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

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

CHICAGO — IBM unveiled its first quantum computer in Illinois Friday at Hyde Park Labs, ushering in an era of potentially transformative technological advancement, with Chicago at the center of development.

Initially installed at the University of Chicago’s commercial research and development facility, the IBM Quantum System Two will ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A major sand replenishment is headed to the San Clemente beach along the long-imperiled railway line, part of a large shoreline work package aimed at fortifying the vulnerable railroad while also protecting the area's shrinking beaches.

The California Coastal Commission on Thursday approved an extensive permit that railway ...Read more

A NASA rocket launch for a lunar mission may have punched a hole in Earth’s atmosphere, potentially disrupting GPS signals, a new study found.

The Artemis II mission launched April 1 from Florida, carrying astronauts around the moon on humanity’s first lunar mission since the Apollo program ended in 1972, NASA said.

Atmospheric ...Read more

State officials have approved the final key permit needed to build the largest new reservoir in California in 50 years, a project supporters say will supply water to millions of Californians from the East Bay and Silicon Valley to Los Angeles to reduce the impacts of droughts, but which opponents worry will harm the environment.

On Wednesday ...Read more

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Washington — Vi Tran and most others in her neighborhood agree that nobody should be shooting off fireworks after the Fourth of July. But one household doesn’t see it that way.

Hearing bangs and whistles in August, Tran called the county’s nonemergency line for the fifth time in a month.

Not a single ring was heard, ...Read more

CalRecycle has picked the number that decides how much plastic California has to cut under the state’s 2022 landmark plastic law, and it is low.

It’s just one-third of what the state estimated in a 2024 report, and 20% lower than an initial number the industry announced in June.

The benchmark number, known as the source reduction baseline,...Read more