When Dr. Tiffany M. Osborn received her COVID-19 vaccination shortly after vaccines became available in late 2020, she felt hopeful about the pandemic's trajectory. A year later, she's sad and frustrated to see so many COVID patients in the ICU. Matt Miller / Washington University School of Medicine hide caption
A colorized electron micrograph image of a cell (red) infected with with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample. Science Source hide caption
Health care workers administer COVID-19 tests at a drive-through clinic in Sydney, Friday, Dec. 31. Australian health authorities have reported a record 32,000 new virus cases, many of them in Sydney. Bianca De Marchi/AP hide caption
A health care worker holds doses of J&J vaccines at the Gandhi Phoenix Settlement in Bhambayi township, South Africa, on Sept. 24. A study of the J&J booster shot in the country had promising results against the omicron variant. Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
A Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) flies around a residential neighborhood in Silver Spring, Maryland, on April 28, 2012. The non-migratory Pileated woodpecker is the largest of the common woodpeckers found in most of North America. JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
The sun sets over the dark Manhattan skyline on August 14, 2003. A power outage affected large parts of the northeastern United States and Canada. Robert Giroux/Getty Images hide caption
An artist's rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope with its sunshield deployed. NASA hide caption
Dermatologist Dr. Jenna Lester treats her patient Geoffry Blair Hutto in the UCSF Primary Care clinic. Barbara Ries hide caption
A health care worker administers a COVID-19 PCR test at a free test site in Farragut Square on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the CDC revised data reflecting the prevalence of the omicron variant in new COVID-19 cases. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption
Food recalls were down this year, but experts who track foodborne illness don't know exactly why. Here, produce is on sale at a Miami supermarket on Oct. 22. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption
Ranthony Edmonds is a post-doctoral researcher at The Ohio State University. In addition to her pure math research, Edmonds focuses on service and math outreach both in and out of the classroom. Joshua Kendall Edmonds/JKE Photography hide caption
Map showing the COVID-19 risk level in each state. Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Census Bureau 2019 population estimates, 2020 Census (U.S. territories) hide caption