Alongside publication of this month's Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced plans to modernize its core short-term forecasting system.

Researchers discovered that unusually high temperatures can hinder early childhood development. Children living in hotter conditions were less likely to reach key learning milestones, especially in reading and basic math skills. Those facing economic hardship or limited resources were hit the hardest. The study underscores how climate change may shape children’s learning long before they reach school age.

BISC is an ultra-thin neural implant that creates a high-bandwidth wireless link between the brain and computers. Its tiny single-chip design packs tens of thousands of electrodes and supports advanced AI models for decoding movement, perception, and intent. Initial clinical work shows it can be inserted through a small opening in the skull and remain stable while capturing detailed neural activity. The technology could reshape treatments for epilepsy, paralysis, and blindness.

New simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies reveal that the strange split between two chemically distinct groups of stars may arise from several very different evolutionary events. Bursts of star formation, shifts in flowing gas, and even streams of metal-poor material from a galaxy’s outskirts can all create this double pattern. The findings challenge the long-held assumption that a major ancient collision caused the split.

New research is challenging one of medicine’s oldest assumptions: that cancer must be attacked to be cured. By treating glioblastoma patients with a simple combination of resveratrol and copper, the researchers found dramatic reductions in tumor aggressiveness, cancer biomarkers, immune checkpoints, and stem-cell–related markers—all without side effects. Their approach focuses on “healing” tumors by eliminating harmful cell-free chromatin particles released from dying cancer cells, which normally inflame and worsen the disease. The findings hint at a future where inexpensive nutraceuticals could transform cancer therapy.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured dramatic helium streams pouring off the super-puff exoplanet WASP-107b, revealing a world with an enormously inflated, weakly bound atmosphere under intense stellar heat. The detection of helium, water, and various chemical compounds—alongside the surprising absence of methane—paints a picture of a planet that formed far from its star but later migrated inward, where scorching radiation now strips its gases into space.

Humans don’t just recognize each other’s voices—our brains also light up for the calls of chimpanzees, hinting at ancient communication roots shared with our closest primate relatives. Researchers found a specialized region in the auditory cortex that reacts distinctly to chimp vocalizations, but not to those of bonobos or macaques, revealing an unexpected mix of evolutionary and acoustic influences.

Microscopic fibers secretly shape how every organ in the body works, yet they’ve been notoriously hard to study—until now. A new imaging technique called ComSLI reveals hidden fiber orientations in stunning detail using only a rotating LED light and simple microscopy equipment. It works on any tissue slide, from fresh samples to those more than a century old, allowing scientists to uncover microstructural changes in disorders like Alzheimer’s and even explore the architecture of muscle, bone, and blood vessels.

Scientists discovered a small protein region that determines whether plants reject or welcome nitrogen-fixing bacteria. By tweaking only two amino acids, they converted a defensive receptor into one that supports symbiosis. Early success in barley hints that cereals may eventually be engineered to fix nitrogen on their own. Such crops could dramatically reduce fertilizer use and emissions.

Scientists are testing a novel way to measure cosmic expansion using time delays in gravitationally lensed quasars. Their results match “local” measurements but clash with early-universe estimates, strengthening the mysterious Hubble tension. This mismatch could point to new physics rather than observational error. Researchers now aim to boost precision to solve the puzzle.

A sudden X-ray flare from a supermassive black hole in galaxy NGC 3783 triggered ultra-fast winds racing outward at a fifth the speed of light—an event never witnessed before. Using XMM-Newton and XRISM, astronomers caught the blast unfold in real time, revealing how tangled magnetic fields can rapidly “untwist” and hurl matter into space much like an enormous, cosmic-scale version of the Sun’s coronal mass ejections.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Growth Energy, the nation’s largest biofuel trade association, released the following statement after news today that the Trump administration would deliver $12 billion in relief to American farmers.

“Today’s announcement is welcome news to farm families. We applaud President Trump and his administration for being responsive to the needs of American farmers and our nation’s rural communities,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor.

