Science
- ScienceCNN
Ancient trees unlock an alarming new insight into our warming world
Last summer, marked by deadly extreme heat and devastating wildfires, was the warmest in at least 2,000 years, according to new research
4 min read - OpinionCNN
Opinion: The darker side of the brilliant aurora
The geomagnetic storm that captivated us is a reminder to prepare for a more severe space weather event with potentially devastating consequences, writes Bob Kolasky.
6 min read - ScienceAssociated Press
Sun shoots out biggest solar flare in almost 2 decades, but Earth should be out of the way this time
The sun produced its biggest flare in nearly two decades Tuesday, just days after severe solar storms pummeled Earth and created dazzling northern lights in unaccustomed places. “Not done yet!” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in an update. It's the biggest flare of this 11-year solar cycle, which is approaching its peak, according to NOAA.
2 min read - WorldAssociated Press
Sweltering heat across Asia was 45 times more likely because of climate change, study finds
Sizzling heat across Asia and the Middle East in late April that echoed last year's destructive swelter was made 45 times more likely in some parts of the continent because of human-caused climate change, a study Tuesday found. Scorching temperatures were felt across large swaths of Asia, from Gaza in the west — where over 2 million people face clean water shortages, lack of health care and other essentials amid the Israeli bombardment — to the Philippines in the southeast, with many parts of t
3 min read - WorldCNN
A deadly heat wave worsened Gaza’s humanitarian crisis. It was fueled by climate change, new data shows
From Gaza in the west to the Philippines in the east, climate change has fueled extreme heat on the continent, making it both more likely and more intense
5 min read - ScienceAssociated Press
This giant gas planet is as fluffy and puffy as cotton candy
Astronomers have identified a planet that’s bigger than Jupiter yet surprisingly as fluffy and light as cotton candy. The gas giants in our solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are much denser.
1 min read - ScienceCBS News
Sun emits its largest X-class flare of the solar cycle
The large explosion of energy and light from the sun comes just days after Earth was slammed with the biggest geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years.
2 min read - ScienceSpace
Big decision! Curiosity rover keeps following possible Mars river remnant
After much debate, the Curiosity Mars rover team decided to continue following an intriguing channel rather than send the robot on an off-road detour.
2 min read - ScienceSpace
Blue Origin targeting May 19 for 1st crewed spaceflight since 2022
Blue Origin is targeting Sunday (May 19) for the six-person NS-25, the company's first crewed spaceflight since August 2022.
2 min read - ScienceCBS News
Researchers discover "super fluffy" planet with cotton candy-like density
WASP-193b is 50% larger than Jupiter — the largest planet in our solar system — but seven times less massive because of it's extraordinarily low density.
2 min read - ScienceSpace
Car-size asteroid gives Earth a close shave in near-miss flyby (video, photo)
A car-sized asteroid flew very close to Earth on Tuesday morning (May 14), just two days after being discovered.
2 min read - ScienceCBS News
Summer 2023 was the hottest in 2,000 years, study finds
"When you look at the long sweep of history, you can see just how dramatic recent global warming is," one of the researchers said.
4 min read - ScienceSpace
Sun unleashes massive X8.7 solar flare, biggest of current cycle, from super-active monster sunspot (video)
A monster sunspot on the sun's surface just won't quit, erupting yet again this week with a whopping X8.7-class solar flare on Tuesday (May 14).
4 min read - ScienceAssociated Press
Astronomers find the biggest known batch of planet ingredients swirling around young star
Astronomers have discovered what they believe is the biggest known batch of planet-making ingredients swirling around a young star. The diameter of this colossal disk is roughly 3,300 times the distance between Earth and the sun, with enough gas and dust to form super-sized planets in far-flung orbits, the U.S. and German researchers reported this week. First spotted in 2016, the disk around a star 1,000 light-years away was not confirmed to be a hotbed for new, emerging planets until recent o
2 min read - ScienceSpace
Jupiter's mysterious moon Amalthea spied crossing the Great Red Spot (photo)
NASA's Juno spacecraft has spotted the elusive fifth moon of Jupiter transiting the giant planet's Great Red Spot, giving astronomers a rare view of this small but intriguing natural satellite.
4 min read - ScienceCNN
Scientists solve giant hummingbird mystery — with the help of tiny backpacks
Researchers strapped tiny backpacks to hummingbirds to study migration and discovered the world’s largest hummingbird species is distinct from another type.
