CHICAGO — Annette Prince peered between glossy downtown buildings: ”There’s a bird in that grate.”

Sure enough, sitting very still in the rain was a tiny white-throated sparrow, so drenched you could barely make out its canary-yellow face markings. The bird was too dazed to move — an easy target for the hungry seagulls that were ...Read more

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — For many years, Rose Sims had no idea what was going on inside a nondescript brick building on Florida Street a couple of miles from her modest one-story home on the southwestern side of town.

Like other residents, she got an unwelcome surprise in October 2022 at a public forum held by the Environmental Protection Agency at ...Read more

State Sen. Norm Needleman championed the 2021 legislation designed to lure major data centers to Connecticut.

The Democratic lawmaker hoped to better compete with nearby states, bring in a growing industry, and provide paychecks for workers tasked with building the sprawling server farms.

But this legislative session, he’s wondering if those...Read more

It didn't take long for Harshraj Ghai to respond to the impact of California's new $20 an hour minimum wage for his 3,700 fast-food employees.

Ghai and his family operate 180 Burger Kings, Taco Bells and Popeyes chicken restaurants across the state, and one of the first things they did after the law took effect April 1 was to start capping ...Read more

Electric power generation in the U.S. is shifting rapidly away from fossil fuels toward cleaner and lower-carbon sources. State clean energy targets and dramatic declines in the cost of renewable electricity are the most important reasons.

But fossil fuel plants still generate 60% of the U.S. electricity supply, producing air, water ...Read more

Imagine a future with nearly silent air taxis flying above traffic jams and navigating between skyscrapers and suburban droneports. Transportation arrives at the touch of your smartphone and with minimal environmental impact.

This isn’t just science fiction. United Airlines has plans for these futuristic electric air taxis in ...Read more

Spring is go time for climbers who hope to summit Mount Everest, Earth’s highest peak above sea level. Hundreds of mountaineers from around the world travel to Asia in April and May, headed for base camps in Nepal and Tibet.

But jagged peaks won’t be the only thing they see. Especially on Everest’s more heavily traversed Nepal ...Read more

When crafting “Tales of Kenzera: Zau,” Abubakar Salim thought of his father who passed away from cancer 10 years ago. The founder of Surgent Studios said his father believed that dead is dead, and that he didn’t want his son to spend time dwelling on his end.

That didn’t happen. Salim established a game studio, gathering a team of 30 ...Read more

There is a new feature in iOS called Stolen Device Protection. When enabled, it provides increased security requirements for certain actions when your phone is away from known locations, such as your home or your office.

These security enhancements should make it harder for someone who steals an iPhone and knows the user’s passcode to make ...Read more

Beer lovers can make and drink their own unique beer with the new iGulu F1 fully automated home brewing system. The iGulu F1's brewing process uses automated technology to create high-quality craft beers and nonalcoholic drinks like kombucha.

The easy-to-use countertop appliance (13.5-by-14.5-by-20.5-inches), which iGulu states is as easy to ...Read more

For decades, concerns about automobile pollution have focused on what comes out of the tailpipe. Now, researchers and regulators say, we need to pay more attention to toxic emissions from tires as vehicles roll down the road.

At the top of the list of worries is a chemical called 6PPD, which is added to rubber tires to help them last longer. ...Read more

You wanna see her move? I think that’s the fun part.

The room is thick with anticipation and fabricated skulls.

She’s gonna wake up. Give her a second.

Matt McMullen eyes his creation as her eyes flutter open in return, her gaze settling upon all the disembodied faces and mechanical mandibles surrounding her in this workshop where fake ...Read more

It is high school (and college) graduation time and that usually means some gift-giving.

I’ve got a few gift ideas for your graduates that will be welcomed whether they’re headed off to college or still trying to figure out what’s next.

Here are three gadgets, and oddly, two of them are named Flow.

Tribit Stormbox Flow

I think ...Read more

Warnings about the agenda of global warming alarmists can seem far-fetched. But consider what’s happening in Germany.

A recent German governing coalition set a national goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. Nevada has a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To many, that sounds worthwhile — at least until you learn the details.

...Read more

Parking is at a premium at the International Space Station, but NASA and SpaceX cleared out one spot as a cargo Dragon spacecraft completed its trip home with a splashdown off the Florida coast early Tuesday.

NASA still needs to shift the remaining Dragon spacecraft from its spot to clear the path for next week’s launch of Boeing’s CST-100 ...Read more

America’s young people face a mental health crisis, and adults constantly debate how much to blame phones and social media. A new round of conversation has been spurred by Jonathan Haidt’s book “The Anxious Generation,” which contends that rising mental health issues in children and adolescents are the result of social media replacing ...Read more

In December 2022, Vanderbilt University neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel published a paper that caused an uproar in the dinosaur world.

After analyzing previous research on fossilized dinosaur brain cavities and the neuron counts of birds and other related living animals, Herculano-Houzel extrapolated that the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex ...Read more

DENVER — Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed a fourth gray wolf depredation in Grand County on Sunday, according to the confirmed gray wolf depredation information.

The incident involved one calf and no claim has been submitted.

CPW defines gray wolf depredation as physical trauma that results in injury or death to a domestic animal. ...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 are some people faster than others? – Jon, age 14, Macon, Georgia

Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest human, ran a 100-meter sprint at a speed of 23.35 miles per hour (37...Read more

Dozens of tornadoes hit the central U.S. April 26-28, 2024, tearing through suburbs and small towns and damaging hundreds of homes from Oklahoma to Nebraska and Iowa.

Spring is tornado season in the U.S., but the tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa were quite a bit farther north and east of what would be typical for tornadoes in late April...Read more