Years in science: | 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 |
Centuries: | 20th century · 21st century · 22nd century |
Decades: | 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s 2050s |
Years: | 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 |
2021 in science |
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Social sciences |
Paleontology |
Extraterrestrial environment |
Terrestrial environment |
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This is a list of several significant scientific events that occurred or were scheduled to occur in 2021 .
March 2021 in science |
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The historical application of biotechnology throughout time is provided below in chronological order.
Spillover infection, also known as pathogen spillover and spillover event, occurs when a reservoir population with a high pathogen prevalence comes into contact with a novel host population. The pathogen is transmitted from the reservoir population and may or may not be transmitted within the host population. Due to climate change and land use expansion, the risk of viral spillover is predicted to significantly increase.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the respiratory illness responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had the provisional name 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and has also been called human coronavirus 2019. First identified in the city of Wuhan, Hubei, China, the World Health Organization designated the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern from January 30, 2020, to May 5, 2023. SARS‑CoV‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences is a research institute on virology administered by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), which reports to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The institute is one of nine independent organisations in the Wuhan Branch of the CAS. Located in Jiangxia District, Wuhan, Hubei, it was founded in 1956 and opened mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in 2018. The institute has collaborated with the Galveston National Laboratory in the United States, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie in France, and the National Microbiology Laboratory in Canada. The institute has been an active premier research center for the study of coronaviruses.
Bat coronavirus RaTG13 is a SARS-like betacoronavirus identified in the droppings of the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus affinis. It was discovered in 2013 in bat droppings from a mining cave near the town of Tongguan in Mojiang county in Yunnan, China. In February 2020, it was identified as the closest known relative of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, sharing 96.1% nucleotide identity. However, in 2022, scientists found three closer matches in bats found 530 km south, in Feuang, Laos, designated as BANAL-52, BANAL-103 and BANAL-236.
ORF3d is a gene found in SARS-CoV-2 and at least one closely related coronavirus found in pangolins, though it is not found in other closely related viruses within the Sarbecovirus subgenus. It is 57 codons long and encodes a novel 57 amino acid residue protein of unknown function. At least two isoforms have been described, of which the shorter 33-residue form, ORF3d-2, may be more highly expressed, or even the only form expressed. It is reported to be antigenic and antibodies to the ORF3d protein occur in patients recovered from COVID-19. There is no homolog in the genome of the otherwise closely related SARS-CoV.
This is an article of notable issues relating to the terrestrial environment of Earth in 2021. They relate to environmental events such as natural disasters, environmental sciences such as ecology and geoscience with a known relevance to contemporary influence of humanity on Earth, environmental law, conservation, environmentalism with major worldwide impact and environmental issues.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been efforts by scientists, governments, and others to determine the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Similar to other outbreaks, the virus was derived from a bat-borne virus and most likely was transmitted to humans via another animal in nature, or during wildlife trade such as that in food markets. While other explanations, such as speculations that SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a laboratory have been proposed, such explanations are not supported by evidence. Conspiracy theories about the virus's origin have also proliferated.
The COVID-19 lab leak theory, or lab leak hypothesis, is the idea that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused the COVID-19 pandemic, came from a laboratory. This claim is highly controversial; most scientists believe the virus spilled into human populations through natural zoonosis, similar to the SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV outbreaks, and consistent with other pandemics in human history. Available evidence suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was originally harbored by bats, and spread to humans from infected wild animals, functioning as an intermediate host, at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, Hubei, China, in December 2019. Several candidate animal species have been identified as potential intermediate hosts. There is no evidence SARS-CoV-2 existed in any laboratory prior to the pandemic, or that any suspicious biosecurity incidents happened in any laboratory.
RacCS203 is a bat-derived strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome–related coronavirus collected in acuminate horseshoe bats from sites in Thailand and sequenced by Lin-Fa Wang's team. It has 91.5% sequence similarity to SARS-CoV-2 and is most related to the RmYN02 strain. Its spike protein is closely related to RmYN02's spike, both highly divergent from SARS-CoV-2's spike.
