Science & Technology

/

Knowledge

A data center is planned to occupy a vacant commercial building in Monterey Park, Calif., near homes and businesses and not far from downtown Los Angeles. Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Data centers don’t have to be a burden on local communities – and can even support them by generating power and repurposing waste heat

Many consumers – and state policymakers and even utility companies – are worried about the possibility of large numbers of data centers raising electricity demand and power prices.

Those are real concerns, but our engineering research finds that if designed, constructed and operated carefully, data centers can actually help the ...Read more

Seagrass has made an unexpected return to Mosquito Lagoon. Captain William B. Wolfson, Grassroots Guide Service, New Smyrna Beach, FL

Hurricanes devastated Florida’s East Coast – then seagrass made an unexpected comeback

Florida’s Indian River Lagoon has been an ecosystem in decline going back to 2011, when harmful algal blooms led to a severe decline in seagrass, the foundational component of shallow coastal ecosystems.

Seagrass meadows stabilize sediments, improve water clarity and provide critical habitat and forage for species ranging from ...Read more

Uproar over mama bear killing could help launch a state wildlife coexistence program

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A month after a public uproar over a mama bear being euthanized after swiping at a resident in Monrovia, state lawmakers are considering mandating the use of nonlethal ways to help allow wildlife and humans to coexist.

Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, said she believes the bear's death, and the state's decision to ...Read more

Scott Olson/Getty Images North America/TNS

Hegseth says climate change is 'crap.' The military is still bracing for it

When Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm, tore through Florida’s Tyndall Air Force Base in 2018, it battered F-22 stealth fighter jets, destroyed hundreds of buildings and churned up 700,000 cubic yards of debris. The total cost of the damage approached $5 billion.

Now, Tyndall is being rebuilt as a super-resilient “installation of the ...Read more

Abigail Dollins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS

'Spot 'em, scare 'em': The nightly battle waged against this Fort Worth critter

FORT WORTH, Texas — Every few minutes, the quiet of a muggy spring evening in the Park Glen neighborhood in far north Fort Worth was broken by the clanging of pots, pans, air horns, and other noisemakers as residents looked skyward at unwanted guests.

These residents have gathered every night for the past few weeks to scare away migratory ...Read more

Amazon to invest an additional $5 billion in Anthropic

Amazon.com Inc. is investing an additional $5 billion in Anthropic PBC, and may inject $20 billion more over time, a deal that deepens the companies’ ties in an increasingly competitive artificial intelligence industry.

Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot and coding tool, plans to spend more than $100 billion over the next 10 years on ...Read more

TNS

FAA grounds Blue Origin New Glenn after labeling mission a 'mishap'

The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket following its Sunday launch from Cape Canaveral.

The rocket looked good on the way up, but the upper stage wasn’t able to put its payload into the correct orbit.

“The FAA is aware that Blue Origin New Glenn 3 experienced a mishap during the second-stage ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

California judge rebukes Trump-backed plan that bypasses state authority in oil pipeline restart

LOS ANGELES — In a rebuff of the Trump administration's push to restart oil pipelines off California's Central Coast, a state judge has ruled that a recent executive order does not override state regulations concerning oil operations.

It remains unclear exactly what effect the ruling may have on pipeline operator Sable Offshore Corp., which ...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

With planned GPS launch, Space Force turns again to SpaceX amid ULA Vulcan issues

Once again, the Space Force is turning to SpaceX to get its national security hardware into space with a GPS satellite launch planned in the overnight hours early Tuesday.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 is aiming to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a 15-minute window that opens at 2:53 a.m. Eastern time on ...Read more

A long-running experiment is testing tree mixes to develop the healthiest forests. Mickey Pullen/Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Don’t just plant trees, plant forests to restore biodiversity for the future

Around the world, people plan to plant more than 1 trillion trees this decade in an ambitious effort to slow climate change and reduce biodiversity loss. But if the past is prologue, many of those planted trees won’t survive. And if they do, they could end up as biological deserts that lack the richness and resilience of healthy forests....Read more

World Cup pitches take a beating. AP Photo/Bernat Armangue

We designed the turf for soccer’s biggest World Cup ever – here’s how we created the same playing experience across 3 countries

With 104 matches in 16 stadiums across Canada, the United States and Mexico, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be soccer’s biggest event ever.

