Indian tribes in western Washington warn salmon ecosystems are being destroyed faster than they can be restored. By Johnny Sturgeon Spanning seven U.S. states and one Canadian province, the Columbia River Basin was once the largest salmon-producing river system in the world. Yet, with four of the 16 salmon andContinue Reading
A class-action lawsuit has been filed after part of a decades-old sewer line in Maryland collapsed in January, sending raw sewage into the Potomac River. After weather delays, repair work has resumed. (Image credit: Cliff Owen)Continue Reading
The Mexico City Initiative at MIT, led by the Institute’s Norman B. Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU), has conceived and modeled an impressive array of solutions for challenges facing urban areas in Mexico and beyond. Faculty and students have designed the repurposing of a vintage roller coaster as aContinue Reading
The world’s most common construction material has a secret. Cement, the “glue” that holds concrete together, gradually “breathes in” and stores millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air over the lifetimes of buildings and infrastructure. A new study from the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub quantifies this process,Continue Reading
The state concluded there is “no current cause for concern.” Experts worried about the long-term impacts of fracking waste say more research is required. By Kiley Bense A decade ago, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection published a study on radioactivity in the oil and gas industry, motivated by fears thatContinue Reading
People quickly normalize extreme weather. Simple visuals highlighting abrupt change could help climate change break through our mental blind spots., Read MoreContinue Reading
A study from Kobe University has uncovered a surprising partnership between Japanese red elder plants and Heterhelus beetles. The beetles pollinate the flowers but also lay eggs inside the developing fruit. The plant responds by dropping many of those fruits, yet the larvae survive by escaping into the soil. TheContinue Reading
Geothermal energy, a clean, continuous energy source accessible in many locations, has been slow to catch on. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the Romans made extensive use of geothermal energy — heat from the Earth — including at the spa complex at present-day Bath, England. Electricity was first produced from geothermalContinue Reading
2 min read Volunteers Find Oddly High Solar Flare Rates Patches of the Sun’s surface often show strong magnetic fields. These fields can emerge within a matter of hours, and can decay slowly or quickly, sometimes over days, weeks, or even months. Thanks to a new study about these long-livedContinue Reading
2 min read Extra Extra! Extra Data Stream Added to the Daily Minor Planet! The Daily Minor Planet citizen science project is expanding! In addition to data received nightly from the Catalina Sky Survey’s Mt. Lemmon telescope in Arizona, the project’s science team is now processing images from the BokContinue Reading
Image Credit: National Institute of Aerospace NASA has selected eight student teams as finalists in the 2026 Gateways to Blue Skies Competition, giving them the resources to help address a critical challenge for U.S. aviation: maintenance. Challenges facing the commercial aviation industry include a shortage of qualified maintenance workers and increasing demands to keep complicated aircraft running for longer. With Gateways toContinue Reading
Super Therm has been applied in several places, including handrails on the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge over the Colorado River. The selection of its makeup of ceramic and polymeric materials was assisted by NASA scientists. Credit: Superior Products InternationaI II, LLC NASA’s Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI) assistsContinue Reading
2 min read NASA Volunteers Study Biofilm Adaptability in Space Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that stick to one another and also adhere to a nearby surface. They are intricately associated with life on Earth, enabling functions essential to human and plant systems. NASA’s Open Science Data Repository (OSDR) AnalysisContinue Reading