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Handout/NASA/TNS

Scientists long urged NASA to search for signs of life near Jupiter. Now it's happening

In 2015, Bill Nye was on Marine One with President Obama.

The television personality and science advocate was officially there for an Earth Day event, but he took the opportunity to talk to the president about space exploration, and specifically, a mission still in its infancy at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge that ...Read more

(Focus Entertainment)/TNS

Review: ‘Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’ leverages a dark sci-fi lore with layered gameplay

The original “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine” was forgettable. It didn’t leave a strong impression despite the rich lore that the project was embedded in, and that’s a travesty because Game Workshop’s dark sci-fi universe is one of the most fascinating and original franchises out there.

It’s filled with space orks, chaos demons ...Read more

JIM ROSSMAN/TNS

Jim Rossman: Is your login data safe with password managers?

After my recent column on password managers, I got a several emails from readers with follow up questions.

A reader asked, “If the password manager is hacked are not ALL my passwords compromised? Is it worth the risk?”

The answer is a bit complex. I’ll take 1Password as an example.

Note, I realize this is going to sound like an ad for...Read more

Handout/Capcom/TNS

Preview: ‘Monster Hunter Wilds’ takes risks in an evolutionary leap

To make noise in 2025, a game will have to be beyond good. It will have to be phenomenal. The year is expected to see the launch of “Grand Theft Auto VI,” “Death Stranding 2: On the Beach” and other high-profile titles, and to stand out, a title will have to exceed expectations.

From what I played of a Gamescom demo in San Francisco, ...Read more

Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Sammy Roth: Nobody loves Biden's Western Solar Plan. But it's what we've got

Let’s say the American West could dedicate a landmass smaller than Delaware to all of the large-scale solar farms that will be needed in this part of the country to help phase out planet-wrecking fossil fuels.

Delaware covers 1.6 million acres. An estimated 1.3 million — spanning 11 states, from California to Wyoming — could eventually be...Read more

K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Why are California's tech millionaires and billionaires flocking to Las Vegas?

Kent Yoshimura moved his multimillion-dollar business from Los Angeles to Las Vegas a few years ago and said he has little regrets about leaving California.

One of the co-founders of NeuroGum, which produces caffeinated gum for memory and focus, Yoshimura said access to local politicians and hiking at Red Rock Canyon are just a few of the perks...Read more

Sebastian Czapnik/Dreamstime/TNS

US says it's weighing Google breakup as monopoly case remedy

The U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge it is considering recommending that Google be forced to sell off parts of its operations to alleviate the harm caused by its monopolization of the online search market, in what would be a historic antitrust breakup.

In a court filing Tuesday, antitrust enforcers said Judge Amit Mehta could also ...Read more

Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty Images of North America/TNS

Former Caltech and Google scientists win physics Nobel for pioneering artificial intelligence

On Tuesday morning, Princeton University professor John Hopfield and University of Toronto professor Geoffrey Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024 for their foundational discoveries and inventions that pioneered modern artificial intelligence.

Hopfield joined Caltech as faculty in 1980 and, two years later, published his seminal paper in ...Read more

Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Biden EPA requires Chicago to dramatically speed up replacement of toxic lead pipes

CHICAGO — Chicago must replace every toxic lead pipe connecting homes to water mains within two decades — an aggressive deadline imposed this week by President Joe Biden after his administration initially proposed giving city officials twice as long to complete the job.

The more stringent requirement is part of a broader package of changes ...Read more

Why wildfires started by human activities can be more destructive and harder to contain

Wildfires are becoming increasingly destructive across the U.S., as the country is seeing in 2024. Firefighters were battling large blazes in several states from California to North Dakota in early October 2024, including fires burning near homes and communities.

Research shows wildfires are up to four times larger and three times ...Read more

Hurricane Milton explodes into a powerful Category 5 storm as it heads for Florida − here’s how rapid intensification works

Hurricane Milton went from barely hurricane strength to a dangerous Category 5 storm in less than 24 hours as it headed across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.

As its wind speed increased, Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record. And with 180 mph sustained winds on Oct. 7, 2024, and very low pressure, it ...Read more

SpaceX launches Hera asteroid mission Monday, but delays Europa Clipper because of Hurricane Milton

SpaceX returned to flight with its Falcon 9 rocket Monday sending up the Hera probe for the European Space Agency on its way to a pair of asteroids, but SpaceX and NASA have called off plans to launch the Falcon Heavy later this week on NASA’s Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter’s moon because of the approaching Hurricane Milton.

SpaceX got ...Read more

How Hurricane Helene became a deadly disaster across six states

Some hurricanes are remembered for their wind damage or rainfall. Others for their coastal flooding. Hurricane Helene was a stew of all of that and more. Its near-record-breaking size, storm surge, winds and rainfall together turned Helene into an almost unimaginable disaster that stretched more than 500 miles inland from the Florida coast....Read more

Clarence Tabb Jr./The Detroit News/TNS

Stalking a pollutant: Researchers comb river for secrets of Great Lakes microplastics

DEXTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Ali Shakoor took a break from his morning field work to lay two small bluegill in his palm, displaying the catch his colleagues had netted from a riffling nook of the Huron River.

The fish are opportunistic foragers. They fit squarely within the ecosystem in which Shakoor and a team Wayne State University researchers ...Read more

Jason Armond/Jim Cooke/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Valley fever is a growing risk in Central California; few visitors ever get a warning

LOS ANGELES -- When Nora Bruhn bought admission to the Lightning in a Bottle arts and music festival on the shores of Kern County’s Buena Vista Lake earlier this spring, her ticket never mentioned she might end up with a fungus growing in her lungs.

After weeks of night sweats, “heaviness and a heat” in her left lung, a cough that wouldn�...Read more

ABACA/Abaca via ZUMA Press/TNS

Blue Origin constructs new New Shepard rocket-capsule combo to expand human launches

Blue Origin has had only one working New Shepard rocket booster since a 2022 explosion took out one of the two it had been using. A replacement booster along with a new crew-capable capsule is set to debut as early as Monday.

Slated to fly on the NS-27 mission, the new booster topped with the capsule named the RSS Kármán Line is targeting ...Read more

SpaceX/NASA/TNS

FAA gives SpaceX the OK to launch just 1 Falcon 9 on asteroid mission for Europe

The Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday announced it was approving just one SpaceX Falcon 9 mission, although SpaceX has submitted its mishap report into why the second stage from last week’s Crew-9 mission failed to hit its planned target on reentry.

The FAA is giving the OK for the launch of the European Space Agency’s Hera mission,...Read more

Joshua Roberts/Getty Images North America/TNS

During visit to South LA, EPA head vows to address environmental injustices in Watts

LOS ANGELES — The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has pledged to work alongside Watts residents to address a host of environmental issues in the South Los Angeles community.

During a visit to the Jordan Downs public housing complex in Watts on Saturday morning, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the agency is working with ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Beaver restoration program brings furry species back to habitats, tribal land across California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California has strengthened a new Beaver Restoration Program which is dedicated to supporting the species and their habitats.

With the passing of Assembly Bill 2196, the program has partnered with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The initiative works with California tribal nations, private landowners and ...Read more