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

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

The country on Thursday released a national artificial intelligence strategy that focuses on building its sovereign capability and protecting consumers.

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.

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More than 50 new Starlink satellites are now in orbit after launches from California and Florida.

Paleontologists have confirmed that Praearcturus gigas, a creature that prowled shallow waters during the Devonian period, 415 million years ago, is the largest scorpion ever found.

The post Giant Scorpions Ruled Ancient Britain during Devonian Period appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

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.

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© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

© Photograph: Adrees Latif/Reuters

A look at the quest to mine the bottom of the ocean for valuable minerals, the connection between light pollution and allergies and more climate news.

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Researchers have uncovered why a common and costly dental implant infection often resists antibiotics. Dental implants have helped tens of millions of people regain a full set of stable, functional teeth, something traditional dentures cannot provide. However, between 10% and 20% of implant recipients eventually develop peri-implantitis, a serious infection that damages the jawbone around [...]

As offshore wind farms expand rapidly in the global renewable energy transition, scientists are studying how these large marine infrastructure projects affect ecosystems beneath the waves. Research from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands suggests that offshore wind may bring both risks and benefits for sharks and rays, known collectively as Elasmobranchii, which are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). A six-year project called “Elasmopower” examined how EMFs from subsea power cables in offshore wind farms affect bottom-dwelling sharks and rays. These species depend on natural electric and magnetic fields for key behaviors such as navigation, prey detection, habitat use and long-distance movement, particularly in low-visibility environments. The studies conducted as part of the Elasmopower project have been published in four papers, with three additional papers currently undergoing peer review. Sharks and rays have specialized electroreceptors called ampullae of Lorenzini. The jelly-filled sensory canals around the head and snout can detect even extremely weak EMFs from prey and predators, water movement, and the Earth’s geomagnetic field, Erwin Winter, a scientist at Wageningen, told Mongabay. This system is central to hunting and orientation, making Elasmobranchii especially relevant for studying EMF exposure from offshore energy infrastructure, Winter added. Erwin Winter, a researcher with the Elasmopower project, presented findings on offshore wind, electromagnetic fields and bottom-dwelling sharks and rays at the Sharks International 2026 conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in May. Image by Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay. During a presentation on a summary of the Elasmopower research at the Sharks International 2026…This article was originally published on Mongabay

NASA just declared its MAVEN Mars orbiter dead after a dozen productive years circling the Red Planet. Here's the fate that awaits the probe.

Celebrities and paid influencers have transformed the career-focused platform, which for some users, has become a job unto itself.

Le Français Arnaud Prost rejoindra en 2027 la mission inaugurale de Haven-1, la future station spatiale commerciale développée par Vast. L'entreprise américaine entend réduire fortement les coûts des infrastructures orbitales et préparer la relève de l'ISS avant sa désorbitation prévue vers 2030.

Scientists failed to find radio signals emanating from the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, further bolstering its status as a natural object, not one made by aliens.

NASA is working on a streamlined management approach for a nuclear electric propulsion demonstration mission the agency wants to launch in two and a half years.

The post NASA working to streamline development of nuclear electric propulsion demo mission appeared first on SpaceNews.

A new solar desalination breakthrough turns seawater into drinking water while eliminating brine waste and recovering valuable minerals. Billions of people around the world still do not have reliable access to safe drinking water. According to the United Nations, about 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water services. To meet growing demand, many regions, [...]

Les aliments contaminés par des bactéries, des virus, des parasites ou des substances chimiques nocives provoquent chaque année 1,5 million de décès dans le monde, touchant plus particulièrement les enfants de moins de cinq ans, a alerté ce jeudi 4 juin l'OMS.

Après six mois sans contact, la Nasa a officiellement mis fin à la mission Maven. En plus de dix ans en orbite autour de Mars, la sonde a profondément renouvelé les connaissances sur l'atmosphère, le climat passé et l'habitabilité de la planète Rouge.

Some will question its credibility – but the alternative future to the one imagined in the Global Justice Report is far more bleak

• ‘An equal and habitable world is possible’: academics set out sweeping vision for planetary survival

In our increasingly dystopian world, who wouldn’t want to at least be open to a utopian antidote? The Global Justice Report, published on Thursday, outlines how to build a prosperous, equitable world within safe planetary boundaries. It’s a push from the modern eco-socialist left in a global battle for ideas that will shape the future.

Based on past social achievements and future energy transformation, it indicates that the overwhelming majority of people on the planet could, by the end of the century, work less and earn more – while keeping temperatures down and avoiding much of the current destruction of nature. It is an ambitious, comprehensive and upbeat plan, and a stronger argument around which to build a political campaign than abstract goals of net zero or decarbonisation.

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© Photograph: Emmanuel Croset/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Emmanuel Croset/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Emmanuel Croset/AFP/Getty Images

Humans are wired to focus on threats, making constant negative news exhausting. Limiting exposure and focusing on what you can control helps reduce news fatigue. During several recent conversations, people have told me that they’ve stopped checking their phones in the morning. Not because nothing was happening, but because everything was. They described the feeling [...]