In 2030, if current projections hold, the United States will drill for more oil and gas than at any point in its history. Russia and Saudi Arabia plan to do the same. They’re among the world’s fossil fuel giants that, together, are on course this decade to produce twice the amount of fossil fuels than […]
The independent monitor for the National Science Foundation is sending investigators to McMurdo Station in Antarctica who should arrive on Monday after a report last year raised concerns about sexual assault and harassment at a U.S. research base. The foundation’s Office of Inspector General is sending two people to the remote station for roughly two […]
In Norse mythology, a monstrous sea serpent wrapped itself around the world’s waters. Its name was Jormungandr. The ancient Norse also believed in a place called Valhalla, or heaven. And in North Dakota, there’s a small town called Walhalla, a name that reflects the area’s Scandinavian heritage. It was near there that a new kind […]
What’s Behind the Numbers: Flavor bans may have had an effect. One thing is clear about underage e-cigarette use: Adolescents like flavors. About 90 percent of the students who reported vaping said they used flavored products, citing favorites that tasted like fruit and candy. Teenagers identified Elf Bar and Esco Bar as their favorite brands, […]
The Interior Department on Tuesday approved a plan to install up to 176 giant wind turbines off the coast of Virginia, clearing the way for what would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm yet. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, to be built by Dominion Energy, is the fifth commercial-scale offshore wind project approved […]
If you loathe cockroaches, you’re going to love the emerald jewel wasp. Females of the species Ampulex compressa, known also as emerald cockroach wasps, are less than an inch long, and decked out in gorgeous, metallic green-blues. To complete their life cycles, they must first sting an American cockroach, and inject the much larger insect […]
Campsites may also still be available along the zone of totality, but they are booking up fast. In Indiana, some campgrounds around Monroe Lake, near Bloomington, are already full, but campsites with a view of the eclipse are still open in a few other state parks, said Ginger Murphy, deputy director of the Indiana Department […]
In 2021, it seemed as if Mars had a surprisingly big heart. Scientists had been using InSight, a robotic lander to study the planet’s insides. The spacecraft had listened to enough marsquakes to develop a picture of the layer-cake nature of the Martian underworld. The crust and mantle were not especially strange. The core, however, […]
Mesoamerican archaeologists know it as Monument 9: a 2,600-year-old carving in stone of a jaguar’s gaping face, roughly five feet wide and tall and weighing one ton. Nearly 60 years ago the relic was looted from the ruins of Chalcatzingo, an Olmec site south of modern-day Mexico City, and smuggled into the United States, where […]
Over the past decade, the sunflower sea star has gone from a mighty predator of the Pacific Ocean floor to nearing extinction. The Nature Conservancy estimates that 5.75 billion sunflower sea stars died over the span of three years, a 94 percent global decline. The cause, scientists say, is largely climate change and warming waters, […]
