Character.ai, a California startup that has faced lawsuits over allegations that chatbots created on its platform harmed the mental health of teens and led to copyright issues, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Menlo Park-based company runs an app that allows people to create and interact with chatbots who mimic celebrities, historical ...Read more

The crisp predawn skies over Central Florida had curious eyes wondering what was unfolding, as an orangish-blue wispy cloud billowed into life ahead of the rising sun.

For those in the know, what was forming is often called the “space jellyfish” effect, the result of the exhaust from a rocket launch creating luminescent clouds that expand ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX launched a cargo mission to the International Space Station before dawn Tuesday that brought a sonic boom and a space jellyfish effect to the skies over Central Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the CRS-35 mission topped with a crew Dragon spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch ...Read more

Regardless of their views on politics or climate change, most Americans oppose the development of data centers in their communities.

These large buildings filled with computers that store and process digital information, increasingly to support various applications of artificial intelligence, are being built rapidly across the United ...Read more

CHATHAM COUNTY, N.C. — Despite being in one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, this rural county of roughly 85,000 people is still brimming with red foxes, coyotes, white-tailed deer, and wild turkeys.

But in recent months, Enbridge Gas North Carolina’s proposed plans for a natural gas pipeline have exposed how population growth, ...Read more

Microsoft Corp. dramatically cut back investments in carbon removals in the first half of the year, as it ratchets up spending on artificial intelligence.

The company bought 8.55 million metric tons of carbon removal credits in the year through mid-July, which is about 80% less than it purchased over the same period in 2025, according to ...Read more

Meta Platforms Inc. released a long-awaited artificial intelligence model on Monday, a milestone that will test whether its multibillion-dollar push to rebuild its AI organization has improved its technology enough to compete among leaders.

Known as Muse Wonder, the new model is the company’s most capable since Meta Chief Executive Officer ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX is set to launch a cargo mission to the International Space Station before dawn Tuesday that could bring a sonic boom to Central Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the CRS-35 mission topped with a crew Dragon spacecraft is set to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 6:33 a.m. ...Read more

From an airplane, most of the glaciers of the Rocky Mountain West look like small patches of white nestled into rugged landscape where the topography folds. The white is the snow cover, and lower down you can see the gray-blue bare ice.

In the middle of the 20th century, over 1,450 glaciers could be found in the contiguous U.S. ...Read more

California isn’t a place most Americans associate with tropical weather, but it’s taking a beating in 2026 from one of the most active eastern Pacific hurricane seasons in modern history.

For the second time ever, national forecasters issued a tropical storm watch for Southern California as Tropical Storm Rachel headed toward the ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The University of California, San Diego has paused at least five clinical trials designed to cure or control HIV after the National Institutes of Health issued guidance last week that new enrollments should be put on hold.

The nation’s foremost research funding agency told scientists “they should temporarily hold off on ...Read more

When Belgian American particle physicist Francis Halzen was awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin,” it was a reminder that for more than a century, scientists have treated Antarctica’s environments as ...Read more

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com.

How much rain can a hurricane make, and how much do big versus small hurricanes make? – Naarah, age 8, Pittsburgh

Hurricanes can produce enormous amounts of rain, adding up...Read more

I recently went diving off Kawaihae on Hawaii’s Big Island. The water was bathtub warm, about 85 degrees, with an impressive 80 feet of visibility which meant you could see how little of the reef ecosystem was left. The coral was dead, just a few shoaling fish moving through the rocky structures that remained. It wasn’t my first encounter ...Read more

It’s 9:15 in the morning. The wind is roaring at 110 miles per hour (177 kph); the sound is deafening. Dust swirls through the air. We are watching a single-wide manufactured home rock back and forth, as it is pounded by turbulent wind.

Then, in an instant, the screws shear off and the entire unit tumbles backward, rolling two full ...Read more

You have probably noticed it on a hot summer day: A basement feels cool even when the air outside is baking. The ground does not heat up and cool down as fast as the air does. A few hundred feet down, it stays close to the local yearly average all year, which can be around 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 Celsius).

In Verona, Wisconsin, the ...Read more

Every autumn, homeowners and gardeners tend to engage in a familiar ritual. As trees shed their leaves, people drag out rakes, leaf blowers and lawn bags to strip their yards bare before winter arrives.

It is a tidy habit rooted in aesthetics, but ecologically, clearing away fallen leaves strips the very foundation of local ecosystems...Read more

Hurricane Isaias shattered the peace of one of the quietest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record as it grew into 2026’s first Atlantic hurricane and headed for the northern Gulf Coast, with landfall expected late on Oct. 9 or early Oct. 10.

Coastal residents and store owners in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle quickly began ...Read more

The famed railroad line along the San Clemente coast has found itself on the endangered list amid a relentless assault from rising seas and punishing surf.

Transportation experts have long spoken about the possibility of relocating the tracks in the area, but the California State Transportation Agency is expected to launch a study before year's...Read more

A nearly eight-month stint aboard the International Space Station came to a splashing end for NASA's SpaceX Crew-12 on Thursday, when their recovery vessel safely splashed down off the coast of Los Angeles.

The four crew members spent 237 days living and working inside the space station — advancing scientific research while traveling more ...Read more