This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In early 2022, nearly 200,000 Malawians were displaced after two tropical storms struck the southeastern part of Africa barely a month apart. Sixty-four people died. Amid an already heavy rainy season, the storms Ana and Gombe …
Read More »This Is Your Kid’s Brain on Extreme Heat
The heat takes a slow and brutal toll on the teens in Sarah Mueller’s high school chemistry class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By 7:30 in the morning, the classroom can hit 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Mueller tries to keep students’ spirits up by joking with them. (“People pay a lot of money …
Read More »Insiders Reveal Major Problems at Lab-Grown-Meat Startup Upside Foods
On July 1, five diners sat down at the counter of the Michelin-starred Bar Crenn in San Francisco for an unusual meal. They had won a competition to become the first customers in the US to eat cultivated meat—real animal cells grown in bioreactors instead of a living animal. For …
Read More »Electrifying Your Home Is About to Get a Lot Cheaper
THIS STORY FIRST appeared on Grist, a nonprofit media organization covering climate justice and solutions. Making homes more efficient and more electric is critical to combating climate change. But the undertaking can be expensive and beyond the financial reach of many families. Help, however, is on the way. Residential energy use accounts …
Read More »No, This Is Not an Alien. Here’s Why
It was like an alien unboxing—but they were just Nazca mummies from Peru. Toward the end of a public hearing in the Green Room of the Chamber of Deputies Congress of Mexico, Jaime Maussan, ufologist, journalist and host of the Mexican television program Tercer Milenio, announced a surprise. The well-known …
Read More »Libya’s Deadly Floods Show the Growing Threat of Medicanes
Storm Daniel, which has killed at least 5,000 people in Libya, with 10,000 more missing, was no normal weather. This rare, destructive, subtropical monster was supersized by unusually warm Mediterranean waters. When it slammed into the Libyan coast, it did so with such force that it caused two dams inland …
Read More »NASA Didn’t Find Aliens—but if You See Any UFOs, Holler
Seventy-six years after the infamous Roswell incident, when a high-altitude balloon—or something—crashed in southeastern New Mexico, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has now officially weighed in on UFO sightings. Don’t get too excited: They haven’t proven, or disproven, the existence of aliens. Instead, the report released today …
Read More »Scientists Say You’re Looking for Alien Civilizations All Wrong
An influential group of researchers is making the case for new ways to search the skies for signs of alien societies. They argue that current methods could be biased by human-centered thinking, and that it’s time to take advantage of data-driven, machine learning techniques. The team of 22 scientists released …
Read More »Why Some Animals Thrive in Cities
Eat almost anything. Sleep almost anywhere. These, it seems, are the secrets to surviving in the city as a wild animal. Among the species that dominate urban spaces—pigeons, cockroaches, rats, foxes—these are the most obvious characteristics successful city dwellers have. But they aren’t the only tactics for urban survival. A …
Read More »Serious Brain Trauma Starts Well Before Young Athletes Go Pro
Content warning: This story includes references to death by suicide. Evan Hansen was born to play football. A strong, rambunctious kid, he started playing sports year-round as early as he could. “He was very selfless, always willing to sacrifice himself for the betterment of the team,” says his father, Chuck …
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