There is a helicopter on Mars.
December 2021.
COVID-19 continued to dominate lives. The year produced many stunning science images unrelated to the Pandemic. Nature's news and art teams were interested in the shots that caught their attention.
Volcanic ash. The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands in September left vast areas of land buried by ash. Hundreds of homes were destroyed when the volcano unleashed a huge volume of lava, which flowed all the way to the island's west coast.
Parvin Fathi-Hafshejani and Seyed Adib Taba are from the same school.
Parvin Fathi-Hafshejani and Seyed Adib Taba are from the same school.
The beach is small. The scene is one-quarter of a millimetre tall. It is shaped using a laser and imaged with a microscope. The masterpiece won third place in the competition.
A shot of a ship. The British Merchant Navy ship was sunk in the Red Sea during the Second World War. The wreck is becoming part of the coral reef. Photographer Simon Brown captured this image of the ship in 15,005 frames, each adjusted to give a straight down view before being tagged with gps data and merged with the others.
Cell close-up. A rat embryo has a group of sensory nerve cells that detect pain and other things. The shot won fourth place in the competition.
A hybrid embryo. Scientists reported in April that they had grown the first monkey embryo containing human cells. Better models for testing drugs or being used to grow human organs for transplants might one day be provided by human– animal hybrid. The field has raised ethical questions.
A rat is beingraved. Researchers reported in February that the South African springhare fluoresces hot pink under ultraviolet light. The function of the striking patterns and intense colour is a mystery.
There is plant life. Microalgae exposed to ultraviolet light produce a red color called astaxanthin, which is sold as a supplement. The system is part of a bioreactor facility. It uses an ultra-energy-efficient lighting system.
Burning up. The United States was ravaged by extreme wildfires again this year due to climate change. Thousands of people were evacuated from the southern shore of Lake Tahoe in late summer as firefighters battled a blaze in California.
An ancient insect. The portrait of a 40-million-year-old gnat in amber by photographer Levon Biss got an honorable mention in the small world photomicrography competition.
Nature's media and news editors identified a photograph that said something special to them in the collection of striking science images. They took a look at the past year.
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