Now that everyone has digested their Thanksgiving dinners and leftovers – hopefully from small celebrations that didn’t involve traveling – it’s time to sift through recent science news again. There’s been a ton of COVID-19 related news, of course, but most of that has already been covered thoroughly by regular news outlets. Instead, this issue of the Filtrate will focus on stories that might’ve escaped notice. A broken dish The biggest and saddest non-pandemic science news this week was the collapse of the iconic radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

This week, the biggest science story was the news (so far only available in press releases and derived news stories) that both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccines appear to be very effective. We need to see actual, peer-reviewed data of course, and a critical question will be whether these vaccines – both based on the same strategy – confer immunity from infection or only from disease. It’s exciting news in any case.