Technology

"Demand for air conditioners is surging in markets where both incomes and temperatures are rising, populous places like India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines."

"At a barbecue on campus last week, flames licked a set of sausage links as scientist Blake Foraker worked on the perfect grill marks. ...  With permission from the Food and Drug Administration, WSU researchers made them from pigs whose DNA has been changed."

"Offshore wind energy critics often cite the risk of collision with birds as an argument against the use of wind power. But a new study conducted by European energy company Vattenfall shows that offshore wind turbines at one UK wind farm are much less dangerous to birds than previously thought, a step towards debunking common claims that turbines are a major contributor to bird mortality."

"As new technologies supercharge the field of bioacoustics, researchers can better listen to environmental changes — and use the information to guide conservation efforts."

"Think of them as speed cameras, but for methane. Just like roadside instruments used to identify drivers breaking traffic rules, new powerful satellites are starting to catch oil and gas operators releasing the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere."

"Conservation groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday, challenging its approval of expanded rocket launch operations by Elon Musk's SpaceX next to a national wildlife refuge in South Texas without requiring greater environmental study."

"When Hurricane Maria battered Puerto Rico and decimated the Caribbean island's power grid five years ago, the lights stayed on in one building in the mountain town of Adjuntas."

"Garrett Cammans and his brothers sometimes don’t talk about their toughest moments on the job in the cloud seeding business, like the time when one of them got stuck in deep mountain snow and had to hike out alone in the dark."

"Ghana is the first country to approve a new malaria vaccine that has been described as a "world-changer" by the scientists who developed it."

"China is far ahead of the rest of the world in the development of batteries that use sodium, which are starting to compete with ubiquitous lithium power cells."