Science & Environment

Prince William’s Earthshot Prize 2025 to be held in Brazil

Prince William’s Earthshot Prize 2025 to be held in Brazil

The Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize will be held in Brazil later this year, Kensington Palace has announced, in the same month the country hosts the COP30 UN climate change conference. The main awards ceremony, along with several days of events for nominees, investors and environmental leaders, will be held in Rio de Janeiro in November. The global environmental award, …

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FDA Layoffs Could Raise Drug Costs and Erode Food Safety

FDA Layoffs Could Raise Drug Costs and Erode Food Safety

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced wide-ranging cutbacks at federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, that would eliminate duplicative services and paper pushers. But in interviews with more than a dozen current and former F.D.A. staff members, a different picture emerged of the far-reaching effects of the layoffs that would ultimately reduce the agency work force …

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In the Calls of Bonobos, Scientists Hear Hints of Language

In the Calls of Bonobos, Scientists Hear Hints of Language

After listening to hundreds of hours of ape calls, a team of scientists say they have detected a hallmark of human language: the ability to put together strings of sounds to create new meanings. The provocative finding, published Thursday in the journal Science, drew praise from some scholars and skepticism from others. Federica Amici, a primatologist at the University of …

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How Trump’s Tariffs Could Hobble a U.S. Battery Boom

How Trump’s Tariffs Could Hobble a U.S. Battery Boom

The sweeping tariffs that President Trump announced on Wednesday could hobble the use of giant batteries that energy companies are increasingly installing to help them tap more wind and solar power and make the broader electric grid more reliable. Over the past five years, grid batteries have become one of the biggest growth industries in the U.S. energy sector. In …

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Trump Administration Demands Additional Cuts at C.D.C.

Trump Administration Demands Additional Cuts at C.D.C.

Alongside extensive reductions to the staff of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Trump administration has asked the agency to cut $2.9 billion of its spending on contracts, according to three federal officials with knowledge of the matter. The administration’s cost-cutting program, called the Department of Government Efficiency, asked the public health agency to sever roughly 35 percent …

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Coal Plant Ranked as Nation’s Dirtiest Asks for Pollution Exemption

Coal Plant Ranked as Nation’s Dirtiest Asks for Pollution Exemption

The nation’s most polluting coal-burning power plant has asked President Trump to exempt it from stricter limits on hazardous air pollution after the administration recently invited companies to apply for presidential pollution waivers by email. The aging Colstrip power plant in Colstrip, Mont., emits more harmful fine particulate matter pollution, or soot, than any other power plant in the nation, …

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Ralph Holloway, Anthropologist Who Studied Brain’s Evolution, Dies at 90

Ralph Holloway, Anthropologist Who Studied Brain’s Evolution, Dies at 90

Ralph Holloway, an anthropologist who pioneered the idea that changes in brain structure, and not just size, were critical in the evolution of humans, died on March 12 at his home in Manhattan. He was 90. His death was announced by Columbia University’s anthropology department, where he taught for nearly 50 years. Mr. Holloway’s contrarian idea was that it wasn’t …

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