7 min read - ScienceCBS News
Boeing Starliner launch retargeted for May 21
The oxygen valve that derailed a launch try last week has been replaced, but engineers want more time to verify an unrelated helium leak has been fixed.
4 min read - ScienceSpace
Helium leak delays Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch to May 21
The first crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner capsule has been pushed back by four days to May 21, due to a helium leak in its service module.
3 min read - HealthReuters
CDC makes public influenza A wastewater data to assist bird flu probe
Last week, an agency official told Reuters about U.S plans to make public data collected by its surveillance system. Testing wastewater from sewers proved to be a powerful tool for detecting mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the week ended May 4, the agency's surveillance system did not show any indicators of unusual influenza activity in people, including the H5N1 virus.
2 min read - ScienceAssociated Press
Hot history: Tree rings show that last northern summer was the warmest since year 1
The broiling summer of 2023 was the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere in more than 2,000 years, a new study found. When the temperatures spiked last year, numerous weather agencies said it was the hottest month, summer and year on record. But those records only go back to 1850 at best because it's based on thermometers. Now scientists can go back to the modern western calendar's year 1, when the Bible says Jesus of Nazareth walked the Earth, but have found no hotter northern summer than last
4 min read - ScienceSpace
The summer of 2023 was Earth's hottest in 2,000 years, scientists find
Using tree ring data, scientists have confirmed that summer 2023 was the hottest summer on Earth in the last 2,000 years.
4 min read - BusinessSpace
SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on 50th mission of the year (video)
SpaceX launched 20 of its Starlink internet satellites today (May 14), on the company's 50th orbital mission of 2024.
2 min read - ScienceThe Conversation
‘Noise’ in the machine: Human differences in judgment lead to problems for AI
Just as human biases show up in machine learning systems, so, too, do people’s vagaries and vicissitudes.
6 min read - WorldThe Conversation
Vatican conference on ‘climate resilience’ is the latest in a long line of environment initiatives by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church – 5 essential reads
Pope Francis and other Catholic leaders committed to raising awareness of environmental issues draw on centuries of tradition.
4 min read - ScienceSpace
How SpaceX's private Polaris Dawn astronauts will attempt the 1st-ever 'all-civilian' spacewalk
New details for SpaceX's privately-funded crewed launch, Polaris Dawn, paint a more complete picture of what the mission will look like, and how SpaceX's new EVA suits will play a part.
14 min read - ScienceSpace
This time, we take it from no one: Why opening the High Frontier of space can be different (op-ed)
The coming settlement of the High Frontier doesn’t have to be a repeat of the violent conquests and colonization of history. We will not take space from anyone, and we can give it to everyone.
15 min read - ScienceCNN
Scientists say they’ve discovered a ‘phonetic alphabet’ in whale calls
Scientists using AI have found sperm whales can vary the tempo, rhythm and length of their click sequences, creating a richer communication system than realized.
5 min read - BusinessSpace
SpaceX Starship's next launch 'probably 3 to 5 weeks' away, Elon Musk says
SpaceX's Starship megarocket will likely conduct its fourth-ever test flight in the next month or so, according to Elon Musk.
2 min read - TechnologySpace
AI may be to blame for our failure to make contact with alien civilizations
The rise of AI might explain why the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has yet to detect the signatures of advanced technical civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy.
5 min read - ScienceSpace
NASA appoints 1st AI chief to keep agency on 'the cutting edge'
NASA has appointed its first-ever chief artificial intelligence officer, a move designed to ensure that the agency keeps up with the vital and rapidly evolving tech.
2 min read - WorldNBC News
Canadian wildfires trigger air quality alerts across 4 U.S. states
Smoke from wildfires in western Canada has triggered air quality alerts and warnings in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
2 min read - WorldReuters
For elephants, like people, greetings are a complicated affair
For elephants, greetings appear to be a similarly complex affair. A study based on observations of African savannah elephants in the Jafuta Reserve in Zimbabwe provides new insight into the visual, acoustic and tactile gestures they employ in greetings, including how greetings differ depending on factors such as their sex and whether they are looking at each other. "Elephants live in a so-called 'fission-fusion' society, where they often separate and reunite, meeting after hours, days or month
3 min read - ScienceSpace
SpaceX Starlink satellites doing just fine after weekend solar storm, company says
SpaceX's Starlink fleet of nearly 6,000 satellites remains healthy after weekend solar storms sparked auroras across the world.
