As is well known, websites have the advantage that their editors can check which articles are particularly popular with users – updated daily, monthly or even by the minute. As every year, Technology Review checked the TR online archive between Christmas and New Year’s Eve and found the twelve most popular articles of 2021 for you from January to December.
In the popularity ranking, Corona once again clearly shaped the mix of topics – but that is by no means the only important topic of this once again exceptional year.
We wish all readers a lot of fun reading our review of TR Online 2021. It has three parts: On Monday we dealt with the months of January to April, on Tuesday with the months of May to August and on Wednesday we are showing the most widely read texts in the months of September to December.
What happens to the microplastic
Nature is full of plastics that humans have produced and then improperly disposed of. They decompose only very slowly and then accumulate as microplastics in living beings – even in areas of the planet in which humans rarely set foot. A research group has now found that plastics may decompose more in nature than previously thought: at least when sunlight comes in.
What sounds positive at first is not. As American researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have discovered, plastic bags floating in the ocean can break down into up to 15,000 different, water-soluble substances. “It is amazing that sunlight can break plastic, which consists essentially of a single compound with a few additives, into tens of thousands of compounds that dissolve in water,” says WHOI researcher Collin P. Ward. It is still unclear what effects this will have on ecosystems. Most users were interested in the TR contribution to the degradation of microscopic plastic in September 2021.
Love from the internet
Anyone looking for a partner can now hardly avoid dating apps. But as it turns out, you may not be in good hands in classic introductory portals like Tinder, because there everyone who is looking for love is lumped together. In the USA there is therefore an increasing trend to look for other digital tools, as Tanya Basu writes in a TR article.
This ranges from simple e-mail newsletters that you have to apply for, to special Twitter channels and TikTok videos. This also has to do with the fact that Tinder & Co. mainly appeal to people who are only interested in short-term relationships. The next generation, however, is longing for something new – and that increasingly means that they are opting for the old-school dating agency, but mediated by modern technology. However, that does not mean that dating agencies are more successful. Despite all the digitization, some people still find their treasures offline. The most-read TR article in October 2021 describes the new online methods of partner selection.
The situation in the hospitals
What are the effects if millions of people do not accept the Corona vaccination offer? TR editor Jo Schilling dealt with the current situation in autumn 2021 and comes to the conclusion that the rising COVID-19 cases will also affect people who have nothing to do with the pandemic. Studies at the time of the lockdown show that. The emergency rooms in the hospitals continued to operate normally, but there were neither regular consultation hours nor a planned operating program in German hospitals. The clinical infrastructure was so busy keeping COVID patients alive that it was barely able to handle emergencies.
The delta variant triggered similar effects: for example, no major cancer operations were planned if there was no intensive care bed available for the operated person in an emergency (or even in severe cases for the planned follow-up care). If unvaccinated COVID patients are lying in these beds, a cancer patient cannot be operated on because another has refused the vaccination (except for cases where there is a medical indication that the vaccination is against). In addition, the intensity of care for COVID patients in the intensive care units is significantly greater than in other cases. The health care situation in times of Corona is described in a TR article that was most clicked on in November 2021.
The next virus variant
Worrying news came from South Africa in November 2021: A new, particularly rapidly spreading version of SARS-CoV-2 appeared to be gaining ground. The Omikron variant would put the health system to an enormous test due to its high infectivity. In December, the first details of how the immune response of vaccinated subjects interacted with Omikron became known.
It turned out that at least the first level of defense of the body – if one was not boosted – reacts worse than before. The neutralizing antibodies are less effective. Fortunately, there are other mechanisms against the virus that take place in the body of vaccinated people. How it all works and what knowledge you already have is summarized in the TR article about the background to the latest corona incarnation, which was particularly popular in December 2021.
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