Science

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is “scaling back” plans for the coach and will instead roll out some of what it had been working on into the Heath app over time. Maybe not the worst idea.

Maybe combining Musk’s companies is really about space AI data centers. But reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal indicate that SpaceX’s IPO pursuit includes a push to have major index providers find a way around the usual waiting periods before they’ll add newly listed companies.

The partnership will allow AT&T to use Amazon Leo — the ecommerce giant’s low Earth orbit satellite network — to deliver fixed broadband services to businesses. Amazon launched its gigabit-speed Leo Ultra antenna last November, but it’s only available for commercial use for now.

The President announced a new $12 billion public-private partnership called Project Vault, meant to establish a strategic reserve of critical minerals. It’s expected to safeguard stores of rare earths and other materials used in batteries, smart phones, cars, planes, and more.

I used to compare Elon Musk to an old boss of mine who would spin up a company division every time he found a new hobby, but this might be just as apt:

NASA’s overnight wet dress rehearsal of the SLS rocket surfaced a liquid hydrogen leak. A second wet dress rehearsal is now needed, pushing the earliest possible launch of the crewed mission around the moon to March.

The Trump administration ordered five major offshore wind projects to pause construction in December, suddenly citing national security risks even though developers had previously secured approvals to start building. After the companies filed suit, federal courts have now allowed all five projects to start construction again.

The Trump administration is quietly weakening regulations meant to protect groundwater and limit radiation exposure to workers at new nuclear reactors, NPR reports. Trump has worked to speed up the deployment of new nuclear reactor designs to power AI data centers.

The company, which was led by ex-Tesla CTO JB Straubel, says it just closed its series E funding, including participation from Google and other investors. The money will be put toward building out Redwood Materials’ energy storage platform as well as its EV battery recycling and critical minerals business. And in a blog post, the company gestures at the current debate over AI data centers and electricity demand, saying:

Mr. 420 hopes to raise $50 billion by taking SpaceX public with the largest initial public offering in history. The target date is mid-June, near Elon Musk’s 55th birthday on June 28th, and June 8th and 9th “when Jupiter and Venus will appear very close together, known as a conjunction, for the first time in more than three years.”

Forecasters are increasingly turning to new AI tools, using them alongside conventional physics-based models to improve predictions. Nvidia and Google, for example, each claim that their AI weather models have outperformed traditional forecasting methods.

Every time it gets really cold, the climate change deniers come out of the woodwork with their best “I am very intelligent” grins to sputter some version of “whither global warming?” Fortunately, The Verge’s senior science reporter Justine Calma knew to anticipate these inane inquiries in her story today about the approaching winter storm:

President Trump has talked about dismantling FEMA as his administration slashes staff from federal agencies. But now, FEMA will “cease offboarding” workers, CNN reports. A major winter storm threatens to wreck power grids and make travel treacherous across much of the US over the weekend and into next week.

The withdrawal from the World Health Organization makes good on an executive order Trump issued on his first day in office. Per The New York Times:

Scientists announced a new expedition to study the potential origin of ‘dark oxygen’ rising from the abyss, a recent discovery that’s been contested by some other researchers and mining companies seeking to exploit new sources of battery minerals along the seafloor.

The sets teach STEM concepts like programming, engineering, and now AI. They’re typically only sold to teachers and schools, but Lego’s Education division has created four new sets designed for learning at home. They’re launching today and are themed around space and animals

The Washington Post has an excellent piece (subscription required) debunking this viral theory. If the levels of EMF radiation measured at the 49ers’ practice facility weakened ligaments, we’d all have torn ACLs. When cornered, Peter Cowan, the self-proclaimed expert who popularized this theory, admitted he had no hard evidence and moved the goalposts:

Planet-heating carbon and methane pollution had actually fallen by around 20 percent over the past decade, but ticked back up again in 2025 as the Trump administration slashed environmental regulations.