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Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

Human milk is essential, yet scientists know little about it. UCSD plans to change that

It is one of the few foods that nearly everyone on the planet has consumed at some point. It's linked to a host of health benefits, from reducing the risk of asthma and Type 1 diabetes to fighting off infections.

Yet despite the outsized role it plays in sustaining our species, this essential substance — human milk — has been the subject of...Read more

Asian swamp eels spread in the Everglades. 'Potentially the worst species we've had yet'

For a crayfish in the Florida Everglades, its worst nightmare is three feet long, dark brown and pure muscle, with a mouth like a vacuum that sucks up nearly everything it can find — tiny fish, small shellfish, turtle eggs and frogs.

It’s called the Asian swamp eel. And while Floridians may be more used to seeing it grilled and doused in a...Read more

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Lawsuit jeopardizes use of crucial wildfire retardant, US Forest Service claims

LOS ANGELES — For most Californians, the sight of aircraft spewing neon pink liquid over flaming trees and brush has become a hallmark of aggressive wildfire suppression campaigns — if not a potent symbol of government's struggle to control increasingly destructive forest fires.

But as the use of aerially delivered retardant has soared in ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

It's a bad year for California salmon. Here's how it hurts the economy and environment

State officials were supposed to take a conservative approach to approving salmon fishing season this year — and they did.

California’s fishing season had been scheduled to open April 1. Instead, as a result of low salmon projections, the season has been canceled.

Salmon provides more to the state than meets the eye.

“People don’t ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Cord cutting might not always equal cost savings

As I was fixing a co-worker’s printer this week, she took the opportunity to ask me about cord cutting.

She and her husband are paying a little more than $100 per month for DirecTV from a satellite dish for two TVs. She wanted to know if cutting the cord and streaming would be a way to save money while keeping the channels they watched, ...Read more

Bethesda/TNS

Preview: ‘Redfall’ beautifully meshes Arkane’s hallmark gameplay with an open world

It’s been a minute since vampires were explosively popular. The heyday for bloodsuckers has come and gone when the likes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “True Blood” wrapped up and zombie epics such as “The Walking Dead” took off in the public’s imagination.

That could all change, and one of the first projects that could ...Read more

Smartish/TNS

Gadgets: DNA Fit In-Ear Bluetooth true wireless earbuds perfect choice for active, seated users

It was not that long ago that true wireless earbuds were a novelty. Now there’s an endless amount to choose from, so look for features to make them stand out. Workout enthusiasts will like what Monster has with their new DNA Fit In-Ear Bluetooth true wireless earbuds, designed with ear hooks, making them a perfect choice for active or seated...Read more

Sony Interactive Entertainment/TNS/TNS

Review: Sony PSVR 2

I’ve always been a bit of a skeptic when it comes to virtual reality. There are a lot of reasons for this, too. There is the extensive cost of most high-end VR units. There is the sometimes-complicated setup. There is the lack of truly transcendent visuals. And then there are the games themselves, which have historically lacked the depth and...Read more

David Goodhue/Miami Herald/TNS

Manatee struck by a boat in the Florida Keys was sent to SeaWorld. He worked his way back

KEY LARGO, Fla. — Scientists at SeaWorld rehabilitate so many injured manatees, many from the Florida Keys, that they have trouble coming up with creative names for the aquatic mammals.

Last year, “we had a bread theme,” said Lorri Braso, a supervisory animal rescuer at the Orlando theme park and aquarium.

Introducing Garlic Knot, a 965-...Read more

Arvin Temkar/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

How a Georgia plant is helping solve a huge EV supply chain kink

COVINGTON, Georgia — In a reused half-century-old factory about an hour east of Atlanta, a Massachusetts company is on the front lines of expanding the American electric vehicle supply chain. And it all starts with recycling.

Ascend Elements’ new facility near Covington Municipal Airport takes spent lithium-ion batteries and scrap from EV ...Read more

Kevin Spear/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Manatee winter deaths in Florida's Brevard County plunge -- which could portend trouble

ORLANDO, Fla. — The winter killing season for manatees along Central Florida’s Atlantic coast is winding down with an astounding turn of events — a tiny fraction of the animals died compared to during the last two years.

From January through March in Brevard County waters, authorities collected 275 dead manatees in 2021 and 281 last year....Read more

Travis Long/The News & Observer/TNS

Tech sector H-1B employees' spouses can work in US, judge says

Big technology companies won a major court victory in Washington, where a judge dismissed a suit challenging the rights of highly skilled H-1B visa holders’ spouses to work in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday issued a decision upholding the Obama-era rule under which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued H-4...Read more

Stellantis/TNS/TNS

Stellantis CEO: There may not be enough raw materials to electrify globe

The CEO of the maker of Jeep SUVs, Ram pickup trucks and other vehicles says he's not sure there will be enough raw materials to replace the existing fleet of fossil fuel-powered vehicles with all-electric vehicles.

The comments from Stellantis NV's Carlos Tavares came Wednesday during the Freedom of Mobility Forum, a platform the automaker ...Read more

Tyger Williams/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Scientists turn to coconuts to save the New Jersey coastline

Ecologist Shane Godshall tromps in waders through two feet of mud in Thompsons Beach marsh on the Delaware Bay in Heislerville, in New Jersey's Cumberland County.

He pauses, then sticks his hand in the ooze and pulls out a piece of the secret weapon scientists have been deploying to fight erosion from climate change and to save America’s ...Read more

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Worry and suspicion reign as once-dry Tulare Lake drowns California farmland

CORCORAN, Calif. — Sixth Avenue used to cut through miles of farmland. Now, the road has disappeared under muddy water, its path marked by sodden telephone poles that protrude from the swelling lake. Water laps just below the windows of a lone farmhouse that sits alongside the submerged route.

Thousands of acres of cropland have been ...Read more

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'Nature gave us a lifeline:' Southern California refills largest reservoir after wet winter

LOS ANGELES — Following a series of winter storms that eased drought conditions across the state, Southern Californians celebrated a sight nobody has seen for several punishing years: water rushing into Diamond Valley Lake.

The massive reservoir — the largest in Southern California — was considerably drained during the state's driest ...Read more

A shortage of native seeds is slowing land restoration across the US, which is crucial for tackling climate change and extinctions

Spring is planting time for home gardeners, landscapers and public works agencies across the U.S. And there’s rising demand for native plants – species that are genetically adapted to the specific regions where they are used.

Native plants have evolved with local climates and soil conditions. As a result, they generally require ...Read more

Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

The cure for winter flooding might be in this swamp -- if California actually funds it

Matt Kaminski stood on a road scarcely higher than the floodplain, glassy pools on all sides stretched out like something from a dream. In the distance, a storm lumbered over the Coast Ranges.

The marsh all around him, Kaminski said, was a window into the Central Valley’s past. Back then, the waterways that twist down from the Sierra Nevada ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Commentary: The climate future is bleak. How scientists give their children hope without lying

Having a child is the most emphatic statement of hope a person can make. I have three young kids, and yet I have trouble remaining optimistic about the world they and their children will inhabit in 2100 and beyond.

The world 77 years from now is likely to be far hotter and more unstable, warmed in a way that depopulates entire metropolises and...Read more

Shanna Madison/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Commentary: Illinois' biometric privacy law has created a massive liability regime

The Illinois Supreme Court recently issued a ruling that exposes the White Castle burger chain to as much as $17 billion in liability because it didn’t get explicit permission from employees to use biometric controls on its time clocks and computers. But don’t blame the courts for the burger joint’s legal costs. The Illinois legislature’...Read more