Alexandra Witze that will go into print. She looks for the most important or intriguing science DESIGN CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER Stephen Egts of the previous two weeks, and aims for reporting across the fields of science, DESIGN DIRECTOR Erin Otwell ART DIRECTOR Tracee Tibbitts from artificial intelligence to zoology. ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR Chang Won Chang Articles that make the cut often either help answer a question that scientists SCIENCE NEWS FOR STUDENTS EDITOR Janet Raloff have worked to solve for a long time, or alert us to something that’s surprising MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Zielinski and counterintuitive. STAFF WRITER Bethany Brookshire WEB PRODUCER Lillian Steenblik Hwang For Page 8, Wayman picked a report on how naked mole-rats use distinctive SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE dialects to communicate with mole-rats within their social group. “It may seem PRESIDENT AND CEO Maya Ajmera CHIEF OF STAFF Rachel Goldman Alper surprising, but they’re highly social animals, so they would need a way to com- CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Kathlene Collins CHIEF PROGRAM OFFICER Michele Glidden municate,” she says. I was surprised and charmed by the notion of these mostly CHIEF, EVENTS AND OPERATIONS Cait Goldberg CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Gayle Kansagor blind critters chirping away in their burrows. CHIEF ADVANCEMENT OFFICER Bruce B. Makous CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER James C. Moore Wayman then paired the chatty naked mole-rats with a story of fossils that CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Dan Reznikov suggest giant worms may have dug tunnels in the seafloor millions of years ago, BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR Mary Sue Coleman springing forth from them to nab unsuspecting prey. While present-day VICE CHAIR Martin Chalfie TREASURER Hayley Bay Barna SECRETARY Paul J. Maddon AT LARGE Christine Burton hairless rodents and ancient predatory worms may not seem to have much in MEMBERS Craig R. Barrett, Adam Bly, Tessa M. Hill, Tom Leighton, Alan Leshner, W.E. Moerner, Dianne K. Newman, common, Wayman says she sees a pattern. “You’re looking at behavior today Thomas F. Rosenbaum, Gideon Yu, Feng Zhang, and in the past, which gives insights into animal behavior.” Maya Ajmera, ex officio ADVERTISING AND SUBSCRIBER SERVICES And for more connections between present and past, Page 9 features a story ADVERTISING Daryl Anderson SCIENCE NEWS IN HIGH SCHOOLS Anna Rhymes suggesting that hominids may have developed a specialized thumb muscle PERMISSIONS Maxine Baydush quite early on, one that helps give humans today our firm grip and uniquely Science News 1719 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 adaptable hands. “It’s amazing that the manual dexterity that we rely on has (202) 785-2255 been around for almost 2 million years, even before we were human,” Wayman Subscriber services: says. Perhaps we have that muscle to blame for humankind’s newly acquired E-mail [email protected] Phone (800) 552-4412 in the U.S.