CHICAGO — In the summer of 2023, strange things happened to the tiny creatures that swim and float in the Chicago River.

One type of water flea, Chydoridae, basically disappeared from the South Side stretch known as Bubbly Creek, while another, Moinidae, experienced a dramatic population surge.

“You could see them with your eyes — clouds...Read more

President Donald Trump’s NASA budget plans look to cut its public relations funding by half, but already the agency is shuttering social media accounts that include those dedicated to popular missions including Mars Curiosity, Mars Perseverance and Voyager.

Those three in particular have quite the fanbase on X with Curiosity’s account ...Read more

Florida’s 50th launch of 2025 had been planned to be a human spaceflight, but instead it ended up being another batch of Starlink satellites.

SpaceX and Axiom Space remain on hold for any attempt to launch the Ax-4 mission from Kennedy Space Center, which had several options to fly this week, but were stymied by weather and then a liquid ...Read more

CHICAGO — Small and stocky birds perch, hunched over, on the treetops and branches of Lake Okeechobee on the edge of Florida’s swampy Everglades for the better part of winter. The alligators swarming the murky waters below don’t faze the black-crowned night herons — in fact, the birds count on them for protection. And when some fly away ...Read more

DENVER — The wolves roaming the state have new pups that are being monitored by wildlife officials, Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed Thursday.

A spokesman for the agency declined to say how many pups have been spotted — or from how many litters — but said staff members had begun to tally the number of new additions to the state’s ...Read more

Your next toy or game may be able to converse with you.

Mattel, the El Segundo toy maker behind Barbie and Hot Wheels, said Thursday that it’s teaming up with OpenAI, which created popular chatbot ChatGPT, to “bring the magic of AI to age-appropriate play experiences.”

The companies are planning to unveil their first product later this ...Read more

SEATTLE — A sweeping Biden-era initiative to restore Columbia Basin salmon runs, boost tribal energy development and provide a pathway for dam removal on the Lower Snake River has been canceled by President Donald Trump.

A presidential memorandum issued Thursday revoked the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement, which Trump stated “placed...Read more

With SpaceX champing at the bit to begin construction of a new Starship launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, demolition began Thursday to remove structures used by the previous tenant, United Launch Alliance.

ULA used Space Launch Complex 37 for its Delta IV class of rockets, but the last Delta IV Heavy mission flew in April 2024 ...Read more

An ongoing leak on the Russian side of the International Space Station has prompted an indefinite postponement of a planned human spaceflight from Kennedy Space Center, according to NASA.

Axiom Space was aiming to launch its Ax-4 mission with four private astronauts this week atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A, and had already ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Notice giant black bees buzzing around your backyard?

That could spell trouble for your deck or fence, according to David Headrick, Cal Poly professor emeritus of entomology and pest management.

Those enormous insects you’ve spotted are carpenter bees, he said.

Carpenter bees use their powerful jaws to burrow into ...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — Blue crab populations in the Chesapeake Bay took a sizable hit in 2025, marking a need for more cautious harvest regulations, some environmentalists say.

Each winter, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at William & Mary cooperate on a dredge survey to record the population ...Read more

Companies are eliminating the grunt work that used to train young professionals — and they don’t seem to have a clear plan for what comes next.

AI is analyzing documents, writing briefing notes, creating Power Point presentations or handling customer service queries, and — surprise! — now the younger humans who normally do that work ...Read more

A body of a gray whale found on a San Francisco Bay Area beach marks the 18th death of 2025 for the marine mammals in the region, experts reported.

The dead male gray whale washed up at Lands End on Saturday, June 7, the California Academy of Sciences said in a June 9 news release.

No necropsy was performed, so the cause of death remains ...Read more

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang projected that Europe’s artificial-intelligence computing capacity will increase by a factor of ten over the next two years, with more than 20 so-called AI factories in the works.

“Europe has now awakened to the importance of these AI factories,” said Huang, whose company is supplying ...Read more

Early this year, private equity firm Blackstone bet big on the future of artificial intelligence by investing $300 million in a Los Angeles company that’s been around for more than two decades.

The company, DDN, helps businesses store and manage the massive trove of data that powers AI systems — the lifeblood needed for chatbots, self-...Read more

I got a question from a friend last week who received an email message from Apple about his iPhone.

The message read, “Your iCloud storage is full. Because you’ve exceeded your storage plan, your documents, contacts and device data are no longer backing up to iCloud and your photos and videos are not uploading to iCloud Photos. To ...Read more