Science & Technology
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How to poop outdoors in a way that won’t harm the environment and other hikers
If you’re one of the 63 million Americans who went hiking last year, chances are you’ve found yourself needing to go, with no toilet in sight.
Aside from personal inconvenience, why is this such a big deal?
Human fecal contamination is a public health concern in natural areas. Pathogens in human poop can remain active for ...Read more
Despite explosion, Blue Origin CEO says New Glenn will fly before end of year
Last week’s explosion of a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket on the pad at Cape Canaveral prompted dire predictions that the company might not be able to launch again until late 2027 at the earliest.
CEO Dave Limp, though, said that’s not the case.
“Now that we’ve had access to the pad and integration facility, we can share a bit of good ...Read more
How a deep-ocean desalination startup hopes to rewrite California's water future
LOS ANGELES — An elephant standing full weight on a smartphone. That’s the pressure 1,400 feet underwater that a startup hopes to use to push seawater through ultrafine filters and make drinking water off the coast of Malibu — without much of the controversy that surrounds desalination.
Desalination plants are notoriously large ...Read more
San Diego County launches 2 studies to measure toll of Tijuana River pollution
SAN DIEGO — San Diego County is moving forward with two major research efforts to document the health and economic impacts of the Tijuana River Valley pollution crisis, partnering with the University of California, San Diego on an air quality study while simultaneously launching a public survey to measure the crisis’s financial toll on South...Read more
Duck-billed dinosaur fossil containing collagen stuns scientists
Reports of proteins in fossilized bones have stirred controversy in the scientific community for decades, as fossilization was thought to destroy organic components, replacing them with minerals over time. Now, a team of British researchers working in Montana’s Hell Creek Formation has found evidence of collagen in a 66-million-year-old ...Read more
Nvidia is taking on Intel and AMD with new AI chip for computers
Nvidia Corp. is entering the PC market with a new chip aimed at loosening the stranglehold of Intel Corp. technology in that arena and modernizing the machines for the AI era.
Starting this fall, Nvidia’s new RTX Spark Superchip will debut in laptop and desktop computers from leading PC brands including Dell Technologies Inc. and Lenovo Group...Read more
AI company Anthropic files to list shares, heating up race with OpenAI
Anthropic, the company behind the powerful artificial intelligence chatbot Claude, has filed to get ready to list its shares.
The development comes days after it raised $65 billion, valuing it at $965 billion.
The company, founded in 2021 by a breakaway faction from OpenAI, was viewed as an upstart that tailored its chatbots to the needs of ...Read more
AI company Anthropic files to list shares, heating up race with OpenAI
Anthropic, the company behind the powerful artificial intelligence chatbot Claude, has filed to go public, the company said Monday.
The development comes days after the company raised $65 billion, valuing it at $965 billion.
The company, founded in 2021 by a breakaway faction from OpenAI, was viewed as an upstart that tailored its chatbots to ...Read more
Nvidia is taking on Intel and AMD with new AI chip for computers
Nvidia Corp. is entering the PC market with a new chip aimed at loosening the stranglehold of Intel Corp. technology in that arena and modernizing the machines for the AI era.
Starting this fall, Nvidia’s new RTX Spark Superchip will debut in laptop and desktop computers from leading PC brands including Dell Technologies Inc. and Lenovo Group...Read more
Hurricane season is here: Federal flood insurance carries 2 moral hazards – which you face depends largely on how wealthy you are
Anyone who has been through a flood or hurricane knows the scene: waterlogged furniture piled on curbs, gutted homes with mold creeping up the walls, families displaced for months. But the recovery isn’t the same for everyone.
While federal flood insurance subsidizes risky coastal and waterfront development for wealthier homeowners ...Read more
Flesh-eating screwworms head for American livestock
Southern states are bracing for a potential invasion of the New World screwworm that could disrupt livestock markets and raise already high meat prices.
So far, the parasite has yet to land in the United States, but it has been spreading across Mexico and Central America. Previously eradicated from the United States in the 1960s, the fly can ...Read more
He saw so much single-use, soft plastic lying around, this nonprofit founder wanted to clean it up
California companies that produce single-use packaging and plastic single-use food service ware have until Monday to comply with some of the terms of the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54).
They can participate in an approved producer responsibility organization plan by registering with Circular ...Read more
NASA's moon plans take hit with Blue Origin explosion
Blue Origin is a central player in NASA’s moon project, but those plans took a big hit Thursday night when one of Jeff Bezos’ rockets catastrophically exploded into a giant mushroom cloud on its Cape Canaveral launch pad.
It’s unknown how long it could take to get the pad up and running again — and the space agency’s timetable for its...Read more
Politicians cited his research to discredit Gulf whale protections. He says that's wrong
Over his decades as a marine biologist, Randall Davis’ research has taken him across the world. He’s studied otters in Alaska, sea turtles in St. Croix and sperm whales in the remote Ogasawara Islands hundreds of miles south of Japan.
But in recent weeks, Davis’ science has taken him to a place few career researchers want to be: at the ...Read more
SpaceX and ULA knock out Friday launches despite Blue Origin explosion
Even though Blue Origin suffered a massive explosion of its New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday night, two other launch providers pushed forward with missions Friday on the Space Coast.
The second launch of the day was a United Launch Alliance Atlas V, which lifted off at 7:53 a.m. Eastern time on the Amazon Leo 7...Read more
Mountain lion sighting reported in Santa Monica; residents told to stay indoors
LOS ANGELES — A reported sighting of a mountain lion has shut down a few local roads in Santa Monica as authorities look for the dangerous cat and warn residents to stay indoors.
The Santa Monica Police Department responded to the sighting near a residential area near 14th and Montana streets, according to a Police Department social media ...Read more
Despite Blue Origin explosion, SpaceX knocks out launch, ULA still to go today
Even though Blue Origin suffered a massive explosion of its New Glenn rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday night, two other launch providers pushed forward with missions Friday on the Space Coast.
First up was SpaceX with a Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink 10-53 mission carrying 29 Starlink satellites from Canaveral’s Space...Read more
PFAS leave fingerprints in your blood – researchers are figuring out how forever chemicals transform in your body to read these clues
Virtually every living thing on Earth, from Patagonian penguins to newborn human babies, has been touched by the synthetic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a sample of human blood, tissue or breast milk without detectable levels of at least one type of PFAS.
...Read more
The latest on Pacific gray whales
Gray whales are washing up on North America’s Pacific coast in alarming numbers, again. The culprit: Starvation and a lack of food. It feels like it’s becoming a theme this year, as we watched thousands of seabirds die earlier this spring presumably from a similar problem. With a super El Niño on its way, is it just going to get worse?
It�...Read more
Commentary: Conservation depends on cooperating and transcending borders
Political tides rise and fall. They always have.
Laws change. Priorities shift. Administrations come and go. Across generations, societies debate, correct course and eventually find new balance. Some long-standing norms endure because they serve the common good. Others, like the once-accepted evil of slavery, are rightly rejected as societies ...Read more
Popular Stories
- Nvidia is taking on Intel and AMD with new AI chip for computers
- Duck-billed dinosaur fossil containing collagen stuns scientists
- How to poop outdoors in a way that won’t harm the environment and other hikers
- AI company Anthropic files to list shares, heating up race with OpenAI
- How a deep-ocean desalination startup hopes to rewrite California's water future
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