Nirmatrelvir is an antiviral medication developed by Pfizer which acts as an orally active 3C-like protease inhibitor. It is part of a nirmatrelvir/ritonavir combination used to treat COVID-19 and sold under the brand name Paxlovid.
This article lists a number of significant events in science that have occurred in the first quarter of 2021.
Bat coronavirus RpYN06 is a SARS-like betacoronavirus that infects the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus pusillus. It is a close relative of SARS-CoV-2 with a 94.48% sequence identity.
Alex Sigal is a South Africa–based virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, South Africa, Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, and University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. His work concentrates on evolution and persistence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. His laboratory was the first to isolate the live B.1.351 (Beta) variant of SARS-CoV-2 first detected in South Africa. Sigal’s laboratory was also the first to report results on the ability of the Omicron variant to escape antibody neutralization in individuals who had two doses of the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine as well as from previous infections, with results also suggesting that vaccination combined with a booster or previous infection can offer protection from symptomatic infection with Omicron.
Leucine zipper transcription factor like 1 also known as LZTFL1 is a ubiquitously expressed protein which localizes to the cytoplasm and in humans is encoded by the LZTFL1 gene.
The WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2 or the Joint WHO-China Study was a collaborative study between the World Health Organization and the Government of China on the origins of COVID-19. The study was commissioned by the Director-General of the World Health Organization following a request by the 2020 World Health Assembly in which 122 WHO members proposed a motion, which included a call for a "comprehensive, independent and impartial" study into the COVID-19 pandemic" The WHO disbanded the team and proposed a new panel called Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens.
This article lists a number of significant events in science that have occurred in the second quarter of 2021.
ORF9c is an open reading frame (ORF) in coronavirus genomes of the subgenus Sarbecovirus. It is 73 codons long in the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Although it is often included in lists of Sarbecovirus viral accessory protein genes, experimental and bioinformatics evidence suggests ORF9c may not be a functional protein-coding gene.
ORF10 is an open reading frame (ORF) found in the genome of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. It is 38 codons long. It is not conserved in all Sarbecoviruses. In studies prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, ORF10 attracted research interest as one of two viral accessory protein genes not conserved between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 and was initially described as a protein-coding gene likely under positive selection. However, although it is sometimes included in lists of SARS-CoV-2 accessory genes, experimental and bioinformatics evidence suggests ORF10 is likely not a functional protein-coding gene.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)China has successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars, state media announced early on Saturday. The six-wheeled Zhurong robot was targeting Utopia Planitia...
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)That is 126 years earlier than the generally accepted dating based on sediments in the Meerfelder Maar from the Eifel region in Germany. ... This means that the [onset of the Younger Dryas] also occurred in Central Europe 130 years earlier, around 12,870 years ago respectively. This is in line with the onset of the cooling in the North Atlantic region identified in ice cores from Greenland. ... 'This strong cooling did not take place time transgressively, as previously thought, but rather synchronously over the entire North Atlantic and Central European region,' said Frederick Reinig.
[Measurements] firmly date the [Laacher See eruption] to 13,006 ± 9 calibrated years before present (BP; taken as AD 1950), which is more than a century earlier than previously accepted. ...thereby dating the onset of the Younger Dryas to 12,807 ± 12 calibrated years BP, which is around 130 years earlier than thought.
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(help)Compared to non-immunized guinea pigs, vaccinated animals exposed to infected ticks quickly developed redness at the tick bite site. None of the immunized animals developed Lyme disease if ticks were removed when redness developed. In contrast, about half of the control group became infected with B. burgdorferi after tick removal. When a single infected tick was attached to immunized guinea pigs and not removed, none of vaccinated animals were infected compared to 60 percent of control animals. However, protection waned in immunized guinea pigs if three ticks remained attached to the animal. Ticks in immunized animals were unable to feed aggressively and dislodged more quickly than those on guinea pigs in the control group.
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