CNN Other

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — The head of the US National Science Foundation, a $9 billion agency charged with advancing discoveries across the scientific spectrum, resigned Thursday amid sweeping changes spearheaded by the current Trump administration. NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan has led the agency since he was selected by President Donald Trump during his

By Andrew Freedman, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration canceled the lease for its top climate monitoring lab, located in New York City, as of May 31, according to an email seen by CNN. In the email, the director of the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland informed employees of the impending closure of the

By Ella Nilsen, Laura Paddison, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump is trying to fast track a brand new, highly controversial industry – mining critical minerals in the deep sea. Trump will sign an executive order Thursday directing the secretaries of Interior and Commerce to speed up the exploration and permitting for deep sea mining

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — An almost overlooked fossil discovered in a Brazilian museum collection has revealed the oldest ant specimen known to science, according to new research. The prehistoric ant lived among dinosaurs 113 million years ago — several millennia before previously found ants — and had an unusual way to kill its

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A skeleton recovered from an intriguing Roman-era cemetery in England may mark the first physical evidence of combat between gladiators and animals, according to new research. The skeleton of a man, who was between the ages of 26 and 35 when he died, was found with bite marks from

By Kameryn Griesser and Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — After months without a meteor shower, sky-gazers now have a reason to keep their chins up — the Lyrids are here to kick off the season. The Lyrids have graced the sky since April 17 and will hang around until Saturday, with the densest concentration of

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Seismologist Deborah Kilb was wading through California earthquake records from the past four decades when she noticed something odd — a series of deep earthquakes that had occurred under the Sierra Nevada at a depth where Earth’s crust would typically be too hot and high pressure for seismic activity.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A team of astronomers have detected what they call the most promising signs to date of a possible biosignature, or signs of past or present life linked to biological activity, on an exoplanet named K2-18b. But the study authors, and other experts, remain cautious and have not declared a

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Scientists have captured the first confirmed footage of the elusive colossal squid in its natural environment 100 years after the marine creature was first identified and named, according to the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Video, taken near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, shows a juvenile squid,

CNN, SCHMIDT OCEAN INSTITUTE Jade Walker, CNN (CNN) — Even though I suffer from trypanophobia (an overwhelming fear of needles), I received the shingles vaccine last weekend. I did it because I had chicken pox as a kid and do not want to experience this painful viral infection as an adult. According to a new

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration in the case that alleged fraud in a Biden-era, clean-energy program, unfreezing roughly $20 billion in funding meant to support projects like new solar energy arrays and efficiency upgrades for small businesses. Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday ruled in favor of

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Colorful auroras could be visible in areas of the United States on Wednesday evening due to a solar storm, according to the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center. The auroras could dance in the skies much farther south than they typically appear. “The aurora may become visible over

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Hatched in quiet streams and rivers, salmon undertake a perilous journey to reach the open ocean where they become mature adults. Over millions of years, generations of young salmon have migrated great distances, in some cases traveling hundreds of miles from freshwater systems to the sea. However, modern salmon

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — Using a speck of mouse brain matter the size of a grain of sand, scientists have created the first precise, three-dimensional map of a mammal’s brain. The map details the form, function and activity of 84,000 neurons, branched structures that fire off messages down a long arm, called an

By Kameryn Griesser and Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Sharp-eyed lunar lovers may notice April’s full moon looks smaller than usual this month, and despite its “pink moon” namesake, the orb will have a white-golden hue. The micromoon will be visible in the Northern and Southern hemispheres and is set to rise Saturday evening, reaching

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — It’s a long-standing debate in paleontology: Were dinosaurs thriving when an asteroid hit Earth one fateful spring day 66 million years ago, or were they already on their way out, and the space rock delivered a final, devastating blow? To find answers, a team of researchers studied North America’s

By Ella Nilsen, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration plans to eliminate the research arm of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, close all weather and climate labs and eviscerate its budget along with several other NOAA offices, according to internal documents obtained by CNN. The move would devastate weather and climate research even as weather

CNN By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s pick to run NASA, Jared Isaacman, made waves Wednesday by signaling his intention to create a new focus on Mars exploration. A confirmation hearing for Isaacman — the billionaire CEO of payments platform company Shift4 who has twice paid to fly aboard SpaceX capsules —

By Jackie Wattles, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s pick to run NASA, Jared Isaacman, made waves during his confirmation hearing Wednesday by signaling his intention to create a new focus on Mars exploration. A confirmation hearing for Isaacman — the billionaire CEO of payments platform company Shift4 who has twice paid to fly aboard

CNN By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — A species of wolf that died out some 12,500 years ago lives again as the “world’s first successfully de-extincted animal,” according to Dallas-based biotech company Colossal Biosciences. Colossal scientists have created three dire wolf pups by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene-editing technology to alter the genes of