SAN DIEGO — One by one, the four California sea lions slid out of their crates and into the ocean. As the SeaWorld San Diego rescue boat bobbed nearby, one of the pinnipeds dove deep and then popped his head out of the water, his mouth full of what may have been a squid.

SeaWorld’s rescue curator Jeni Smith smiled. “We had a pep talk,” ...Read more

For decades, an “extremely rare” fossil sat unidentified in Japan’s Museum of Unique Insect Fossils.

Discovered in 1988 in Hyogo Prefecture, the imprint of a large butterfly wing and body is now confirmed to belong to an extinct species that’s new to science, according to a May 2 study published in the journal Paleontological Research. ...Read more

For the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, NASA officially has its hands on a spacecraft expected to fly humans to the moon.

Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the Orion space capsule, transferred possession of the Artemis II spacecraft Thursday to the agency’s Exploration Ground Systems team base at Kennedy Space Center.

Artemis II is ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Most weekends, the Facebook pages dedicated to the Orlando Wetlands focus on spectacular pictures of nature in action — huge, hungry gators, mischievious otters and a flamboyant array of nesting birds.

But last weekend, a pair of unwelcome fliers sailed into the 1,650-acre park about 25 miles east of Orlando, causing a ...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — Workers reporting to a Virginia Beach military base office building last week found a charming surprise when they walked up to the entrance — two baby otters huddled together in a corner by the door.

They were cute, but not particularly friendly. Whenever someone tried to approach, they screamed, as otters often do when they�...Read more

A failed Soviet-era spacecraft is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere some time this month.

The Soviet Union launched Kosmos 482 in 1972, intending to land on Venus. However, the probe never left Earth’s orbit because of a rocket malfunction. Since then, the rocket has very gradually lost altitude as it circled the world in a highly ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — As Robert Gaunt, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, puts it, the sensation of touch doesn't actually come from the fingers. It comes from electrical impulses sent to the brain.

In research published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications, Pitt researchers attempted to use brain stimulation to recreate touch ...Read more

House Republicans passed a measure Thursday that would repeal the government’s decision to place California’s longfin smelt, a finger-sized fish, on the endangered species list.

House members passed the resolution, introduced by Republican California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, in a 216-195 vote that followed party lines. The resolution now goes to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Spencer Parker has never seen so many dolphin strandings in his more than 20 years as an L.A. County lifeguard.

Since he started in 2002, only twice had he seen them come ashore before this year. But in just the last two weeks, there have been four.

Now, things have gotten so bad that L.A. County lifeguards have begun taking ...Read more

MIAMI — Piles of smelly seaweed have washed ashore on Miami Beach and Key Biscayne, a stinky reminder that this is sargassum season.

The brown seaweed is a common sight across the Caribbean and on South Florida beaches.

Researchers who track seaweed blooms expect 2025 to be another “major sargassum year” for the Atlantic Basin — but ...Read more

Google’s ad network has begun showing advertising within the flow of conversations with chatbots — part of Alphabet Inc.’s efforts to keep its edge in digital advertising as generative artificial intelligence takes off.

Earlier this year, the Google AdSense network, which traditionally displays ads in search results and in the margins of ...Read more

State and federal officials said they are working with a chemical manufacturing plant in Wyandotte on a "two-pronged approach" to limit the flow of contaminated groundwater into the Detroit River.

The meeting came after the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) wrote a letter to BASF in March, telling the company to...Read more

Busy tourist season is nearly upon Yosemite National Park and officials are warning visitors to be cautious of "one of the most dangerous animals" in the park — and it turns out it doesn't have claws.

More than any other animal, mule deer cause injuries to visitors in the park, according to a National Park Service Instagram post.

"While ...Read more

Biologists waded through knee-high vegetation in Florida until they reached a spot where purple flowers grew in cone-like formations — then the team got out the glow-in-the dark caterpillars.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced April 30 that biologists had released caterpillars of the frosted elfin butterfly in ...Read more

We’ve all seen robot vacuums, and they’ve made some great strides in getting smarter and doing a better job of cleaning your floors, but I never found one that could be the only vacuum in my house.

My house is all hard flooring and there are lots of times when I just want to grab my portable stick vacuum and clean up a small area. My Dyson ...Read more

DENVER — A collared gray wolf released in Colorado in January as part of the state’s historic reintroduction effort died in Rocky Mountain National Park last week, wildlife officials said.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists received a “mortality alert” from the female wolf’s collar on April 20 and later confirmed the wolf died in ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — A long-feared monster earthquake off California, Oregon and Washington could cause some coastal areas to sink by more than 6 feet, dramatically heightening the risk of flooding and radically reshaping the region with little to no warning.

Those are the findings of a new study that examined the repercussions of a massive ...Read more

For hard-core gamers, Takaya Kuroda’s voice should sound familiar, though his name may not ring a bell. The Japanese voice actor brings Kazuma Kiryu to life in “Like a Dragon” and “Yakuza.” His work is heard in dozens of other video games and anime, but his deep and intimidating timbre is so distinct that fans immediately recognize ...Read more