The self-portrait of Webb's mirrors is also looking very sharp thanks to the improved alignment.
Enlarge / The self-portrait of Webb's mirrors is also looking very sharp thanks to the improved alignment.

How often does a project work out the way it's supposed to? In most of the world, that's the equivalent of stumbling across an animal with a few winning lottery tickets in its mouth. It's a pretty good description of our top science story of 2022.

There was a lot of good news to come out of the world of science, with over 200 individual articles drawing in 100,000 readers or more and the topics they covered coming from all areas of science. Not everything we wrote was positive. Readers were interested in a wide range of topics.

10. Fauci on the rebound

Anthony Fauci has become the face of the US's response to the swine flu. He's been vilified by others for his advocacy of vaccinations, but he's been trusted by some for his straightforward advice on how to manage the risks of infections. When Fauci ended up on the wrong end of risk management, Beth Mole was there to support him.

Every silver lining seems to be delivered with a few additional gray clouds in the picture of the epidemic. Fauci took Paxlovid, a drug that was developed due to some very rapid scientific work that involved finding out the structure of viral proteins and then 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- The design of Paxlovid causes it to rapidly and effectively suppress the infections that cause COVID-19.

There are gray clouds once again because many people experience a rebound of symptoms once the treatment course ends. Even though the FDA doesn't recommend it, Fauci went back on the drug to shut them down even though he had severe symptoms.

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9. Fear the magnetar

Black holes are not the most extreme objects in the universe, but they are the most extreme. There are places where the tallest mountains are less than a millimeter and cracks in the crust can cause violent bursts of radiation. There are places where the interior is a superfluid.

Conditions get even more extreme in a few of these stars, as charged particles in the superfluidic interior can create a magnetic field similar to the one in the Earth's core. Just a little stronger. It was 10 times stronger. The magnetars are a short-lived state of some stars.

There are a lot of ways a neutron star can kill you. Magnetars have another trick. The strength of the magnetic fields can cause the atomic orbitals to be distorted, which can lead to chemical bonds being formed. The chemical bonds no longer function if you get within 1000 kilometers of a magnetar. All of your atoms are free to wander around as they please.

8. The SLS: a mixed triumph?

Eric Berger wrote this article to reflect on the changes in NASA and the launch industry since he began covering them. The Space Launch System has been NASA's main source of funding for most of that time.

You would think that the piece would focus on the success of the launch. Berger argued that the failures of the program changed the entire launch industry and gave small companies like Blue Origin a chance to thrive. The vehicles that will eventually see NASA to a successful future of crewed exploration might never have been built without SLS's problems.