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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
Venus will partner up with the giant planets Saturn and Neptune to form a line up in the pre-dawn sky on May 8, with fleet-footed Mercury remaining nearby close to With Mercury sticking low to the horizon in the hour precedingTo find the planetary line-up, stargazers should look to the eastern sky below the head of the western great fish represented in the constellation Pisces a few hours before sunrise on May 8, which will occur for viewers in New York at 5:46 a.m. (0946 GMT).
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
President Donald Trump recently dubbed himself the “fertilization president” after signing an executive order that called for policy recommendations to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
The Pyrotechnic Chemistry of the Vatican’s Pope Smoke Signals ExplainedPyrotechnic chemistry drives the Vatican’s recipes for the black and white smoke used to announce papal election outcomesThe Vatican’s cardinals gather in conclave today to begin electing the successor to the late Pope Francis—which means the world’s attention is on a chimney attached to the Sistine Chapel.
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
How NASA Can Make the Moon Great AgainAn unhinged 2026 U.S. budget proposal would hollow NASA to a husk bent to Elon Musk’s whims. Only one mission can save the space agencyGood news, folks. We’re going to beat China to the moon. What’s that, you say? We did that already, a half-century ago on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped on the lunar surface. The U.S. beat everyone, left a plaque, a flag and even some astronaut waste baggies. It was a pretty big deal.
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
As spring warms the eastern U.S. and green shoots peek from the ground, other forms of life stir in the soil. Periodical 17-year cicadas in Brood XIV—one of 15 broods found only in North America—begin to creep from their underground burrows. Last seen in 2008, they will emerge in the billions across a dozen states from early May through June. Above ground, flightless cicada nymphs transform into black-bodied, winged adults, ready for a month-long bacchanal of song and sex.
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
Slashing NASA’s Programs Will Squander America’s Place in SpaceThe Trump administration’s plans to cut NASA’s science missions will destroy the U.S. space legacyFor more than half a century planetary exploration and space science have been a hallmark of American achievement and excellence. From Mercury to Pluto and beyond, we have gained enormous understanding about planetary origins and evolution. We have learned about the atmospheric, surface and interior dynamics of other worlds.
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
84 Percent of Corals Impacted in Mass Bleaching EventThe world is experiencing the most intense global coral bleaching event on record, with 84 percent of reefs experiencing heat stress from warming oceansAll around the world, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Florida Keys, the bright, vibrant colors of coral reefs have turned ghostly white in vast swaths as our planet has experienced the largest mass coral bleaching event on record.
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
Celebrate Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th Birthday with Stunning ImagesHappy anniversary to the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched on April 24, 1990Thirty-five years ago today a revolutionary new era of astronomy began when the Hubble Space Telescope, tucked onboard the space shuttle Discovery, blasted off Earth into history. The next day a robotic arm tipped the telescope into orbit from the shuttle’s cargo bay.
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1 week ago | 
contracostaherald.com | Allen Payton
In The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science, author Dava Sobel celebrates the many women who came to Paris to work with Marie Curie after she won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Many of these women went on to become experts in radioactivity, creating their own networks to support female scientists.