It’s our job as turfgrass researchers hired by FIFA, the game’s governing body, to make sure those pitches feel the same for players and that the grass thrives.

That’s not so simple....Read more

The oil industry is all about the Benjamins. Diy / iStock / Getty Images Plus

When oil prices spike, where does the money go?

The market for oil is global, which is why events like the war in Iran affect oil prices – and prices of the wide range of products made from oil – literally everywhere. Federal data shows that the price at the primary crude oil hub in the U.S. was US$66 a barrel in late February 2026 – before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran – and $...Read more

Great whites abandoned San Diego nursery, but El Niño could bring sharks that 'play by different rules'

SAN DIEGO — Given that great white sharks are mostly uninterested in humans, San Diego beachgoers are never likely to have an encounter with one of the predators. But experts said that could be even more true this year, now that a once-active nursery has apparently fallen out of favor with the juvenile great whites that spent several recent ...Read more

Nick Shockey/California Department of Water Resources/TNS

A gas that causes climate change is bubbling out of reservoirs

LOS ANGELES -- Methane, the second-biggest contributor to climate change, is spewing into the atmosphere from the oil and gas industry, landfills and dairy farms. It’s also coming from another lesser-known source: reservoirs.

As plants break down underwater, they form methane, which then bubbles to the surface. California doesn’t monitor ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Critics question feds' plans for future of Colorado River: In years of severe drought, 'the system is failing'

The multitude of water managers tasked with overseeing the drying Colorado River system stand at a dire crossroads.

As a yearslong stalemate in negotiations persists between the seven states that share the river, it’s become increasingly likely that the federal government will impose its own long-term plan, choosing from a range of proposals ...Read more

Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Philly scientists win 2026 Breakthrough Prize for developing gene therapy for blindness

Three Philadelphia scientists won a $3 million Breakthrough Prize for developing the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease, prize sponsors announced Saturday.

Their work created a scientific and regulatory road map for gene therapies, paving the way for more than a dozen similar approvals to follow.

The awardees — Jean ...Read more

Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Blue Origin launches New Glenn, suffers issue deploying craft

Blue Origin’s flagship New Glenn rocket launched to space on its third flight, reusing a booster for the first time but failing to correctly place the satellite it was carrying into its intended orbit.

The rocket took off from the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida at approximately 7:25 a.m. local time, and its reusable first stage returned...Read more

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images North America/TNS

Potomac named most endangered river as sewage spill, data centers loom

The Potomac River was named the most endangered river in the United States in a new report by American Rivers, which pointed to a massive sewage spill this winter and the growing footprint of data centers in Maryland and Virginia.

The report cited the Jan. 19 collapse of the Potomac Interceptor, which state and federal agencies have said ...Read more

Richard Tribou/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

Blue Origin launches New Glenn, suffers issue deploying craft

Blue Origin’s flagship New Glenn rocket launched to space on its third flight, reusing a booster for the first time but failing to correctly place the satellite it was carrying into its intended orbit.

The rocket took off from the launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida at approximately 7:25 a.m. local time, and its reusable first stage returned...Read more

David Swanson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Wildfires killed nearly 20% of the world's giant sequoias. How crews are racing to save the rest

Five years ago, a tragic and depressing environmental story unfolded when thousands of giant sequoia trees, an iconic California species that tower 300 feet high and can live for 3,000 years, were killed during multiple large wildfires that roared across the southern Sierra Nevada.

The fires in 2020 and 2021 at Sequoia National Park, Sequoia ...Read more