On Thursday, Boeing will get a second chance to remake the space taxi it built for NASA. The Starliner capsule will take astronauts to and from the International Space Station, but it must first perform a test flight without astronauts to verify that all of its systems are working properly. His two previous attempts to … Read more
The two kayakers were enjoying the last glow of summer on the Minnesota River last September when they spotted a strange brown lump along the shore. They paddled over to him and took a closer look. It seemed like a bone, so they called the Renville County Sheriff’s Office. When Sheriff Scott Hable was informed … Read more
A man who had traveled to Canada has been diagnosed with monkeypox virus, a rare and potentially fatal disease, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported Wednesday. This is the first report of monkeypox this year in the United States. Officials in Texas and Maryland recorded one case each last year. But the new case … Read more
Just after dawn on May 5, scientists working along a stretch of the Mekong River in Cambodia released an endangered giant freshwater stingray that had been caught on a fisherman’s line. At 13 feet long and 400 pounds, the gigantic animal pancake was bigger than a hibachi table. “It was shaking, and I said to … Read more
The truth is out there, but we need a better framework to establish it. At the first congressional public hearing on UFOs in over 50 years oldlawmakers, as well as intelligence and military personnel, largely agreed on at least one thing: we need to do better tracking of “unidentified aerial phenomena”, and that starts with … Read more
Lovebirds, small parrots with vibrant rainbow plumage and cheeky personalities, are popular pets. They swing from ropes, cuddle with companions and run for treats in a waddling gait with all the urgency of toddlers spotting a cookie. But, with other parrots, they also do something strange: they use their face to climb walls. Give these … Read more
It was in 2013 when Sanjeeta Pokharel first saw Asian elephants responding to death. An older elephant in an Indian park had died of an infection. A young woman circled around the carcass. Piles of fresh droppings hinted that other elephants had recently come. “That’s where we got curious,” said Dr Pokharel, a biologist at … Read more
NASA’s InSight spacecraft isn’t quite dead yet. But InSight, a stationary robotic probe on Mars, has grown steadily weaker as dust accumulates on its solar panels. Mission officials predict that by the end of the summer it will not have enough energy to continue operating its instruments and by the end of the year it … Read more
In recent years, European power plants have reduced their coal consumption by burning something else: millions of tons of wood, much of it imported from the United States. A controversial European Union policy called the Renewable Energy Directive has driven this transition by viewing biomass – organic material like wood, burned as fuel – as … Read more
ASHEVILLE, North Carolina — Just before sunset on a hot weekday in early May, Avey Tare – a member of psychedelic pop group Animal Collective – adjusted his glasses and squinted into the fading daylight. He could hear a woodpecker high in the Appalachian foliage along Blue Ridge Parkway, pounding a tree for dinner. As … Read more
