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.

Can rainbows form in a circle? – Henry D., age 7, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The legend goes that there is a pot of gold hidden at the end of every rainbow. But is there ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — What should you do if you see a lizard the size of a dog running around your yard or in the woods?

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says call them. Argentine Black and White Tegus are not native to the state, and in fact, were outlawed in 2021.

Will Dillman, assistant chief of wildlife at DNR, said call or ...Read more

Evelin Weber and her neighbors fled their Malibu homes as the deadly Woolsey Fire tore across the California coast in 2018. Ever since, haunted by fears of another blaze, she’s spent $300,000 on fireproofing her house.

Weber installed a fire hydrant outside her $4 million home, built a new turnaround for firetrucks in her driveway, planted ...Read more

The Pentagon’s first batch of new and more capable GPS satellites is as much as eight to 11 months behind the desired delivery schedule because contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. is having difficulty manufacturing some complex parts, according to the U.S. Space Force.

The initial 10 new “GPS IIIF” satellites are the first of a potential 22 ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — California air quality regulators late Friday approved tougher rules to encourage use of lower-carbon fuels, overriding objections that the action would lead to higher gasoline prices for motorists.

On an 12-to-2 vote, the California Air Resources Board approved amendments to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, or LCFS, ...Read more

The Bay Area has long held the title for attracting the most venture capital funding in the nation, and that naturally includes the hot market for artificial intelligence startups. After all, San Francisco is home to some of the most prominent AI players, including ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

But the Greater L.A. area is growing its presence in this ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Details were not revealed about who and why one of the three NASA astronauts of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission had to be hospitalized after their return to Earth last month, but all three discussed Friday the slow recovery each faces after spending more than 235 days in space.

“I know there may be some interest in our post-flight...Read more

As Florida and the Southeast begin recovering from 2024’s destructive hurricanes, many people are asking: How can we rebuild sustainably and in a way that avoids the same damage, costs and trauma in future storms?

There are proven ways to strengthen homes that pay off in the long run, such as installing hurricane straps to tie down ...Read more

DENVER — One of Colorado’s reintroduced wolves likely died of wounds it suffered during a fight with another wolf, federal officials announced Thursday.

The wolf also had a healed gunshot wound on one of its hind legs, according to a statement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed the wolf’s death...Read more

Carbon dioxide emissions from private jets have increased by 46% in the last five years, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.

The researchers analyzed over 26,000 airplanes and 18 million trips — representing most private flights between 2019 and 2023 — and found that more than ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX managed Thursday to get off a Starlink launch from Cape Canaveral after scrubbing the launch twice earlier in the week.

A Falcon 9 carrying 23 of the internet satellites lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:19 p.m. EST under cloudy skies.

Weather, though, was not a concern...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Humanity’s heating of the planet, driven by the burning of fossil fuels and unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, has become the main driver of worsening droughts in California and the American West, according to new research.

A team of UCLA and NOAA scientists found that while droughts in the last century were caused ...Read more

Clouds form when water vapor – an invisible gas in the atmosphere – sticks to tiny floating particles, such as dust, and turns into liquid water droplets or ice crystals. In a newly published study, we show that microplastic particles can have the same effects, producing ice crystals at temperatures 5 to 10 degrees Celsius (9 to 18 ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In downtown Los Angeles, parking lots are often placeholders, eventually giving rise to future development, but in the district known as South Park, one parking lot might just stay low.

Surrounded by residential towers, this ordinary patch of asphalt at 11th Street and South Grand Avenue, smaller than an ice-skating rink, may ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Biden administration on Wednesday issued a final environmental review for a second lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The administration also identified a preferred alternative for the sale that would offer 400,000 acres in the refuge’s coastal plane, the minimum acreage required by Congress for the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The cities of Santa Ana and Garden Grove have been placed under quarantine Wednesday in light of an uninvited and unwelcome visitor: the oriental fruit fly, an invasive pest that attacks over 230 crops including fruits, nuts and vegetables.

The order by the California Department of Food and Agriculture bars fruit from within the...Read more

When Hurricane Helene damaged western North Carolina in September, filling medical facilities with people who couldn’t be cared for at home, Jim Polk, a tech executive at Exela Pharmaceutical Sciences in Lenoir, North Carolina, got a call from the Atrium Health hospital group in flooded Asheville. Could his company make intravenous saline bags...Read more