Science

February 27, 2025 2 min read Government Watchdog Issues Unprecedented Warning on State of U.S. Disaster Response The delivery of disaster aid is on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List for the first time as climate-related costs soar,Federal Emergency Management Agency staffing lags, and the Trump administration makes further cuts By Thomas Frank & E&E […]

February 27, 2025 4 min read The International Space Station May Need More Microbes to Keep Astronauts Healthy The overly sterile environment of the International Space Station is missing important microbes, a new detailed map shows. If we want to live off Earth, we may need to take more of our bacterial friends with us

It might not be obvious to those of us only grappling with more mundane concerns, but for cosmologists bent on unlocking the universe’s deepest secrets, there’s no shortage of problems keeping them up at night. “Dark matter” is the shorthand explanation for stars and galaxies moving much more quickly than the gravity of their luminous

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The private Athena lunar lander is on its way to the moon. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off shortly after sunset this evening (Feb. 26), carrying Athena and NASA’s ride-along Lunar Trailblazer orbiter aloft against a darkening sky here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Athena — which was built

If a cup of water spills on the floor, the water can’t unspill—that is, it’s inconceivable that each water molecule would exactly reverse its course to slip back into the cup. To do so would be to turn back time—something that, as far as we know, can’t be done. The water either spills or it

February 27, 2025 4 min read Crab Memes Amplify Mistaken Ideas about Evolution Memes about repeated evolution of crabs have been co-opted to joke about technology and “ultimate forms.” They’re hilarious, but they oversimplify natural variation, giving bad arguments a scientific veneer By Joanna Wolfe edited by Dan Vergano Lee Foong Lee/Alamy Stock Photo You’ve

February 26, 2025 4 min read The Latest on Bird Flu’s Hits to Egg Supplies, Rats and Cats Avian influenza continues to fuel egg shortages. Plus, a delayed CDC study on household cats reveals concerning human exposure routes By Lauren J. Young edited by Tanya Lewis Black rat (Rattus rattus). Claudio Contreras/Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock

CLIMATEWIRE | Lawmakers and officials from Western states are warning that President Donald Trump’s firings and funding freezes will leave the region woefully unprepared for the coming wildfire season, just two months after blazes ravaged Los Angeles. The new administration’s moves to terminate nearly 10 percent of Forest Service personnel and pause grants intended to

An old but still-common method of encouraging honesty is the venerable “oath”: an explicit promise to be honest. People have used oaths since ancient times, says Janis Zickfeld, a social psychologist at Aarhus University in Denmark. “If you’re a witness in court, you have to swear an oath to tell the truth, for example,” he

A dark horse has entered the Trump administration’s backward-running race to botch humanity’s response to climate change: the Pentagon. And the agency might just win simply by decreeing climate change unreal and “woke.” This would almost be amusing if it weren’t so wrongheaded and dangerous to U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and other service members. In