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What is dirt? There’s a whole wriggling world alive in the ground beneath our feet, as a soil scientist explains

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.

What is dirt? – Belle and Ryatt, ages 7 and 5, Keystone, South Dakota

When you think about dirt, you’re probably picturing soil. There’s so much more going on under ...Read more

Fighting every wildfire ensures the big fires are more extreme, and may harm forests’ ability to adapt to climate change

In the U.S., wildland firefighters are able to stop about 98% of all wildfires before the fires have burned even 100 acres. That may seem comforting, but decades of quickly suppressing fires has had unintended consequences.

Fires are a natural part of many landscapes globally. When forests aren’t allowed to burn, they become more ...Read more

Mario Tama/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: Read it at Reddit: A right way for social media

Congratulations to the newly minted multimillionaires who made bank last week with the IPO of Reddit stock. Under the ticker RDDT on the New York Stock Exchange, the now-public company can fairly be considered one of the giant social media platforms.

And though Reddit surely has plenty of problems, it’s not a profoundly toxic place. It works,...Read more

Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Colorado-based companies Voyager Space, Palantir join forces on national security work in space

DENVER — Denver-based companies Voyager Space and Palantir Technologies have signed an agreement to work together on enhancing national security capabilities in the commercial space realm.

A memorandum of understanding approved in February seeks to combine Voyager Space’s more than three decades of space exploration and missions with ...Read more

Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

The key to Florida beaches' hurricane recovery: the humble sea oat

ARCADIA, Fla. — From eye level, the wisps of green emerging from sand dunes up and down Pinellas County’s barrier islands look sparse, stubby, almost tentative as they peek at the sun. Below the surface, though, they are spreading out, trapping sand in place and acting as a sort of skeleton for a whole ecosystem.

These are young sea oats, ...Read more

Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS

101 Freeway will see lane closures as wildlife crossing is built in Southern California

LOS ANGELES — Starting in mid-April, 101 Freeway lanes will be closed overnight to enable construction work on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills.

Caltrans will close all lanes in one direction of the freeway between Liberty Canyon Road and Chesebro Road while the work is being performed, according to a city news release. ...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago ranked 2nd for worst air pollution in 2023 among major US cities, global report says

CHICAGO — Chicago ranked second among major U.S. cities with the worst air pollution in 2023, its average annual concentration of dangerous fine particulate matter almost three times global guidelines, according to a recent report. Even as national standards have tightened, pollution levels in the city still surpassed old regulations.

At one ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

What do Schwarzenegger, Fonda and Newsom have in common? They're fighting oil drilling

LOS ANGELES — As the oil industry wages a multimillion-dollar campaign to repeal California drilling restrictions, the campaign to defend the state’s environmental protections is starting to resemble a Hollywood blockbuster.

In a showcase of political clout and celebrity influence, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and actor Jane Fonda ...Read more

Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/TNS

Why warnings are being issued ahead of next month's total solar eclipse

ATLANTA — As next month approaches, anticipation for the 2024 total solar eclipse has set in. The eclipse, which will take place April 8, will be visible from Mexico through Canada, casting a brief moment when day momentarily turns to night.

Many describe it as not just awe-inspiring but possibly even spiritual, though it comes with its own ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

A lunar eclipse is coming Sunday. Will Colorado be able to see it?

A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur Sunday night — assuming the sky is clear — and could be of some interest to Colorado skygazers.

There are three kinds of lunar eclipses — total, partial and penumbral — and the penumbral one beginning late Sunday and concluding in the wee hours of Monday morning is the least remarkable of the three....Read more

Chimpanzees stayed in an ‘invisible cage’ after zoo enclosure was enlarged – South African study

Captive chimpanzees are one of the most popular species kept in zoos because of their charismatic appeal and similarity to humans. They are the closest living relatives of humans because of the shared genes and behavioural and psychological similarities.

Zoos are ethically bound to care for the animals they house. Many provide ...Read more

EPA’s new auto emissions standard will speed the transition to cleaner cars, while also addressing consumer and industry concerns

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released strict new emissions limits on March 20, 2024, for cars built from 2027 through 2032. The final rule for Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards caps a process that started almost a year earlier, when the Biden administration first proposed groundbreaking regulations that would essentially require...Read more

Climate change is shifting the zones where plants grow – here’s what that could mean for your garden

With the arrival of spring in North America, many people are gravitating to the gardening and landscaping section of home improvement stores, where displays are overstocked with eye-catching seed packs and benches are filled with potted annuals and perennials.

But some plants that once thrived in your yard may not flourish there now. ...Read more

Andy Alfaro/aalfaro@modbee.com/Modesto Bee/TNS

Court upholds California rules to protect fish, but Newsom wants lenient Delta approach

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento judge upheld a decision by California’s water regulator to cut back agricultural and municipal water use from the San Joaquin River. The decision could lend support for future regulations in the rest of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta system.

It comes amid declining fish populations and increasing ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

'Did you feel this AI cared about you?' Startup announces 'nursebots'

Medical startup Hippocratic AI is collaborating with California-based tech company NVIDIA to develop empathetic health care agents using artificial intelligence.

Described by Popular Science as “nursebots,” the AI-powered agents will be capable of interacting in conversations with patients — perhaps even build emotional connections.

“...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Feds want grizzly bears back in Washington´s North Cascades

SEATTLE — The National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service published a final series of proposals Thursday calling for reintroducing grizzly bears to the North Cascades.

Grizzlies roamed much of the West before colonization. A keystone species, bears are known to till and aerate soil as they search for potato-like roots like Alpine ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Caltech receives $100-million gift to develop new technologies at the speed of SpaceX

Thirty-six years ago, Gary Brinson cracked open Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time," a bestseller in which the renowned physicist sought to explain the mysteries of the universe in layman's terms.

It accomplished more than that for the Chicago-based asset manager, igniting a decades-long interest in science — and, ultimately, leading ...Read more

LAUSD's new student advisor is an AI bot that designs academic plans, suggests books

The Los Angeles school district on Wednesday unveiled a much-awaited AI tool named "Ed" to serve as a new student adviser, programmed to tell its young users and their parents about grades, tests results and attendance — while giving out assignments, suggesting readings and even helping students cope with nonacademic matters.

With Ed's ...Read more

California is wrestling with electricity prices – here’s how to design a system that covers the cost of fixing the grid while keeping prices fair

Small-scale solar power, also known as rooftop or distributed solar, has grown considerably in the U.S. over the past decade. It provides electricity without emitting air pollutants or climate-warming greenhouse gases, and it meets local energy demand without requiring costly investments in transmission and distribution systems.

...Read more

Oleg Dudko/Dreamstime/TNS

Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Eli Lilly and other big pharmas are backing this San Diego biotech with $175M

A San Diego biotech is working on therapies that could tackle life-altering conditions, like autoimmune diseases and cancer, by modifying cells. But instead of engineering cells in a lab, they're doing it inside your body.

Thanks to that novel approach and the support of some of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical industry, Capstan ...Read more