British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday ordered England into its third lockdown, warning that the nation’s hospitals could become overwhelmed within 21 days. But it wasn’t just an increase in COVID-19 cases that prompted the move—the country is also facing a new, quick-spreading variant of the virus that causes the illness.

It’s rare that one news story spans a whole year. But this year, everything happened in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic—and that falls squarely within the science beat. Questions about the origin and nature of and effective response to the virus have abounded from day one and only became more intense and controversial as the months dragged on. The urgent search for treatments and vaccine also sparked renewed debate about ethical research methods. But the pandemic wasn’t the only big science news this year.

After President Donald Trump suggested over the weekend that China might have pulled off the recent cyberattack on U.S. agencies, outgoing U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Monday doubled down on what other cybersecurity officials are saying: “It certainly appears to be the Russians.” Barr echoed a similar statement U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made on Friday.

Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, became the first American on Monday to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (besides those participating in medical trials). Pfizer, in association with BioNTech, began rolling out the shot just days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved it on Dec. 11. “I believe this is the weapon that will end the war,” New York Gov.

British scientists will steam out of a Falkland Islands port in January on a mission to study the largest iceberg in the world. But it’s not just out of curiosity: Scientists are worried it could damage wildlife habitats in the British territory of South Georgia Island.

Texas and nine other states on Wednesday said the tech giant has wrongfully controlled prices of online advertisements, fixed the market in its favor, and eliminated competition. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had led a 2019 investigation with 49 other U.S. states and territories into Google’s “potential monopolistic behavior.” The company dismissed the lawsuit as “baseless.”

Hackers monitored the networks of the Treasury and Commerce departments undetected for months. In a Sunday emergency directive, the Department of Homeland Security asked all federal agencies to search their networks for compromises and told those affected to disconnect all machines using the targeted SolarWinds server software.