Relatively early in the pandemic, we published an article pointing to how important the immune system is to understanding COVID-19. New research reminds us why that continues to be the case. Researchers looked at antibodies in COVID-19 patients and found the sickest patients generated antibodies that attack the body’s own tissue, rather than the virus. The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, adds to the understanding of how the coronavirus makes people ill and, potentially, to better treatments.

Also in this week’s science and research news, a team of researchers describe the weather conditions making the West so dangerous for wildfires, while an Arctic climate scientist explains this year’s unusually late Arctic freeze. And a paleontologist tells the story of how fossils collected in the 1980s led to new insights into giant, “boney-toothed” birds known as pelagornithids that flew over Antarctica some 50 million years ago.