SEATTLE — There are only 73 southern resident orcas left in our region's waters, according to the most recent count released by the Center for Whale Research. It is one of the lowest tallies since the center counted 71 orcas when it began its survey in 1976.

The 2023 census identified 75 southern residents counted in the J, K and L pods. ...Read more

DETROIT — Michigan residents looking up could get a good view of the Northern Lights this weekend, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Current forecasts from the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center show moderate likelihoods of seeing the aurora in Michigan on Friday and Saturday evening.

The aurora borealis is ...Read more

DETROIT – The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has confirmed the state's worst deer disease outbreak since 2012 with cases found in 11 southwest counties, officials said.

The DNR Wildlife Health Section confirmed epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, in wild deer populations in Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Hillsdale, ...Read more

Citrus trees showing natural tolerance to citrus greening disease host bacteria that produce novel antimicrobials that can be used to fight off the disease, our recent study shows. We found the trees at an organic farm in Clermont, Florida.

Citrus greening disease – known more formally as Huanglongbing, or HLB, is caused by the ...Read more

Forecasters had warned for days that Hurricane Helene was likely to cause widespread devastation. But when the powerful storm struck Florida and barreled through the eastern U.S. last week, killing more than 180 people and taking whole communities offline, it still managed to come as a shock.

Florida’s Big Bend, where Helene made landfall, ...Read more

United Launch Alliance is footing the bill for the second ever launch of its Vulcan Centaur rocket, so it can finally see the payouts for the backlog of $3.1 billion worth of national security missions, something ULA cannot do until the Space Force signs off on it.

For that, Vulcan needs two successful flights.

The mission, dubbed Certifcation...Read more

LOS ANGELES — State and federal officials have decided to curtail additional water flows intended to support endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this fall — a controversial step that is being praised by major California water districts but condemned by environmental groups as a significant weakening of protections for ...Read more

From toys to kitchenware to food takeout trays, researchers have discovered a toxic chemical banned for its link to cancer in many common household items. Exposure to the flame retardant can come with serious health risks.

“We knew even before we started this study that there is no reason for our food-contact items, kitchen utensils, or toys ...Read more

Pregnant North Atlantic right whales will soon begin the long swim from the frigid waters off New England’s shores to the warm calving grounds of Georgia’s coast.

By the time the endangered mammals start arriving in mid-November, the federal government may — or may not — have imposed a revised vessel speed rule meant to protect the ...Read more

Lucky sky watchers across South America will be dazzled by a special space phenomenon on Wednesday, when the moon passes between the sun and Earth to produce a “Ring of Fire” eclipse.

Also called an annular solar eclipse, the celestial event will be most visible in parts of Chile and Argentina around 5:20 p.m. local time, according to NASA....Read more

Google is working on artificial intelligence software that resembles the human ability to reason, similar to OpenAI’s o1, marking a new front in the rivalry between the tech giant and the fast-growing startup.

In recent months, multiple teams at Alphabet Inc.’s Google have been making progress on AI reasoning software, according to people ...Read more

Daron Acemoglu wants to make clear right away that he has nothing against artificial intelligence. He gets the potential. “I’m not an AI pessimist,” he declares seconds into an interview.

What makes Acemoglu, a renowned professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, come off as a doomsayer locked in on the mounting economic and ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Mo. — Even as California continues its crackdown on the fossil fuel industry in the legislature, this year was a muted one for new state laws tackling climate change and protecting the environment.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills mostly at the margins over the last week. Those include new laws to strengthen an existing plastic bag ...Read more

Hurricane Helene caused deadly and destructive flooding when it swept through the Southeast on Sept. 26-29, 2024. Across a broad swath of western North Carolina, where the worst flooding occurred, the amount of rainfall exceeded levels that would be expected on average only once every 1,000 years.

But this wasn’t the first 1,000-...Read more

When the PlayStation 5 launched, fans expected a higher level of fidelity in games. The previous generation had already pushed visuals to near Pixar-like quality and many gamers expected that this could be the console where visuals would move up another notch thanks to ray-tracing.

Launch titles such as “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales...Read more

One of the harder things about being a dad to a toddler is introducing video games to my son. I can’t exactly play “Space Marine 2” in front of him, so I have to pick my spots. I was in the middle of reviewing “Astro Bot” when he walked in and saw me playing the video game with an adorable hero running around.

His eyes grew big as ...Read more

This week a reader writes, “In the past several months, I've received six written notices of data breaches possibly affecting my respective accounts. In each case, the company that was breached is offering complimentary identity monitoring. Since each company is offering the monitoring through a different provider, do I need to sign up for ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- On paper, the deal makes sense.

Faced with the prospect of an extensive, and expensive, seismic safety retrofit for its 1960s-era downtown headquarters, L.A. County decided to vet an alternative: a far newer building, located just blocks away. Not only was it built under stricter standards, the reasoning goes, but it was ...Read more