Her Discovery Wasn’t Alien Life, but Science Has Never Been the Same
With TV cameras pointed at her, Felisa Wolfe-Simon began speaking at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 2, 2010. “I’ve discovered — I’ve led a team that has discovered…
NOAA Is Told to Make List of Climate-Related Grants, Setting Off Fears
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, one of the world’s leading climate science agencies, has been ordered to identify grants related to global warming and other topics targeted by President…
Scientists Detect Shape-Shifting Along Earth’s Solid Inner Core
The inner core at the center of the Earth, a ball of iron and nickel about 1,500 miles wide, may not be perfectly solid. A new study finds evidence that…
Trump Is Freezing Money for Clean Energy. Republican States Have the Most to Lose.
In less than three weeks, President Trump has thrown the U.S. clean energy industry into chaos, with much of the economic damage hitting Republican states and districts. In a quest…
A Sweeping Ban on D.E.I. Language Roils the Sciences
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, or NASEM, is an independent, 162-year-old nongovernmental agency tasked with investigating and reporting on a wide range of subjects. In recent years,…
Why the Odds of an Asteroid Striking Earth in 2032 Keep Going Up (and Down)
Since December, astronomers have been carefully studying whether an asteroid between 130 and 300 feet long will impact the Earth in just under eight years. And the odds, overall, seem…
U.S. Aid Agency’s Climate Programs Aimed to Curb Migration. Now They’re Gone.
Two months ago, the Biden administration announced an initiative to share satellite data with Central American countries including Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help them prepare for severe storms.…
How Could the Weather Service Change Under Trump?
As President Trump issues rapid-fire executive orders intended to drastically reduce the federal work force and dismantle several agencies, many federal employees are left wondering what the future holds. At…
Trump Administration Move to Freeze E.V. Charger Funding Confounds States
A new federal order that freezes a Biden-era program to build a national network of electric vehicle charging stations has confounded states, which had been allocated billions of dollars by…
A Fungus That Turns Spiders Into Zombies Is a Discovery to Haunt Your Nightmares
An abandoned gunpowder storage shed pokes out from a small mound of earth in what’s now a nature preserve in Northern Ireland. It is the perfect place for a spider:…