climate change
New York Governor Signs First Statewide Data Center Moratorium
"We have no choice but to address the challenges created by these massive facilities," New York governor Kathy Hochul said. The executive order will pause construction for one year. New York governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order Tuesday enacting a one-year pause on the development of hyperscale data centers, effecting the nation's first statewide data center moratorium. The executive order comes as opposition to data center construction sweeps across the country, putting elected officials under intense pressure to take action. The order specifically pauses state environmental reviews for facilities over 50 megawatts for a year.
It snowed in Yellowstone this week
More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Temperatures can still drop below freezing at night in Yellowstone, even during the summer. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy . A massive heat dome blanketing more than half of the United States is subjecting millions of people to some of the hottest summer temperatures in over a decade.
The 17 best popular science books of 2026 so far
The first six months of the year have brought us popular science reads on everything from consciousness to cosmology. If you're looking for the perfect popular science read, we've got you covered Not one for an easy life, Michael Pollan has taken on tricky subjects before in the shape of psychedelics, plants and food. It's taken five years to bring to fruition, but is all the better for that, because, like the subject itself, the book is discursive, expansive - and sometimes abstruse (in a good way). It has one of the best titles of any book on the topic, while its author has the humility to admit that after a journey through sentience, feelings and emotion, thought and self, he knows less than he did when he began. Are we up to the challenges of the 21st century, as its powerful, hyperconnected and pervasive technology drives us ever on?
For the first time, biologists observe a humpback whale crossing the Arabian Sea
A female Arabian Sea humpback whale called Luban covered about 4,350 miles on her return trip. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy . Though more commonly associated with their long migrations from Alaska to Hawaii or showing off for whale watchers off the coast of New England, a unique population of humpback whales call the Arabian Sea home.
3 Amazon Workers Say They're Under Investigation for Speaking Out About Data Centers
The software engineers filed a complaint with Seattle's civil rights office accusing Amazon of illegally retaliating against them for expressing their personal political beliefs. Earlier this month, five current Amazon employees publicly urged Seattle City Council to regulate data centers . It was an unprecedented act of advocacy by tech workers, and now three of the staffers say they are under internal investigation for what they understand to be allegedly representing themselves as spokespeople for the company without prior approval. "It's a totally ridiculous claim," says one of the affected employees, Patrick Schloesser. The three software engineers, who work in different divisions of Amazon and all live in Seattle, believe they are being unfairly targeted for expressing their political beliefs.
Why the Reflecting Pool Is Full of Algae After Trump's Renovation
Why the Reflecting Pool Is Full of Algae After Trump's Renovation Warm weather has fueled a bloom that US National Park Service workers are trying to kill using everything from hydrogen peroxide to nanobubbles ahead of July 4 celebrations. On Wednesday morning, workers poured hydrogen peroxide into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, DC. The treatment is the latest attempt by the Interior Department to control an algae bloom that has turned the pool bright green, despite President Donald Trump's costly renovation to make it "American flag blue" in time for the nation's 250th anniversary . Hot temperatures and climate change are among the risk factors that could be driving the outbreak. The Trump administration spent more than $14 million to update the pool ahead of celebrations across the US capital .
One Climate Change Innovation: Just Look Up
To build one family's dream house on a flood-prone Mississippi bayou, AD100 architect Tom Kundig decided the sky's the limit. Tom Kundig absorbed lessons in resilience before he even knew the word. As a child, he saw many of the industrial and agricultural buildings of the rural Pacific Northwest abandoned but still standing, the harsh winter conditions no match for their steel columns. That background came in handy when he was asked to design a house for a young family on a coastal Mississippi site susceptible to severe flooding. The clients, Joel and Jill Kavanaugh, had fallen in love with a plot bordering the Gulf Islands National Seashore in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.