SpaceX’s crew missions will now launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is accustomed to getting makeovers. It got another one Wednesday with the removal of the Crew Access Arm used by astronauts to board their rides to space.…
The administration’s “reasoning” for doing so has little connection to reality. On Wednesday, a fossil-fuel lobbying group called the Washington Coal Club awarded President Trump a trophy that named him the “Undisputed Champion of Clean, Beautiful Coal.” Trump took advantage of the opportunity to take his latest shot at…
Guano dramatically boosted the production of maize, and the surplus helped fuel the Chincha Kingdom’s economy. The pre-Inca Chincha Kingdom (circa 1000-1400 CE), along Peru’s southern coast, was one of the most wealthy and influential of its time before falling to the Inca and Spanish empires. Scientists have long…
The EPA is revoking the finding for legal, not scientific, reasons. Following three of the warmest years on record, as scientists reckon with climate tipping points and states and cities grapple with the escalating cost of extreme weather and more intense wildfires, the Trump administration this week is expected…
The next Starship flight is a key precursor for more ambitious missions. The upgraded Super Heavy booster slated to launch SpaceX’s next Starship flight has completed cryogenic proof testing, clearing a hurdle that resulted in the destruction of the company’s previous booster. SpaceX announced the milestone in a social…
Meant to help judges handle scientific issues, document is now climate-free. On Friday, a body that advises US judges revised the document it created to help judges grapple with scientific issues. The move came after a group of Republican state attorneys general wrote a letter to complain about the…
Can we pander to MAHA, re-litigate COVID, and improve science at the same time? At the end of January, Washington, DC, saw an extremely unusual event. The MAHA Institute, which was set up to advocate for some of the most profoundly unscientific ideas of our time, hosted leaders of…
The Environmental Protection Agency has drastically pulled back on holding polluters accountable. Enforcement against polluters in the United States plunged in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, a far bigger drop than in the same period of his first term, according to a new report from…
Less pollution meant lower amounts of a methane-destroying chemical. In the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic brought global industry and travel nearly to a halt, satellite sensors recorded a dramatic plunge in nitrogen dioxide, a byproduct of internal combustion engines and heavy industry. For a moment, the…
Controversial 2025 study “represents the encroachment of pseudoscience into the heart of biological research.” Last year, a team of scientists presented evidence that spruce trees in Italy’s Dolomite mountains synchronized their bioelectrical activity in anticipation of a partial solar eclipse—a potentially exciting new insight into the complexities of plant…
