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.

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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

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

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — In his day-to-day, Ross Brockwell works as the operations manager of Chesapeake’s public works department, where he helps oversee the crews responsible for keeping the city’s water, trash, sewer and road maintenance functioning properly.

But for 378 days throughout 2023-24, he was one of four living on Mars.

Brockwell, ...Read more

European Commission officials are planning to meet with Anthropic PBC to seek more information on the company’s Mythos model and request making the groundbreaking artificial intelligence tool available to the bloc, according to people familiar with the matter.

Officials from the commission were set to visit San Francisco on Thursday for ...Read more

There’s a very good chance that you’ll encounter a bat at some point in your life.

There are more than 1,500 species of these fascinating flying mammals, found in almost all habitats outside the polar regions, and many of them have adapted to living around humans.

The big brown bat, a common species in the United States, ...Read more

A moose charged a person walking dogs near Winter Park on Sunday, sending them to the hospital with serious injuries, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

The unidentified person was walking two dogs on Little Vasquez Road — a nearly 10-mile hike that climbs the mountain behind the Winter Park ski resort — when a moose and her yearling...Read more

I can remember testing my first robot vacuum. It was amazing to watch, and I really thought we were living in the future.

I soon learned it didn’t have much in the way of onboard intelligence and it just ping ponged around the room until it decided it must have covered everything or it needed a battery recharge.

My, how times have changed.

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Blue Origin’s time away from the launch pad didn’t last long despite its New Glenn rocket getting grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration in April.

Last week, the FAA cleared New Glenn to return to flight after accepting results and proposed corrective actions to avoid the problem that arose during the NG-3 mission, which saw its ...Read more

Extreme weather is posing a growing threat to the power supplies Americans rely on.

In 2021, a fierce winter storm left millions of Texans without electricity and water for days. Hurricane Helene in 2024 knocked out power to about 5 million customers across the U.S. Southeast.

Beyond the immediate human and economic toll, ...Read more

LONDON — A British online safety monitoring organization has found that children are able to slip by proof-of-age verification on some platforms by pulling faces or even scribbling mustaches on themselves.

Around half the controls covered in the survey were easy to get around, according to Internet Matters, which found that children showed ...Read more

This week we tackle another reader question, “I’m still confused and often aren’t sure whether or not to allow my firewall to disarm. And does it reinstate alone or what should I do next?”

A firewall is a security system that monitors your computer’s network traffic and decides what to allow or block based on rules.

Generally, you ...Read more

Father’s Day is right around the corner, and this is the perfect time to find a gift that reflects your dad’s personality, hobbies or everyday needs. If you’re drawing a blank, here are some great suggestions.

The ibreo N5 mini S3 Neck and Shoulder Massager ($63.99) is a must-have, producing endless hours of relaxation. There is no ...Read more

The Japanese concept of “kaizen” could be used to describe the evolution of the “Forza Horizon” franchise. It’s a series that began with a simple concept. Playground Games wanted to build an open-world racer that was truer to life than its peers using, the ForzaTech engine.

It’s a game that offered the realism of a sim but livened...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- It’s still the earliest days of artificial intelligence usage and understanding, yet AI companies are gobbling capital like a hippo’s maw and soaring in market valuation.

Everyone in business these days seems to be searching for a tale from history to meaningfully describe the growing importance of AI. I personally think it ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — As San Diego County races to meet green energy targets, sprawling developments are transforming backcountry communities — and residents of those areas want a voice in the process before their homes are reshaped by solar, wind and battery storage projects.

Two projects in the Sonoran Desert not far from the U.S.-Mexico border ...Read more

Questioning apocalyptic climate forecasts is now the conventional wisdom.

For years, radical climate activists have painted a bleak view of the future. Most scientists believe that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, which remain in the atmosphere, and that these gases trap additional heat, which warms the planet. This has led to ...Read more

SEATTLE — Advocates with the Elwha Legacy Forests Coalition have raised $32,000 to prevent the logging of 2 acres west of Port Angeles.

The deal, which took place without input from the Department of Natural Resources, which owns the land, appears to be the first of its kind. Public donations have effectively saved trees, that had already ...Read more