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California physicist and Nobel laureate John Martinis won't quit on quantum computers

A California physicist and Nobel laureate who laid the foundation for quantum computing isn't done working.

For the last 40 years, John Martinis has worked — mostly within California — to create the fastest computers ever built.

"It's kind of my professional dream to do this by the time I'm really too old to retire. I should retire now, ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Species that can live 500 years offers warning of North Atlantic 'tipping point'

Just as tree rings can tell us how old a tree is and the climate conditions it endured, bivalves like quahog clams and dog cockles can tell a story about the history of the ocean.

And they’re telling us we may be headed for a “tipping point,” according to a study led by the University of Exeter and published Oct. 3 in Science Advances.

...Read more

SpaceX/SpaceX/TNS

SpaceX targets nighttime launch of competitor Amazon's satellites

ORLANDO, Fla. – SpaceX is set to finish up its third of three contracted launches of competitor Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites on Thursday night.

A Falcon 9 on the KF-3 mission to launch 24 more of Amazon’s broadband internet satellites is set to lift off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39-A targeting 9:34 p.m. Eastern time ...Read more

Blue Origin/Blue Origin/TNS

Blue Origin to build new Florida satellite processing site for Space Force

ORLANDO, Fla. — While Blue Origin was kept out of the Space Force’s latest round of national security missions, the government has opted to rely on Jeff Bezos’ company to build a new place to prep satellites for launch.

Space Systems Command announced Tuesday it had awarded to Blue Origin a $78.25 million contract to construct a space ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

New conservation plan seeks to shoot Catalina's deer on the ground instead of from helicopters

LOS ANGELES – Santa Catalina Island’s mule deer are back in the crosshairs.

This month, the California Island Conservancy announced a plan to rid the landscape of its entire nonnative deer population using contracted hunters, saying the animals increase the risk of wildfire.

Last year, the conservancy — which manages 88% of the island �...Read more

Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/TNS

UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi wins Nobel prize in chemistry

UC Berkeley professor Omar Yaghi, a Jordanian immigrant molded by the American public school system, reached the pinnacle of his field on Wednesday, sharing the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After receiving the award for his work on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), which have incalculable applications, Yaghi acknowledged the role his American ...Read more

Household-battery startup raises $1 billion for expansion

Household-battery startup Base Power Inc. raised $1 billion to expand its energy-storage business and build a manufacturing plant in Texas.

The Series C funding round led by venture capital firm Addition included other existing investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Altimeter, the company said in a statement ...Read more

Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune/TNS

To treat a common bladder condition, Medtronic implant goes under the skin near the ankle

To make life easier for people with a common bladder condition, Medtronic is digging in far away from urinary tract.

Treatment for urinary urge incontinence can require pads, absorbent underwear and medications that come with bothersome side effects. The Minnesota-run medtech firm’s tiny new implant, designed to help patients forget about ...Read more

Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Want the next breakthrough? Don't starve the science that makes it possible

If you’re scrolling through this story on a smartphone, you’re holding a product that harnesses one of the boldest investments the United States ever made into science.

In 1947, researchers at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, started this process by building the first working transistor. At the time, the so-called “semiconductor ...Read more

SimpliSafe/SimpliSafe/TNS

Gadgets: Home security system

Security can't be overstated. It's critical, and a home security system is something people think they might not need, until it's needed and unfortunately too late.

The SimpliSafe home security system is precisely that, simple and safe. It's a complete system, which can be as simple as a single camera or expanded to every door, window and ...Read more

Jim Rossman/Jim Rossman/TNS

Jim Rossman: Calls not ringing? Check Do Not Disturb mode

I received this email from a reader last week:“I have an IPhone XR, which has stopped ringing on incoming calls. (If someone calls), it goes immediately into voice mail. The call also does not show up on my Apple Watch and texts do not ring. I have done everything, including spending an hour on a chat with Apple (to no avail).

"I made ...Read more

Arsenii Palivoda/Dreamstime/TNS

Chatbot dreams generate AI nightmares for Bay Area lawyers

A Palo Alto, California, lawyer with nearly a half-century of experience admitted to an Oakland federal judge this summer that legal cases he referenced in an important court filing didn’t actually exist and appeared to be products of artificial intelligence “hallucinations.”

Jack Russo, in a court filing, described the apparent AI ...Read more

Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

EPA reverses stance on coke oven rules that U.S. Steel called unachievable

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowing implementation of a 2024 hazardous air pollution rule that imposed new emission control and monitoring requirements on facilities like U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, a few months after seeking to delay and rework it.

The hazardous air pollution rule called for fenceline monitoring for ...Read more

Scientists 'resurrected' microbes frozen for thousands of years in Alaska soil

Deep below the surface of some of the planet’s northernmost wilderness, the soil and rock has been frozen for millions of years.

It’s called permafrost, and in central Alaska just south of the Arctic circle, this ice-cold layer reaches hundreds of feet below the tundra.

Global climate change is causing this layer, and equivalent ecosystems...Read more

Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS

San Andreas, Cascadia faults could combine to produce back-to-back earthquake disasters, new research suggests

They are two of the West Coast’s most destructive generators of huge earthquakes: The San Andreas fault in California and the Cascadia subduction zone offshore of California’s North Coast, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

The public has often thought of these danger zones as separate entities.

But what if they were capable of back-...Read more

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OpenAI lifts another AI laggard with big plans for AMD

OpenAI bestowed its blessings and backing on another tech company Monday, inking a deal with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, instantly making it one of the hot companies investors hope will be at the forefront of the artificial intelligence boom.

The shares of AMD soared more than 30% after the company behind ChatGPT said it plans to take up ...Read more

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA Press/TNS

Bipartisan congressional coalition supports EPA biofuels plan

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan, bicameral contingent of 47 members of Congress has petitioned the EPA to finalize its proposal for the Renewable Fuel Standard program, which includes measures to discourage the use of foreign imports in the U.S. biofuel market.

The group, led by Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to EPA Administrator Lee ...Read more

Nanoparticles could be key to making better bioplastics

Strengthening materials made from soy proteins could offer better alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, according to researchers developing practical solutions to reduce plastic pollution.

Marcus Foston, professor of energy, environmental, and chemical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, led a team that developed a new ...Read more

Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

ks // Full Harvest Moon to be supermoon rising ahead of SpaceX launch

The first of the year’s only three supermoons will rise Monday night with the full moon coming just before midnight Eastern time and just minutes before a planned launch of a SpaceX rocket.

The near side of the moon will have 100% illumination at 11:47 p.m. when it’s about 224,000 miles from Earth, according to timeanddate.com. The ...Read more

Space Force favors SpaceX over ULA, leaves Blue Origin out in new round of national security missions

United Launch Alliance may have finally got its Vulcan rocket cleared for national security missions, but the Space Force decided to favor SpaceX for the majority of a batch of newly assigned missions.

The annual task order from Space Systems Command to approved providers was released Friday for fiscal 2026 calling for seven missions total, ...Read more