❌

Reading view

Trump Announces $700 Million in Funds Meant to Boost Coal Industry

The president announced a total of $700 million in federal money to reinvigorate the domestic coal industry, which has been in decline for decades.

© Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Of the roughly $700 million in total funding, $425 million would be used to upgrade and extend the life of 13 coal plants that otherwise might have closed in the coming years.
  •  

Researchers Measured Alien Planet Spins and Discovered a Surprising Pattern

Relationship Between Mass and Spin for Giant Planets and Brown DwarfsA new Keck Observatory study indicates that giant planets can spin faster than more massive brown dwarfs, revealing important clues about how planetary systems form and evolve. Astronomers have long suspected that a planet’s mass may be linked to how quickly it spins. In our solar system, Jupiter and Saturn rotate especially fast, each completing [...]
  •  

NASA’s Roman Telescope Will Search 100 Million Stars for New Worlds

Milky Way Galaxy Envrionments InfographicNASA’s Roman Telescope could reveal 100,000 hidden worlds and rewrite what we know about planets across the Milky Way. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to dramatically expand humanity’s catalog of worlds beyond our solar system. Known as exoplanets, these distant planets number nearly 6,300 discoveries so far through NASA missions and other [...]
  •  

Neolithic People May Have Hauled Stonehenge’s Giant Altar Stone across Britain

Stonehenge. Image credit: Sally Wilson.

Neolithic people, not glaciers, moved the Altar Stone -- the six-ton central sandstone megalith at Stonehenge -- from northeast Scotland to Salisbury Plain, according to a new study led by archaeologists from Curtin University and Sheffield Hallam University.

The post Neolithic People May Have Hauled Stonehenge’s Giant Altar Stone across Britain appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

  •  

Bumblebees can spontaneously solve problems, study finds

Despite having tiny brains, bumblebees have demonstrated a remarkable ability to socially learn how to use tools, solve simple puzzles, and cooperate to achieve a goal. It seems they can also solve object-manipulation tasks without any previous training, according to a new paper published in the journal Science. According to the authors, it's the first time this kind of spontaneous problem-solving has been demonstrated in an insect.

In 2024, Olli Loukola of the University of Finland co-authored a study demonstrating that bumblebees could cooperate to solve complex challenges. It's the kind of cognitive task scientists had previously only observed in large-brained mammals like humans and chimpanzees. Loukola et al. trained pairs of bees to push a Lego block to the middle of a mini-arena or push against a door at the end of a tunnel to get a reward.

The team noticed that the bees were more likely to engage in the tasks if their partners also participated, compared to untrained control groups. They concluded that bees can learn to solve novel cooperative tasks outside the hive and may even be intentionally working together, although the researchers cautioned that more detailed monitoring of the behavior was needed to fully understand the partners' roles.

Read full article

Comments

© Mikko Törmänen

  •  

Audi reveals 1,001-hp Nuvolari hybrid supercar — so much for going all-electric

Audi unveiled the Nuvolari today, a 1,001-hp hybrid supercar powered by a 4.0-liter V8 biturbo and three electric motors. Limited to 499 units at roughly $700,000 each, it is the most powerful and fastest production vehicle in the brand’s history.

The reveal is notable for what it represents beyond raw performance. Audi pledged in 2021 to launch only electric vehicles starting in 2026 — and instead, it just unveiled a V8-powered supercar as its flagship.

  •  

Jackery HomePower 3600 Plus power station exclusives from $1,399, EGO Select Cut Touch Drive mower $543 low, Segway, more

Leading our Thursday Green Deals is a pair of exclusive deals on Jackery’s 3,584Wh HomePower 3600 Plus Portable Power Station with or without a 500W solar panel at their second-lowest prices starting from $1,399. Right behind that, we spotted the advanced EGO Power+ 21-inch Select Cut Touch Drive Cordless Electric Lawn Mower with 2x 4.0Ah batteries and a rapid charger hitting a new $543 low. We also have two Segway deals, the first being on the new Navimow X430 Robot Lawn Mower coming with a FREE Garage X attachment at $2,499, while the brand’s 1,024Wh Cube 1000 and 2,048Wh Cube 2000 power stations are starting from $330 – plus, more deals waiting for you below. We also have all the hangover deals collected down at the bottom of the page, like yesterday’s Bluetti RV Season Sale lineup with two exclusive bonus savings codes for our readers, and more.

Head below for other New Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek’s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

  •  

Trump uses wartime powers to dole out $700m to ‘clean, beautiful’ coal

US president announces plans for two new coal plants, in Alaska and West Virginia, using Defense Production Act

Donald Trump is using wartime presidential authority to hand $700m to coal-fired power plants in the US, the latest move by the president to bolster what he called “clean, beautiful coal”, despite it being the dirtiest of fossil fuels.

“Today, we’re taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful coal,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

  •  

After 11 years at Mars, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft went out with a whisper

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft was in excellent shape when it disappeared behind Mars on December 6 of last year. The routine passage, called an occultation, was supposed to last less than an hour, but ground teams didn't hear from the spacecraft when it was supposed to regain contact with Earth.

The loss of communication triggered contingency plans for engineers to try to restore a link with MAVEN, which orbits Mars more than 200 million miles from Earth. To no avail, they listened for faint signals and uplinked commands in the blind. Hopes of saving the mission faded over time, and NASA officials announced Wednesday that they're giving up on it.

"NASA has ceased efforts to search for the MAVEN spacecraft and are beginning activities to decommission the mission," said Mike Moreau, MAVEN's project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. 

Read full article

Comments

© NASA/University of Colorado/LASP

  •  

After 11 years at Mars, NASA's MAVEN spacecraft went out with a whisper

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft was in excellent shape when it disappeared behind Mars on December 6 of last year. The routine passage, called an occultation, was supposed to last less than an hour, but ground teams didn't hear from the spacecraft when it was supposed to regain contact with Earth.

The loss of communication triggered contingency plans for engineers to try to restore a link with MAVEN, which orbits Mars more than 200 million miles from Earth. To no avail, they listened for faint signals and uplinked commands in the blind. Hopes of saving the mission faded over time, and NASA officials announced Wednesday that they're giving up on it.

"NASA has ceased efforts to search for the MAVEN spacecraft and are beginning activities to decommission the mission," said Mike Moreau, MAVEN's project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. 

Read full article

Comments

© NASA/University of Colorado/LASP

  •  
❌