Your comments on a dangerous rule putting politicals in charge of science can matter. Near the end of May, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed a new rule that would govern how the federal government handles the grants it issues, including those that fund the vast majority…
Record home battery installations unlock options for grids—and AI data centers. US homeowners have embraced home batteries in record-breaking numbers in early 2026, spurred on by state incentives while seeking to offset rising residential electricity costs. The trend could even unlock a more flexible energy supply for power grid…
An optimal ratio of 10-15 grams of larvae per gram of specimen minimized cleaning time with no bone damage. Fatemeh Rastekar, Niloofar Alaei Kakhki and Morteza Monfared discuss the safe and practical utility of superworm larvae for cleaning museum specimens. Credit: Anthony Lewis, PLOS/CC-BY 4.0 Fatemeh Rastekar, Niloofar Alaei…
Also, the science of poop’s distinctive shape, boron buckyballs, and the secret to a soccer feint. It’s a regrettable reality that there is never enough time to cover all the interesting scientific stories we come across. So every month, we highlight a handful of the best stories that nearly…
Gov. Ron DeSantis calls it a crackdown on “radical climate policies.” A new state law limits Florida communities’ aims to offset greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the global climate and intensifying disasters such as hurricanes. Specifically, HB 1217 prohibits local governments from pursuing net-zero emissions goals. At least 10…
Small-scale solar helped renewables hit nearly triple coal’s generation in the US. When last we looked at the state of the US grid, the ongoing explosion in solar energy had turned it into a major contributor, but one that still lagged well behind fossil-fuel-powered generation. So it was a…
With today’s scientific tools, the problem could have been spotted in the 1950s. The ban on ozone-depleting substances that successfully reversed the growth of the hole in the ozone layer isn’t seen as a missed opportunity. On the contrary, the quick global response is one of the best cases…
But the system would require a massive leap from any of its existing hardware. A short time back, we covered an announcement by Amazon that it would be hosting a useful quantum computer from its partner QuEra as soon as sometime in 2028. The system promised some eye-popping numbers…
“Where does the threshold live that an action necessitates some proportional reaction?” Imagine this: The US military begins tracking a mysterious spacecraft maneuvering near one of the Space Force’s missile-warning satellites more than 22,000 miles over the equator. This US satellite cost several billion dollars to build and launch.…
Clicking on the links now reveals blank pages and empty PDFs. “Intellectually, it’s not acceptable.” German physicist Max Planck was one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century, earning the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of quanta. There has never been a…
