Recently, many California residents were disturbed to learn that a small, privately-operated bio lab in the Central Valley town of Reedley was shut down by Fresno County Department of Public Health officials after they found that it had been improperly managing almost 1,000 laboratory mice and samples of infectious diseases including COVID-19, rubella, malaria, dengue, chlamydia, hepatitis,...

The moon has been much in the news this August. For most of the month, uncrewed spacecraft from Russia and India were in a hot cosmic race to see which country would earn the bragging rights of being the first to safely land a ship in the moon’s south polar region. On Aug. 20, Russia’s plans came to ruin, after an engine burn intended to fine-tune the ship’s descent went...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four astronauts from four countries rocketed toward the International Space Station on Saturday. They should reach the orbiting lab in their SpaceX capsule Sunday, replacing four astronauts living up there since March. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A NASA astronaut was joined on the predawn liftoff from Kennedy Space Center by...

(NEW YORK) — The smoke from Canadian wildfires that drifted into the U.S. led to a spike in people with asthma visiting emergency rooms—particularly in the New York area. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published two studies Thursday about the health impacts of the smoke, which shrouded city skylines with an...

The loss of ice in one region of Antarctica last year likely resulted in none of the emperor penguin chicks surviving in four colonies, researchers reported Thursday. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Emperor penguins hatch their eggs and raise their chicks on the ice that forms around the continent each Antarctic winter and melts in the summer months. Researchers used...

"I don’t see a bigger purpose than working to save life on earth," says ecologist and ocean conservationist Enric Sala.

Early afternoon local time on Thursday, after years of questions and criticisms directed at the plan, Japan has begun the controversial release into the Pacific Ocean of water previously used to cool the reactors at the defunct Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant after they were damaged in 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The 1.3...

And then there was one.  Since earlier this month, there had been something of a footrace in space, with India and Russia vying to be the first country to land a spacecraft in the moon’s south polar region. On July 14, the Indian spacecraft, Chandrayaan-3, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in southeastern India, carrying a 1,726 kg (3,805 lb) lander, which...

Climate change more than doubled the chances of the hot, dry weather that helped fuel the unprecedented wildfire season in eastern Canada that’s driven thousands from their homes and blanketed parts of the U.S. with choking smoke, according to an analysis released Tuesday. What’s more, human-caused climate change made the fire season in Quebec — from May through July...

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] (TOKYO) — The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will start releasing treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean as early as Thursday — a controversial step that the government says is essential for the decades of work needed to clean up the facility that had reactor meltdowns 12 years ago. Prime Minister...

A natural El Nino, human-caused climate change, a stubborn heat dome over the nation’s midsection and other factors cooked up Tropical Storm Hilary’s record-breaking slosh into California and Nevada, scientists figure. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Cooked up is the key phrase, since hot water and hot air were crucial in rapidly growing Hilary and then steering...

Photos of the ashen remains of homes, hotels, and historic sites, blackened and burned by the Maui wildfires, make clear the scale of loss from such a tragedy. So far experts have estimated $3.2 billion worth of property damage. And that’s not to forget the more than 110 people who died, and the many others who are now without a home. It’s a stark reminder of the cost climate...

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] (HARRISBURG, Pa.) — Children who lived closer to natural gas wells in heavily drilled western Pennsylvania were more likely to develop a relatively rare form of cancer, and nearby residents of all ages had an increased chance of severe asthma reactions, researchers said in reports released Tuesday evening. The taxpayer-funded research...

Space is a punishing place—frigid, airless, sizzling with radiation. But for so unforgiving an environment, it does put on stunning spectacles, with its comets, eclipses and, for people with telescopes, dazzling views of exotic worlds like ringed Saturn and its litter of moons. This time of year, space regularly stages one of its most dazzling productions: the Perseid meteor shower....

The last time Russia sent a spacecraft to the moon, Gerald Ford was in the White House, Elton John’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart,” was the U.S.’s number one hit, and a gallon of gas cost ¢0.57. That spacecraft, Luna 24, lifted off on Aug. 9, 1976, landed in the moon’s Mare Crisium (Sea of Crisis), and returned to Earth on Aug. 22, 1976, carrying 170...

Even in Antarctica—one of the most remote and desolate places on Earth—scientists say they are finding shattered temperature records and an increase in the size and number of wacky weather events. The southernmost continent is not isolated from the extreme weather associated with human-caused climate change, according to a new paper in Frontiers in Environmental Science that...

Why you should take the news about a potential ambient-temperature superconductor with a grain of salt.

We’re living in a pivotal moment in history, on the cusp of either sinking into a dark period of growing poverty, accelerating ecological destruction, and worsening conflict, or moving forward to a new age of equity, sustainability, and stewardship of the only planet in the universe where we know life exists. I believe a positive future is not only possible, but inevitable, but...

For most people, Aug. 2, 2023 has been a day that’s gone largely unremarked upon. But for the planet as a whole, it was a very big—and very bad—date. Aug. 2 marked this year’s so-called Earth Overshoot Day—the day on which the annual resources humanity extracts from the earth exceeds the planet’s ability to regenerate them in the same year. Haul more fish...

The Earth and the moon snuggled up close last night—at least by cosmic standards. The two worlds were just 357,311 km (222,023 mi.) apart on the evening of Aug. 1. That represents the perigee—or low point—in the moon’s elliptical orbit around our planet. The apogee—or high point—is 405,500 km (253,000 mi.). Not only was the moon close, it was also...

If you think of insects at all, you probably see them as something to be scared of, as pests to be stomped on, or as persistent nuisances ruining a lovely afternoon picnic. For example, no-one has a good word to say about the cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, or termites that share our homes. In several surveys, including a 2021 report commissioned by insect repellent brand Zevo and conducted...

The sturgeon living in the Great Lakes don’t have a lot to do with the moon—or at least they didn’t until the Algonquin Native American tribe came along. The Algonquins discovered that sturgeon were most plentiful in the lakes in August, and so they paid a small tribute to that fact. When a full moon appeared in the sky in that month, they dubbed it a sturgeon moon. But it...

(NEW YORK) — In 2022, doctors recorded the first confirmed case of tick-borne encephalitis virus acquired in the United Kingdom. It began with a bike ride. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] A 50-year-old man was mountain biking in the North Yorkshire Moors, a national park in England known for its vast expanses of woodland and purple heather. At some point on his...