Sci/Tech

Washington State University

On Dec. 11, NASA engineers anxiously gathered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to view a cat video, wondering if it would be in the pristine high definition for which they had hoped.

The young Earth got beat up a lot, including one day 3.26 billion years ago when a rock four times the size of Mount Everest slammed into the planet. Scientists believe that the rock, which was much bigger than the Chicxulub object that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, probably landed in the ocean, since Earth had barely begun to form continents.

Rudolph’s red nose may have gone down in history, but research says it was probably his shining blue eyes – a common trait among reindeer – that helped keep him and the rest of Santa’s herd nourished.

Over the last two decades, as San Antonio and surrounding Bexar County, Texas, grew by more than 600,000 people, some 17% of the city's blocks experienced a decrease in population.

The winter darkness – we slog through it every year. But thankfully one thing shines bright this time of year, our night sky.

Dec. 15—GRAND COULEE — The editors of Life magazine could not hide their suspicion that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had decided a trip to check on a project was an excellent excuse to get out of town. There was a capital-S Scandal in Washington D.C. the early days of October 1937, but Roosevelt wasn't around to answer questions about it. He was somewhere in the remote wilds of Eastern ...

This past summer was the hottest on record in the Arctic, which is warming nearly four times faster than any location on the planet. And the symptoms of that warming laid bare a rapidly changing region that in many ways barely resembles what it once was.

The most famous comet of all is headed back toward Earth. Halley’s comet reached aphelion — its farthest point from the sun — on Dec. 8, at which point it began its long journey back to the sun.

A handful of Washington business groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, claiming the water quality standards it adopted last year are impossible to meet.

China notched a diplomatic victory in its race against the U.S. for influence in space, with Egypt agreeing to support Beijing’s plan for a proposed project on the moon.

LOS ANGELES — Scientists have developed an antibody treatment that shows promise in blocking the potentially deadly effects of fentanyl for nearly a month, raising hopes for a new tool to combat overdoses. Tests in animals found that the treatment could effectively block the effects of fentanyl, laying the groundwork for assessing whether the medication will prove effective in humans, ...

Work has started to put Eastern Washington at the forefront of building better batteries for the growing wave of electric cars.

SpaceX chalked up another Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station to mark the Space Coast’s 66th launch of the year.

Artificial intelligence that can generate text, images and other content could help improve state programs but also poses risks, according to a report released by the governor’s office this week.

Shortly after New Year’s Day in 2019, China landed an unmanned spacecraft on the far side of the moon, where no mission had gone before. U.S. intelligence officials say they did so quietly, taking their time to verify the rover had landed in one piece and protecting themselves from embarrassment. Hours passed before Beijing announced its historic achievement to the world. The landing was a wake-up call in Washington. China’s space program was advancing with unexpected speed.

The business of sending humans into space has not yet risen to the levels seen during the space shuttle program, but 2024 could see the most U.S.-based orbital launches in 15 years.

Frank Borman, a NASA astronaut who commanded Apollo 8, the first crewed mission to orbit the moon and return safely to Earth, and later as chief executive of Eastern Air Lines piloted the carrier through a turbulent business climate that led to its takeover and eventual demise, died Nov. 7 at a medical center in Billings, Mont. He was 95.