In order to reach the end of the pandemic, billions of people need to be vaccinated at a faster pace, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), said on Tuesday. "The COVID vaccine supply is no longer a constraint...and we are in a much better place than last year to meet the demands," Poonawalla said.

We may never end coronavirus because such pandemic viruses end up becoming part of the ecosystem, said Dr Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme. However, he added that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic - deaths, hospitalisations and lockdowns - could be over this year if huge inequities in vaccinations and medicines are addressed quickly.

NASA in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency has announced Phase 2 of its Deep Space Food Challenge, a competition wherein teams design food production technologies for astronauts. The contest requires the teams to innovate a system that requires minimal resources for a crew on a three-year space mission. Notably, the prize for Phase 2 is up to $1 million.

An 88-year-old woman has become the first person in UK to receive a bionic eye implant to help restore a part of her sight, the hospital said. She's suffering from dry age-related macular degeneration that causes loss of sight. A 2mm-wide microchip was inserted under her retina, which captured visual scenes projected by special glasses and converted it to signals.

NASA took to Twitter to share pictures of ash from volcanic eruption in Tonga as seen from the International Space Station. "During a pass over New Zealand on Sunday, [astronaut] Kayla Barron opened the window & saw the effects of the eruption," NASA wrote. The Tongan government said the country has been hit by an "unprecedented disaster".

Scientists have discovered a pristine, three-kilometre long coral reef off the coast of Tahiti, with no evidence that the reef has yet been harmed by climate change. The rose-shaped corals were found in "twilight zone", 30-120 metres below the surface with enough light to grow and reproduce. "It was like a work of art," French photographer Alexis Rosenfeld said.

More than 12 lakh people died worldwide in 2019 from infections caused by bacteria resistant to antibiotics, according to a research published in The Lancet. The number is more than the annual death toll from malaria or AIDS. The estimate of global deaths from antimicrobial resistance is based on an analysis of 204 countries by a team of international researchers.

Surgeons in US' Alabama have successfully transplanted a pair of kidneys from a genetically modified pig into the body of a brain-dead man. Relatives of the man, who was declared brain-dead after a dirt bike accident, said he would have been delighted to take part in the experiment. Earlier, a pig's heart was transplanted into a live man in Maryland.

Photographer Andrew McCarthy has captured a picture of the exact moment when the International Space Station (ISS) flew over the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon. Sharing closeups of the picture, McCarthy tweeted, "International Space Station posing with Neil & Buzz's footprints." He said the photo was captured at a very precise location at 2:06:57am MST (2:36 pm IST).

The underwater volcano, near Pacific island nation of Tonga, had erupted with an estimated explosive yield of 10 megatons of TNT equivalent, James Garvin, Chief Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, told NPR. That means the explosive force was over 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Japan's Hiroshima during World War II, NPR reported.

The producers of actor Tom Cruise's upcoming space movie have announced plans to attach a studio to the International Space Station in development by Houston-based company Axiom. The module, called SEE-1, is scheduled to launch in 2024. It'll be able to support production, broadcast, and live-streaming for film, television, music, and sports projects.

Heparin, a widely available and low-cost drug, can help in limiting lung damage when inhaled by COVID-19 patients, researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) have found. The study's lead Professor Frank van Haren confirmed initial results of the trials indicate "heparin is safe and effective" against COVID-19. He also believes it can be "a possible preventative against the virus".

Warning the countries, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said, with incredible growth of Omicron, new variants are likely to emerge. Tedros believes the pandemic is "nowhere near over" and said vaccination is the "key to protecting hospitals from becoming overwhelmed." "The narrative that Omicron is mild...is misleading, hurts the overall response...costs more lives," he added.

A study published in the Pediatric Research journal has found that mothers infected with COVID-19 wouldn't transfer the virus to their babies through breastfeeding. Researchers of the University of California analysed samples from 110 mothers and found though breastmilk contained the genetic material of coronavirus it did not lead to viral replication or evidence of clinical infection in babies.

The US Air Force has awarded SpaceX a $102 million five-year contract to demonstrate technologies and capabilities to transport military cargo and humanitarian aid around the world on a heavy rocket. The contract falls under the Air Force Research Laboratory's rocket cargo programme. The contract is not specific to any of SpaceX's launch vehicles.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an image of the Sun erupting a mid-level solar flare on January 20 that peaked at 11.31 am IST, the space research agency said. It shared a picture of the event on Twitter. As per NASA, solar flares are powerful bursts of energy that can impact radio communications and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

Researchers from California, US, are working on a new way to speed the development of COVID-19 vaccines and antibody drugs. As per the study, the new method will use cryo-electron microscopy or cryoEM enabling the scientists to view the biological sample with the least distortion. One of the researchers added that cryoEM will enable faster identification and mapping of antibodies.

Researchers of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have found that gut bacteria help giant pandas remain chubby despite being on low-quality diet. The study reveals that during bamboo-eating season, gut microbiota help pandas gain more weight and store more fat. This compensates for the lack of nutrients during their leaf-eating season and helps them remain chubby overall.

Health officials found that people who had been previously infected with COVID-19 were better protected against the Delta variant than those who were vaccinated alone, in the US during the Delta wave. However, it didn't specify the intensity of the initial infection or full range of the illness caused and added that the results aren't applicable for the Omicron variant.

University of Hawaii biologists confirmed that Earth is facing its sixth mass extinction which is caused by humans. The lead author, David Cowie said that humans are the only species capable of manipulating the biosphere. However, he added that the conservation initiatives lack political will and a biased view of some focus only on mammals and birds, ignoring the invertebrates.

A search is underway by a rescue team aided by US Coast Guard for an adult humpback whale entangled in debris off the Hawaiian coast. On Thursday, a local newspaper reported that the first-responders removed about 600 metres of heavy-gauge line from the animal over the last weekend. The team also attached a self-releasing telemetry buoy to locate the whale.

European Space Agency (ESA) on Tuesday said that a record number of 22,000 people applied for its astronaut training program. ESA added that the agency shortlisted fewer than 1,400 candidates including 29 candidates with physical disabilities. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said a feasibility study will be conducted to analyse the effect of choosing candidates with disabilities.

NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has entered into safe mode over a possible failure of one of the spacecraft's reaction wheels. "This is the first time a reaction wheel has experienced a failure in Swift's 17 years of operations," NASA said. The team is investigating the issue. The observatory and all its instruments are otherwise healthy and operating as expected.

Union Ministry of Science and Technology said that India and Sri Lanka have extended cooperation in Science and Technology sector for three years on Thursday. The statement added that it will focus on new areas such as waste-water technologies, aerospace engineering, artificial intelligence etc. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Research and Innovations Secretary, Deepa Liyange also welcomed the decision.

NASA's TESS Mission has spotted exoplanets, named TOI-2337b, TOI-4329b and TOI-2669b, that are dangerously close to their host stars and will be consumed by them. TOI-2337b will be consumed in less than one million years, sooner than the time estimated for any other currently known planet. The planets could have masses between 0.5 and 1.7 times Jupiter's mass.