He said on social media that "Tonga needs immediate assistance to provide its citizens with fresh drinking water and food."

After returning home from the 2018 Winter Olympics, in South Korea, Chloe Kim put her gold medal in the trash. (It didn’t stay there long.) Kim was struggling with being a new celebrity. Her gravity-defying twists had made her the youngest female Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding history. She was 17. Kim was also feeling depressed, which is common for Olympic athletes. They spend their lives training for events that come only every four years. Kim says the depression hit her shortly after the 2018 Games. 
She went to a cafe near her home, in Southern California, to grab a sandwich: she was wearing pajamas and her hair was a mess. When she walked in, everyone stared, so she ran out. “I just wanted a day where I was left alone,” Kim says. “I appreciate that everyone loves and supports me, but I just wish people could understand what I was going through.” VICTORY SMILE Kim flies a U.S. flag after winning gold at the 2018 Olympics, in South Korea.

An underwater volcano erupted on January 15 near Tonga. The island nation is located in the South Pacific Ocean. The blast sent ash, gas, and soot about 12 miles above the ocean’s surface. It also triggered a tsunami that hit Tonga’s main island. Water levels rose nearly three feet in some areas, but most people were able to escape. On at least three of Tonga’s smaller islands, nearly all homes were destroyed. At press time, the Tonga government reported three deaths. Officials were still studying the damage. Fatafehi Fakafanua is a political leader in Tonga. According to the New York Times, he said on social media that “Tonga needs immediate assistance to provide its citizens with fresh drinking water and food.”

The tallest volcano on Java, an island in Indonesia, erupted on December 4. Mount Semeru shot clouds of ash and smoke 40,000 feet into the air, darkening the sky. Hot gas and lava killed at least 34 people. Others are still missing. “Trees, farms, houses are scorched, everything is covered in heavy gray ash,” Haryadi Purnomo says. He works for East Java’s search and rescue agency. Around 3,000 houses and 38 schools were damaged. Thousands of people have been evacuated to shelters. Days of rain triggered the eruption. At Semeru’s top is a dome of lava that’s too thick to flow. Rain caused it to fall apart. Experts say the dome could break up even more and cause an avalanche. Semeru is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The country’s islands sit along the Ring of Fire, a series of fault lines around the Pacific Ocean. Semeru has erupted many times in the last 200 years. There were no deaths the last time it erupted, in January.
Organizers of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing, China, say only “selected” spectators will be allowed to attend the Games. No tickets will be sold to the general public. The announcement was made on January 17. It’s the latest step China has taken to fight another coronavirus outbreak. The Beijing Olympics are scheduled to begin on February 4. It could be the most restricted large-scale sporting event since the start of the pandemic. The committee had already barred fans from outside of China from attending. Safety measures in China are becoming stricter with the spread of the Omicron variant. Omicron is more contagious than past strains of the coronavirus. Beijing confirmed its first case of Omicron just days before the committee’s announcement. The variant was also identified in a recent wave of infections in Tianjin, about 70 miles from Beijing. At the Games, spectators will be permitted to clap, but not to cheer, which can spread the virus. Robots will disinfect surfaces. Athletes and journalists will be tested daily for the virus. Organizers said these measures are intended to “create a pleasant environment for the holding of the Games.”

The spotted lanternfly might look pretty with its red wings and black dots. But the insect is causing big problems in the United States, and experts are telling people to take action against the pest. “Kill it! Squash it, smash it . . . just get rid of it.” That’s what the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture says to do if you see one. The mothlike creature is native to Asia. In the U.S., it’s an invasive species. The bugs were found in Pennsylvania in 2014 and have now spread to at least nine states. Spotted lanternflies are not dangerous to humans, but they cause serious harm to plants. They suck sap from trees and release a sticky substance after they feed, which causes mold to grow on plants

When Jane Goodall was 6, during World War II, she was often woken by sirens. The sound warned that enemy planes were flying over her English town. Her little sister would run to the bomb shelter. But Goodall refused to budge. “I did not want to leave my bed,” she says. “They had to take me down with all my bedclothes.” That same stubbornness led her to become the world’s best-known primatologist. In 1960, she sat for months in the forests of Tanzania, in Africa, waiting for chimpanzees to accept her. When they did, Goodall was able to observe them up close and discover that they use tools. RAISING AWARENESS Goodall appears in a 1965 television special about her work with chimps. In 1962, university professors criticized Goodall for using human names and emotions to describe chimps. “I didn’t confront them,” she says. “I just quietly went on doing what I knew was right.” Her belief that chimps are intelligent social animals is now widely accepted. In 1986, Goodall went to a meeting on habitat loss that changed her ideas about nature. No longer content to do research, she began a schedule of travel, charity work, and activism. After 35 years, she’s still on the job.
Go to the window and look outside. Are there clouds in the sky? How many? Are they puffy or wispy? Are they blocking sunlight or letting it through? NASA scientists are interested in your answers. They’re using the power of “citizen science” to gather information about clouds from people all over the world. Amateur scientists contribute to professional research by making observations and processing data. DIY Research Citizen scientists don’t usually need special training or equipment. It may not even matter where they live. Often, projects are open to people of all ages. Many participants are kids. “This is a fundamental, real way for young people to engage in science that is useful and important,” Darlene Cavalier says. She founded a website called SciStarter. It helps people find projects they might like to participate in. For NASA’s GLOBE Observer program, volunteers use an app on a mobile device to submit cloud observations. While satellites photograph clouds from above, volunteers study them from below. “By combining the two, we get a more complete picture,” says Jessica Taylor, of NASA. Researchers use the data to learn about weather and climate change.
There are thousands of citizen science projects to choose from. You can measure light pollution, study the diet of ants, or locate bees. Sometimes, volunteers gather data from their own backyard. Other projects happen online. One provides underwater images of beluga whales. Volunteers then identify things like each whale’s age and gender. The COVID Effect COVID-19 has halted or slowed some scientific research. Because of the pandemic, many scientists have not been able to travel to do their work. Citizen science has helped fill in the gaps, because people can submit data gathered where they live. With more people staying home because of the pandemic, scientists have seen a rise in the number of people volunteering for research projects. In April, SciStarter saw five times more engagement on its website than it had seen the year before. Cavalier hopes the increased interest continues.