A former data scientist at Meta Platforms Inc. testified that less than 1% of teenagers were early adopters of a feature designed to get them to take a break from scrolling on Instagram.

George Volichenko — who worked on the platform’s mental well-being team from April 2022 to February 2023 — told a jury that the tool’s initial impact ...Read more

If being outside in the heat for even a few minutes felt miserable this summer, imagine what it’s like for herders who are always out walking with their livestock and rarely get a break.

“We have never experienced such hot days,” a woman herder in northern Kenya told our research team in 2024. “It is difficult to [do things] ...Read more

As wildfire smoke plumes travel thousands of miles, sunlight and atmospheric chemistry bleach their color, strip away their campfire aroma and add them to the mix of urban smog.

Smoky skies plagued the East Coast and Midwest again in summer 2026, as wildfires hundreds of miles away forced people to cancel sports practices and run air ...Read more

Standing in your local retail store, it can be mind-boggling to try to weigh the pros and cons of all the packaging options. Take shampoo, for example. Shampoo can come in a rigid plastic bottle, a flexible squeeze tube, a refillable metal canister or a solid bar in a paperboard box.

Trying to make environmentally friendly or socially...Read more

Apple Inc. is gearing up to launch a new version of its Mac mini desktop computer for the first time in almost two years, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new desktop will debut as soon as the coming days, potentially putting the unveiling ahead of a September event to introduce the next iPhones, said the people, who asked not ...Read more

In the first salvo of what could become a prolonged court battle over Colorado River water, the state of Nevada has sued the Trump administration over its plan to impose major water cutbacks on Las Vegas.

The state filed the lawsuit on Monday, just three days after the Trump administration released the plan, which requires Nevada, Arizona and ...Read more

In the first salvo of what could become a court battle over Colorado River water, the state of Nevada has sued to challenge the Trump administration’s plan for mandatory water cutbacks.

The state filed the lawsuit Monday, just three days after the Trump administration released the plan, which requires Nevada, Arizona and California to cut ...Read more

My students and I encountered a mystery. We were partnering with the Missouri Department of Conservation to monitor for fish presence and abundance in the Missouri Ozarks. We visited half a dozen rivers and streams across the region and collected a few cups of water from each.

We were testing for DNA in the environment to determine ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A rare convergence of a powerful El Niño, super king tides and sea level rise spurred by climate change could menace California with record coastal flooding this winter.

Already, officials are observing higher tides than typical. Swells are eroding beaches, damaging parking lots and bathrooms, and even resurfacing long-buried ...Read more

Older adults may be better judges of their moment-to-moment mental sharpness than scientists once assumed, according to a UC Davis study — which relied on familiar technology: the smartwatch.

The study found that when an individual rated their mental sharpness below their own average, their performance on the objective cognitive tasks also ...Read more

Almost 2,000 sea turtle nests have been spotted along North Carolina’s coast this year — the second-most since the state started tracking nests in 2009.

North Carolina’s 300-plus miles of coastline are a crucial habitat for endangered turtles, especially loggerhead turtles, the most common species on the state’s beaches.

As female ...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 many ice ages has the Earth had, and could humans live through one? – Mason C., age 8, Hobbs, New Mexico

First, what is an ice age? It’s when the Earth has cold ...Read more

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Diablo Canyon doesn’t look like a nuclear power plant that’s getting ready to retire.

Beneath its twin concrete domes here on the edge of the Central Coast, neutrons slam into uranium atoms billions of times each second, workers respond to blinking lights in a seafoam-green control room, and thunderous turbines ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The mountain lions have won the day in Woodland Hills, as oppostion to building nearly 400 residences on a local golf course stalled a real estate developer's plan to turn the private club into a residential community.

Woodland Hills Country Club, a century-old golf course near the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando ...Read more

When lightning strikes, it superheats the air around it and creates a shock wave that we hear as thunder. But thunder doesn’t just travel through the atmosphere to our ears.

When that energy reaches the ground, some of it is converted into seismic waves that ripple through the soil and rock beneath. The resulting vibrations are ...Read more

DENVER — Coloradans’ share of the Colorado River will not change under the federal government’s new operating plans for at least the next two years.

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Friday published a highly anticipated plan for the Colorado River that will guide how the basin’s two major reservoirs will operate and how the ...Read more

The companies fishing for Antarctic krill have harvested so much so quickly that the season had to close in August 2026, three months before it was scheduled to end. That’s the second consecutive year of an early closing.

The fishing industry has said these developments are evidence that the management system is working as intended:...Read more

LOS ANGELES — On the heels of the death of his longtime mate Jackie, bald eagle Shadow has been perching, singing and lounging at his Big Bear nest with a new companion. It’s all being captured on a world-famous livestream, spurring mixed reactions from fans who are still reeling from Jackie’s passing.

Pete Bloom, a raptor biologist who ...Read more

BOSTON — A new study shows that despite the push across most of New England to transition to green energy, the region’s energy grid is still dependent on fossil fuel-based generation.

The study, titled “New England’s Energy Transition: Colliding with Reality,” was authored by energy policy analyst Lisa Linowes and released by the ...Read more

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has agreed to leave some of its water in Lake Mead this year in exchange for cash to comply with what water managers expect to be a firm requirement to do so through 2028.

At a board meeting Thursday, directors ratified an agreement between the water authority and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that gives ...Read more