Science & Technology
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Boeing's beleaguered Starliner makes crewless return to Earth
Boeing’s Starliner completed its Crew Flight Test without its crew undocking Friday evening from the International Space Station and making the trip back to Earth.
The spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V back on June 5 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams docking with the ISS the next ...Read more
California to get first new national marine sanctuary in 32 years, banning offshore oil drilling along 116 miles of coast
A long-running effort by native tribes and environmentalists to establish the first new national marine sanctuary along California’s coastline in 32 years — the aquatic version of a new national park — where offshore oil drilling would be prohibited forever, reached a key milestone Friday.
The Biden administration published the final ...Read more
Boeing's beleaguered Starliner set for crewless trip home tonight
Boeing’s Starliner is set to complete its Crew Flight Test without its crew with an undocking planned for Friday evening from the International Space Station and a trip back to Earth.
The spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V back on June 5 with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams docking ...Read more
Death Valley, the Earth's hottest place, just had its hottest summer ever
The hottest place on Earth has officially made it through its hottest summer ever, Death Valley National Park rangers said on Thursday.
Death Valley, a popular national park across the California state line, experienced an average 24-hour temperature of 104.5 degrees, besting its previous record of 104.2 degrees, which was set in 2021 and 2018....Read more
Anthrax outbreak kills 50 cattle and a moose in Wyoming, officials say. What to know
Dozens of cattle and a moose dropped dead amid an anthrax outbreak in southeastern Wyoming, officials say.
The bacterial disease was detected in multiple beef herds for the first time since the 1970s and in a moose for the first time since 1956, state livestock and wildlife officials said in news releases.
The Wyoming State Veterinary ...Read more
Utilities rely on dirty ‘peaker’ plants when power demand surges, but there are alternatives
The U.S. is nearing the end of one of its hottest summers on record. Across the nation, heat waves have driven peak electricity demand on some days to levels far exceeding seasonal averages.
Grid operators rely on so-called “peaker” plants to ensure they will have enough supply to meet these demand surges. Peaker units can start ...Read more
Oil and gas communities are a blind spot in America’s climate and economic policies
On a recent visit to Rangely, a small town in northwest Colorado, my colleagues and I met with the administrators of a highly regarded community college to discuss the town’s economy. Leaving the scenic campus, we saw families driving into the mountains in off-road vehicles, a favorite activity for this outdoors-loving community. With a ...Read more
Netflix wants to shrink your favorite TV show's carbon footprint
There’s a soft, afternoon glow suffusing an intimate scene between the plucky protagonist and her wood-chopping, flannel-shirted love interest’s mother on the Vancouver set of the Netflix Inc. show, "Virgin River." A soapy drama centered on a nurse practitioner in a small, northern California town, "Virgin River" is the kind of show that ...Read more
Why do the flaming carcasses of electrocuted birds keep starting Colorado wildfires?
DENVER — In the past two months alone, the flaming carcasses of electrocuted birds have ignited at least three wildfires in Colorado.
While the phenomenon sounds straight out of a cartoon, it’s actually more common than you’d think, experts said. It’s a big enough problem that electric utility companies brainstorm efforts to mitigate ...Read more
Critically endangered California condor shot and killed in Colorado
A rare California condor passing through southwestern Colorado was shot and killed this year, and state and federal authorities on Wednesday asked the public to help track down those responsible.
A critically endangered species, condors flying in the wild and rugged canyons of northern Arizona and southern Utah number only 85 – a population ...Read more
Fish kill results in about 24,000 dead fish in Baltimore's Inner Harbor
Maryland officials investigated a fish kill Wednesday in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, after about 24,000 dead fish were observed between the Rusty Scupper and the Maryland Science Center, as well as near Piers 5 and 6.
The dead were almost exclusively Atlantic menhaden, though Maryland Department of the Environment investigators also observed ...Read more
Blue Origin set to test fire New Glenn stage at Canaveral launch pad
ORLANDO, Fla. — Blue Origin has only 40 days to go to be ready for its first launch of its heavy lift New Glenn rocket, but has a lot of boxes to tick before liftoff.
That includes a test fire in the coming days of the rocket’s second stage, which the company rolled out to the pad Tuesday at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch ...Read more
Humans infecting animals infecting humans − from COVID-19 to bird flu, preventing pandemics requires protecting all species
When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, humans had been the only species with reported cases of the disease. While early genetic analyses pointed to horseshoe bats as the evolutionary hosts of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, no reports had yet surfaced indicating it could be transmitted ...Read more
India’s new mega-dam will roil lives downstream with wild swings in water flow every day
“Hey Rupam, open the door. Take this fish,” a woman yelled from outside. I was sitting in the kitchen at my friend Rupam’s house in rural northeast India. It was the heart of monsoon season, and rain had been falling since morning. The woman must have been shouting because the noise of the rain on the tin roof muted everything else.
...Read more
Gadgets: Hub adapter
The change to USB-C on many computers comes with advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage to many is that you get fewer ports, but an advantage is that they can be expanded easily, even for power delivery.
EZQuest's USB-C Slim Gen 2 Hub Adapter 6-in-1 is one of the better accessories I've seen if you need more USB-C ports with a...Read more
Jim Rossman: Turning off captions shouldn’t be this hard
This week a reader writes, “We have four Sony TVs, which we set up with YouTube TV and Roku streaming sticks a couple years ago. A couple weeks ago, one TV started displaying closed captions on every channel, and we have tried everything to get rid of them. Talked to the Geek Squad, followed all online instructions to turn off captions, used...Read more
Tech review: Three vacuums to keep your floors clean
We all have floors, and they all get dirty. How you clean them will depend on what’s on those floors — are they hard surfaces or carpeted?
I’ve used plenty of vacuums, both traditional and robot vacuums, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages.
Today we’re looking at three vacuums. Two require work from you and one will ...Read more
Yelp vs. Google: An antitrust court fight plays out in San Francisco
For years, Yelp has complained about Google's practices, alleging that the tech giant placed its own products above competitors in Google search results.
Yelp says when a customer searches, say, for "restaurants in Brooklyn," Google prioritizes putting its own summary and ratings above non-sponsored results from rivals including Yelp, resulting...Read more
Civilian space-walk flight Polaris Dawn set for Friday after rocket grounding
The Polaris Dawn mission that will feature the first civilian space walk is set for Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared SpaceX to use the rocket that will launch the astronauts into the space.
The five-day trip led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, which has been repeatedly delayed, is scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy ...Read more
Audit warns costs for NASA's new Artemis launcher could balloon to $2.7 billion
ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA’s second mobile launcher needed for future missions in the Artemis program is already years late and millions over budget, and NASA’s Office of the Inspector General warns it could get even worse.
In an audit released last week, the OIG said the mobile launcher 2 (ML-2), which was originally awarded a $383 million ...Read more
Popular Stories
- Boeing's beleaguered Starliner makes crewless return to Earth
- Death Valley, the Earth's hottest place, just had its hottest summer ever
- Anthrax outbreak kills 50 cattle and a moose in Wyoming, officials say. What to know
- California to get first new national marine sanctuary in 32 years, banning offshore oil drilling along 116 miles of coast
- Boeing's beleaguered Starliner set for crewless trip home tonight