Environmental advocates, Alaska Natives and commercial fishermen say they are at once confident and anxious as they wait for the EPA to announce a final ban on mining wastes in Bristol Bay, Alaska — home to one of the world’s largest salmon fisheries — that would effectively kill a gold and copper mine estimated to be worth $350 billion.

...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.

Why do people experience déjà vu? – Atharva P., age 10, Bengaluru, India

Have you ever had that weird feeling that you’ve experienced the same exact situation before, ...Read more

When Hurricane Ian hit Florida, it was one of the United States’ most powerful hurricanes on record, and it followed a two-week string of massive, devastating storms around the world.

A few days earlier in the Philippines, Typhoon Noru gave new meaning to rapid intensification when it blew up from a tropical storm with 50 mph winds ...Read more

MIAMI — It’s a question that follows any natural disaster, especially monster hurricanes like Ian: Was this caused by climate change?

When asked, scientists like Kevin Reed usually push back. Most researchers agree it’s not valid to point to a single storm and say it was “caused” by the warming world. Too many variables.

“That is a...Read more

When Gov. Ron DeSantis referred to a “biblical storm surge,” he was assessing Hurricane Ian’s damage and, unknowingly, prophesying what’s to come in future years and decades in Florida.

Ian displayed many of the characteristics scientists say climate change will bring — and already has brought — to hurricanes because of warmer ocean...Read more

What personality and behavior traits make raccoons more highly skilled bandits in urban areas? That’s the question a team of researchers in Wyoming set out to investigate.

Researchers trapped and tagged 204 wild raccoons in Laramie, Wyoming, between August 2015 and September 2019, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Houston-based company operating the oil pipeline that ruptured off Huntington Beach last fall announced Saturday that the government has green-lighted its plans to repair the pipeline, raising the possibility it will be operational again early next year.

In a press release, Amplify Energy Corp. said the U.S. Army Corps of ...Read more

Many forms of ear infections strike children and adults alike, but among the most common is acute otitis externa, also known as swimmer’s ear.

About 10% of Americans will experience swimmer’s ear during their lifetimes. Adults are affected more commonly, and children only rarely, generally ages 5 to 12.

But you don’t ...Read more

Wetlands are areas of land that are covered by water, or have flooded or waterlogged soils. They can have water on them either permanently or for just part of the year.

Whether it’s year-round or seasonal, this period of water saturation produces hydric soils, which contain little or no oxygen. But this doesn’t mean that they are ...Read more

The threat of climate change conjures certain scenes: Smoke billowing from a forest aflame. Smothering heat clinging to the distorted asphalt of a densely packed street. Glaciers breaking off into a rising sea. Another scenario should be equally terrifying but is harder to envision: a virus leaving the animal that has played blind host for an ...Read more

The Ashéninka woman with the painted face radiated a calm, patient confidence as she stood on the sandy banks of the Amonia River and faced the loggers threatening her Amazonian community.

The loggers had bulldozed a trail over the mahogany and cedar saplings she had planted, and blocked the creeks her community relied on for ...Read more

Amazon is using tech to get even closer to its customers.

It introduced a new sleep tracker, Halo Rise, that learns breathing patterns and senses room conditions to help users optimize sleep. Astro, its home robot, will soon be able to recognize doors, windows, pets and furniture in a user's home.

A new iteration of Blink, its home-security ...Read more

Russia’s effort to conscript 300,000 reservists to counter Ukraine’s military advances in Kharkiv has drawn a lot of attention from military and political analysts. But there’s also a potential energy angle.

In its call for reservists, Russia’s leadership specifically targeted oil and gas workers for the draft. One might ...Read more

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

When asked to estimate how much money they would spend in the future, people underpredicted the total amount by more than C$400 per month. However, when prompted to think about unexpected spending in addition to typical expenses, people made much more accurate ...Read more

“Splatoon” has been Nintendo’s most successful original franchise of the past 10 years. It’s a series that came out of necessity as the rise of competitive shooters left the company with a hole in its gaming portfolio. Nintendo needed to fill it, but the big question was: How would the developers create a family-friendly shooter and ...Read more

Cold medicine, milk crates and even laundry detergent: These may seem like everyday household products to most of us but they have featured in viral social media challenges in the past few years.

These are the five most dangerous stunts:

Blackout challenge

Probably the most deadly of them all, the “blackout challenge” entails cutting ...Read more

This week a reader had a question is about antivirus software.

“I recently replaced my 12-year-old computer with my granddaughter's 3-year-old gaming desktop when she updated to a new device.

Question: My granddaughter used Windows Defender for protection, as her opinion is Norton Antivirus works too much like a virus and had a bad ...Read more

Finding the right computer accessory to solve a problem, work correctly and do what you want it to do, along with being simple to set up, isn’t always as easy as it seems.

IOGEAR’S new UpStream Game Capture Adapter with Party Chat for 4K streamers is that, and it costs less than its competitors. Full disclosure, I’m not a gamer (never ...Read more