In late September, OpenAI entered discussions for its latest funding round with confidence. After having early discussions with prospective backers who had expressed interest, the company presented its terms: at least $30 billion in new capital at a $1.4 trillion valuation.

Few startups have been as successful at fundraising as OpenAI, which ...Read more

Yang Liu’s parents planted roots in suburban Michigan hoping their son, who was born in China, would find success in the world’s biggest economy. In early 2020, they got their wish: End Game Interactive, the mobile game startup he co-founded in their home, raised $3 million on the back of breakout hit Zombs Royale.

Then, the U.S. still ...Read more

So, you’re sitting in your living room watching TV and the power goes out.

What goes through your mind? Uncertainty.

You start by turning on your phone’s flashlight and looking for that candle lighter so you can light some candles and you start thinking about spending the rest of the evening in the dark.

You’re hoping the outage is a ...Read more

This week a reader writes, “When Microsoft stopped supporting Publisher recently, it also denied access to the documents. In other words, it won’t let me go into my document in Publisher to export the document into another program. I cannot save the files as some other format (pdf). I’m in real trouble here. I cannot recreate a 140-page ...Read more

Nestled below a canopy of oak trees on the rolling hills and sunlit woodlands of Contra Costa County lies a hidden oasis for birdwatching enthusiasts.

With a vast array of natural habitats perfect for spotting a variety of diverse native and migratory birds, Orinda is widely considered one of the Bay Area’s premier birding destinations.

The ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has left the state Tuesday to join international leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Antalya, Turkey.

Newsom framed his attendance as an opportunity to tell the world that California’s climate leadership is delivering results as he criticized President Donald Trump as...Read more

World leaders meeting at the annual U.N. climate summit in November 2026 are wrestling with a persistent challenge: how to get countries to follow through on their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet.

One of the biggest problems has long been fossil fuel power plants, but new research shows that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — You may have seen them passed around at the playground or park — tiny, candy-colored stickers, often bearing bright cartoony faces, hearts or flowers, meant to repel mosquitoes. Hikers and urban walkers are wearing them on socks and jacket collars; parents are tacking them onto kids’ hats and backpacks. Forget Skittles — ...Read more

CHICAGO — The fish, caught in a net with dozens of others like it, had just been brought to the boat ramp and placed in one of several large, water-filled tubs, where it patiently waited its turn.

Soon enough, it was whisked up and away in a catch net, weighed in at 10.14 pounds, the same as a 12-pack of soda, measured at 25.7 inches, or ...Read more

Global carbon emissions are falling this year, a drop explained more by the recent oil shock than by countries’ gradual transition to clean energy.

Carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels will decline by 0.4% in 2026, to 38.2 billion metric tons, this year’s Global Carbon Budget estimates. The main driver is the U.S.-Israeli war...Read more

NEW YORK — Starting this off season, a portion of New York City’s ferry fleet will be temporarily reinvented as science classrooms on the waterways.

On Monday, NYC Ferry, the Economic Development Corporation, and an educational oyster-reef restoration nonprofit plan to announce the launch of the “Floating Classroom,” a 90-minute, twice ...Read more

NASA has only 32 active astronauts right now, and the agency wants more.

“There is no single résumé that makes somebody an astronaut,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson, standing in front of a gaggle of blue-suited space veterans at this weekend’s Max Power air show at Kennedy Space Center.

It included some who had flown on...Read more

Public lands are intricately woven into the fabric of America. Years of data confirms that a majority of Americans, regardless of their political beliefs, want public lands to remain in federal hands – though not everyone agrees on how exactly those lands should be managed. And while it’s not clear that public lands were a crucial factor ...Read more

Nearly every country in the world has acknowledged that climate change is a serious problem. It’s hard to ignore, as billions of people suffer through increasingly destructive storms and extreme heat.

In response, most governments have promised repeatedly to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global temperatures higher. ...Read more

Turkey will host climate negotiators from nearly 200 countries for annual talks, just weeks after the United Nations warned the world is all but certain to blitz past a target of limiting planetary warming to 1.5 Celsius.

Yet as tens of thousands of delegates prepare for two weeks of debate from Monday at the U.N.’s 31st Conference of the ...Read more

Climate negotiators from almost 200 countries will spend the next two weeks at an annual United Nations summit under a dark cloud of waning ambition to tackle rapidly rising global temperatures.

The negotiating agenda at COP31, starting Monday in the resort city of Antalya, Turkey, is narrower than at any other major climate conference in the ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — A highly unusual combination of warm water and king tides is damaging animal habitats in Mission Bay and providing a stark preview of how the bay might look if sea levels rise as much as predicted in coming decades.

Four factors came together last month to create record water levels in Mission Bay: the king tide phenomenon that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Microscopic shards of plastic have been found everywhere scientists have looked, from the depths of the ocean to the clouds above.

Now a UC Riverside environmental scientist with a particular set of outdoor and laboratory skills has found them in remote mountain snows reachable only on skis. In a new paper, she and 13 colleagues...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Since becoming the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Roberto Lazzeri has been confronted with many pressing cross-border issues, ranging from trade deals and border security to immigration.

But he said there’s one in particular that comes up constantly in his many meetings in Washington — the Tijuana River Valley’s pollution ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — The sewage-tainted water from the Tijuana River is traveling farther north than previously suspected, suggesting communities beyond Imperial Beach may face potential health risks, according to a new study.

University of California, Riverside researchers, in cooperation with scientists from University of California San Diego’s ...Read more