Science

Key air monitors offline after Laura hits Louisiana gas hub

By Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press

Hazardous emissions from a chlorine plant fire, abruptly shuttered oil and gas refineries and still-to-be assessed plant damage are seeping into the air after Hurricane Laura, regulators say, but some key state and federal monitors to alert the public of…

Hurricanes and wildfires are compounding the risks of the pandemic

By Ali Mostafavi, The Conversation

Disaster preparation and evacuation procedures weren't made for social distancing. The pandemic means response decisions are now fraught with contradictions.

Health agencies’ credibility at risk after week of blunders

By Matthew Perrone, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press

First, the head of the Food and Drug Administration had to walk back exaggerated statements about the benefits of a new plasma therapy for coronavirus. Then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention triggered a backlash from the medical community…

Calls for vigilantes spread on social media before deadly Kenosha attack

By Barbara Ortutay, Anita Snow, Associated Press

Multiple threads on Facebook and Reddit urged militias and other armed people to head to the protests, researchers at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab said in a blog post Wednesday.

Computer pioneer Arnold Spielberg, Steven Spielberg’s dad, dies at 103

By Andrew Dalton, Associated Press

He co-designed the GE-225 mainframe computer while working for General Electric in the 1950s. The machine allowed researchers at Dartmouth College to come up with the coding language BASIC, which made personal computers possible.

Are U.S. medical experts being influenced by the Trump administration?

By William Brangham

Questions are again being raised about whether the Trump administration is injecting politics into science -- and the national pandemic response. Recent moves by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appear to conflict…

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Rock fall at Grand Canyon reveals ancient animal footprints

By Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press

They say the creature that made the tracks is something like a modern-day chuckwalla lizard that strolled in sand dunes in a coastal plain more than 300 million years ago.

LIVE MAP: Track Hurricane Laura after landfall

By Isabella Isaacs-Thomas, Brennan Butler

Laura made landfall early Thursday as a Category 4 storm, blasting the border of Louisiana and Texas and hitting maximum sustained winds of around 150 miles per hour at its peak.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says Alaska mine would have adverse impacts on salmon site

By Mark Thiessen, Associated Press

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says a proposed gold and copper mine at the headwaters of the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery in Alaska would cause "unavoidable adverse impacts."…

Scientists say Hong Kong man became infected with coronavirus a second time

By Marilynn Marchione, AP Chief Medical Writer

"That's a win as far as I'm concerned" because it suggests a first infection may protect a person from moderate to severe disease the second time around, a vaccine expert said.