Science

U.S. wildlife agency seeks to carve out areas from protections

By Matthew Brown, Associated Press

Friday's announcement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would place greater weight on the economic benefits of developments when deciding if land or water should be protected.

Once seen as loners, male elephants shown to follow elders

By Christina Larson, Associated Press

Males were long assumed to be loners because they leave their mother's herd when they reach adolescence. A study published Thursday shows that adolescent males prefer to travel along migration corridors behind older males.

Scientists spot two black holes merged into never before seen size

By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

Black holes are getting stranger — even to astronomers. Scientists reported Wednesday they detected the merger of two smaller black holes into the first intermediate sized black hole ever observed. …

Trump administration finalizes coal plant pollution rollback

By Matthew Brown, Travis Loller, Associated Press

The changes finalized Monday will allow utilities to use cheaper wastewater cleanup technologies and take longer to comply with pollution reduction guidelines adopted in 2015.

Trump wants to expand aquaculture boom, but environmentalists dig in

By Patrick Whittle, Associated Press

President Donald Trump wants to dramatically expand aquaculture production in the United States, but a coalition of environmentalists believes his plan would be bad for the oceans, unnecessary for food security and difficult to implement.

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.