Science & Environment

From ancient star streams to the innards of white dwarfs, the Gaia space telescope has seen it all. On Thursday, mission specialists at the European Space Agency will send Gaia, which is low on fuel, into orbit around the sun, and switch it off after more than a decade of service to the world’s astronomers. Gaia has charted the cosmos …

Steffan Messenger Environment correspondent, BBC Wales News Gareth Bryer BBC Wales News Beacon Park Boats / As You See It Media The Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal is set to mark its 225th anniversary this year The Welsh government has been urged to intervene over fears one of the country’s most popular canals could start to dry up within a week. …

Measles cases in Kansas more than doubled in the last week, bringing the tally to 20, while another outbreak in Ohio has sickened 10 people, local public health officials reported on Wednesday. There have been several large outbreaks in the United States this year, including one in West Texas that has spread to more than 320 people and hospitalized 40. …

The vermilion, amethyst and jade ribbons of the northern and southern lights are some of Earth’s most distinctive features. But our planet doesn’t have a monopoly on auroras. Scientists have spied them throughout the solar system, weaving through the skies of Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and even on some of Jupiter’s fiery and icy moons. Lights glow in the skies of …

The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues. The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing demands from chronic diseases, resurgent …

The Trump administration intends to terminate the United States’ financial support for Gavi, the organization that has helped purchase critical vaccines for children in developing countries, saving millions of lives over the past quarter century, and to significantly scale back support for efforts to combat malaria, one of the biggest killers globally. The administration has decided to continue some key …

Masaki Kashiwara, a Japanese mathematician, received this year’s Abel Prize, which aspires to be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in math. Dr. Kashiwara’s highly abstract work combined algebra, geometry and differential equations in surprising ways. The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, which manages the Abel Prize, announced the honor on Wednesday morning. “First of all, he has solved …

The call of a conch shell roused the dolphin hunters from their beds. Under moonlight, the six men shuffled to the village church. There a priest led them in a whispered prayer, his voice barely audible over the sound of crashing waves; the tide was high that day. Saltwater pooled in parts of the village, which is on Fanalei Island, …

50 States, 50 Fixes Nearly 500 buildings in the state capital get their heat from a clean, renewable source located deep in the ground. It’s pretty easy to get into hot water in Boise. After all, it’s in Idaho, a state filled with hundreds of hot springs. The city has tapped into that naturally hot water to create the largest …

50 States, 50 Fixes The air is filled with birdsong, the land a tableau of soft greens and gentle light. This is Ho‘oulu ‘Āina, a 100-acre preserve with an unusual twist. Linked to a community health center, it is a place where patients come to heal the land, and themselves. As climate change accelerates and the Trump administration abandons the …