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Droughts in 48 of 50 U.S. states, evidence of microplastics mucking up wastewater recycling and the science of a baseball mud bath in this week’s news roundup.

The 3.2-million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy rose to fame through an incredible combination of circumstances

The new president-elect can go beyond just pulling out of the Paris Agreement. But it may be more difficult to roll back clean energy policies

Outside groups often offer their solutions for climate adaptation in Africa. But the best people to manage the climate crisis are the people in those communities themselves. For climate adaptation to succeed in Africa, let communities and local leaders show the way

The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet’s vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth’s calendrical history

A mysterious electromagnetic mechanism may be more important than the firing of neurons in our brain to explain our awareness

Focusing on size in health care might be doing more harm than good.

The new Trump administration is likely to reduce subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans and roll back Medicaid coverage. Public health authorities worry that antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will be empowered

A few dozen ChatGPT queries cost a bottle’s worth of water. Tech firms should consider simpler solutions, such as harvesting rainwater, to meet AI’s needs

Is your kid in trouble? Blaming their friends is ill advised

It is difficult to disentangle Russian and Chinese scientists from international science cooperation. That is a good thing

This year won’t just be the hottest on record—it could be the first to surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris climate accord aims to keep warming below that level when looking over multiple years

Understanding the psychology of ambiguous loss can help people struggling with grief and depression in the wake of the 2024 election results

President-elect Trump vowed to promote fossil fuels, weaken pollution regulations and reverse Biden administration climate efforts

“Going viral” appears to be more than just a catchphrase when it comes to the rampant spread of misinformation

In medieval times, astrology was considered a serious science, a branch of astronomy. Curator Larisa Grollemond of the Getty Museum, walks us through the medieval zodiac and how someone’s sign decided their day-to-day life.

Several downballot races in the 2024 presidential election will carry implications for climate policy far beyond state lines

Culture may play a role in how birds build collectively in the Kalahari Desert

Famous people who die at age 27, such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Amy Winehouse, get even more famous because of the mythology surrounding that number—an example of how modern folklore emerges

Thousands of homes in Navajo and other tribal lands don’t have access to electricity. A $200-million federal funding effort aims to fix that problem with solar power and other clean energy