2 min read - HealthReuters
New breast cancer genes found in women of African ancestry, may improve risk assessment
Twelve breast cancer genes identified in women of African ancestry in a large study published on Monday may one day help better predict their risk for the disease and highlights potential risk differences from women of European descent. Studies to identify genetic mutations linked with breast cancer have previously mainly focused on women of European ancestry. The new findings are drawn from more than 40,000 women of African ancestry in the United States, Africa and Barbados, including 18,034
2 min read - WorldReuters
Four dead, several feared trapped under billboard in freak accident during Mumbai rainstorm
At least four people are dead, 61 injured and more than 40 feared trapped after a massive billboard fell during a rainstorm in India's financial capital of Mumbai on Monday, local officials said. The rainstorm was accompanied by gusty winds, causing the billboard, located next to a busy road in the eastern suburb of Ghatkopar to collapse on some houses and a petrol pump. A rescue operation for the people remaining trapped under the billboard is ongoing.
1 min read - ScienceCNN
A strange fungus could transform emerging cicadas into ‘saltshakers of death,’ scientists say
This spring, some cicadas will be turned into sex-crazed zombies, thanks to a strange fungus called Massospora cicadina.
5 min read - ScienceSpace
Lego rolls out details about Apollo lunar rover model coming in August
Lego is gearing up to deliver a detailed model of the original "rock and rolling ride," the electric buggy driven by NASA's last three Apollo crews to explore the moon.
5 min read - ScienceThe Conversation
‘Dancing’ raisins − a simple kitchen experiment reveals how objects can extract energy from their environment and come to life
Want to bring extra life to a glass of champagne or soda water? Physicists will tell you to drop in a small object, such as a berry or raisin.
6 min read - ScienceCBS News
More geomagnetic storms likely to continue today
The forecasted conditions come after a weekend of jaw-dropping northern lights seen as far south as Florida and as "magnetically complex" sunspots bigger than Earth continue to emit solar flares.
2 min read - HealthThe Conversation
Binge drinking is a growing public health crisis − a neurobiologist explains how research on alcohol use disorder has shifted
Singer Amy Winehouse died from alcohol toxicity in 2011, the same year that the American Society of Addiction Medicine publicly recognized addiction as a brain disorder.
7 min read - USThe Conversation
Thirsty in paradise: Water crises are a growing problem across the Caribbean islands
Water is everywhere, but freshwater supplies are limited on many Caribbean islands. Rising demand and climate change are worsening water shortages for the people who live here.
6 min read - ScienceSpace
The surface of this volcanic exoplanet is hotter than some stars
Described as being like "Io on steroids," a newly discovered exoplanet is the victim of a tug of war between its neighboring planets and its star.
4 min read - ScienceSpace
How a giant sunspot unleashed solar storms that spawned global auroras that just dazzled us all
Intense solar activity generated the most extreme geomagnetic storm since 2003 on Friday (May 10), and the action could continue into this week. Here's how it happened.
8 min read - USAssociated Press
Indonesia's Mount Ibu erupts, spewing thick ash and dark clouds into the sky
Mount Ibu, a volcano in Indonesia's North Maluku province, erupted on Monday, spewing thick grey ash and dark clouds 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky for five minutes, officials said. “The volcanic earthquakes are still intense so there is a potential for a future eruption,” Hendra Gunawan, chief of the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said. Officials advised residents and tourists not to conduct any activities within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of Mount Ibu's crater.
1 min read - SportsYahoo Sports
Rory McIlroy files for divorce from wife Erica after seven years of marriage
On the eve of the PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy has filed for divorce from his wife, Erica.
1 min read - CelebrityYahoo Life
Gayle King is on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit at 69. Why it matters.
Why the iconic magazine is featuring stars like King, Martha Stewart, Maye Musk and others.
4 min read - SportsYahoo Sports
NBA playoffs: Jalen Brunson dominates Pacers again to put Knicks on verge of conference finals
The Knicks are a win away from their first Eastern Conference finals appearance since 2000.
3 min read - BusinessYahoo Sports
Docs: NCAA could face $20B in damages, bankruptcy if proposed settlement offer isn't agreed upon
The potential settlement is believed to be in its final stages of adoption and consists of back pay, a new compensation model and an overhaul of the NCAA scholarship system.
7 min read - StyleYahoo Life Shopping
Refresh your closet with this flowy, wrinkle-resistant $28 top: 'I ended up ordering four colors'
Put that boring T-shirt aside: Amazon shoppers say this pretty option is easy to dress up or down, and it comes in plenty of summery hues.
3 min read