“This move builds on the Trump administration’s long-standing commitment to American agriculture, including the President’s support for expanding access to higher biofuel blends like E15 and his administration’s embrace of a strong Renewable Fuel Standard. Taken together, these efforts serve as powerful economic drivers for rural America.”

The post Growth Energy Applauds Trump Administration’s Support for America’s Farmers appeared first on Growth Energy.

SACRAMENTO, CALIF.—Growth Energy, the nation’s largest biofuel trade association, called on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) today to update the way the agency assesses the environmental impact of crop-based biofuels like ethanol.

“We were greatly encouraged when California finally approved E15 for use earlier this year,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “Recognizing the environmental benefits of crop-based biofuels and setting carbon reduction policy that allows ethanol to compete on a level playing field is the next critical step. American ethanol producers and their farm partners are constantly innovating to increase their efficiency and lower their carbon intensity. To maximize the benefits ethanol can deliver to California consumers, CARB must stop penalizing today’s biofuel producers based on yesterday’s data.”

In submitted comments, Growth Energy noted that CARB unfairly penalizes crop-based biofuels by relying on environmental assumptions that are almost a decade old. In particular, the way that CARB assigns an exaggerated value for land use change (LUC) to crop-based biofuels is especially damaging and undermines the ability of biofuels like ethanol to qualify and compete in the state’s low carbon fuel standard (LCFS).

Read the full comments here.

The post Growth Energy Calls on CARB to Update Old, Inaccurate Assumptions about Ethanol’s Environmental Impact appeared first on Growth Energy.

Hey everybody,

TL;DR: It is Volts’ fifth birthday! I would like to continue for five more years, but the only way I can do that is if more people sign up for a paid subscription. If you haven’t done that yet, and you value what I do here, please chip in. It’s about the cost of a nice latte per month, whereas my gratitude is immeasurable.

And now, a few quick reflections, if you will indulge me.

I launched Volts five years ago, and I gotta say, I dig it.

When I launched it, I had been writing for Vox for five years — a general interest publication, which meant a certain sort of writing. I wanted to do something a little deeper and more targeted, and above all, more useful to people on the front lines. There is so much good work going on that gets so little attention in our stupid, stupid attention economy.

I wanted to bring the good work out, put a spotlight on it, so that people can see what’s happening, see what sparks their own imaginations, and figure out how they can get involved.

It has gone better than I possibly could have anticipated. The pivot from writing to podcasting was not something I would have chosen, but given the circumstances, it has been an absolute feast. I’m privileged to talk to fascinating, smart, ambitious, socially-minded, good-hearted people every week. Turns out there are lots of them!

I have heard from people who have passed state legislation based on Volts pods, people who have chosen or changed academic paths, chosen or changed careers, raised money, won awards, or simply bought heat pumps for their homes.

It really seems like it’s working, like Volts is useful for people! That is gratifying to me beyond my ability to express.

That said, the Volts business plan is something of a disaster. I don’t have any sponsors. I don’t take advertisements. I don’t consult. I have no income other than the kind souls who agree to pay me to do this through the newsletter.

Unlike a written post, which is free to produce, it costs me money to record, produce, edit, and release a podcast, which I regularly do twice a week. On a busy month it’s close to $10K in expenses. It takes a lot of $6 monthly subscriptions to compensate for that, much less to pay for my groceries.

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As I’ve said before, a lot of this is just due to my Gen X orneriness: I don’t want anyone telling me what to do, and I don’t want to sell out. And beyond that, I just want to do the work. I like doing the work; I hate doing the rest of it. The whole point of launching Volts was to focus on the work and try to avoid the rest of it.

But I’m coming around to the unavoidable conclusion that at least some of the rest of it needs doing. At least if I want Volts to thrive in the long term. Which I do!

So that’s something I am going to be thinking about this year: how to professionalize a bit, like a real grownup. Do more for paid subscribers. Do more promotion and marketing. Maybe hire someone to write a fundraising email less halfass than this one. Maybe even see about ads.

In the meantime, you can help me continue to be useful:

• Sign up for a paid subscription yourself.

• Buy one for someone else, as a holiday gift!

• Tell your friends about Volts — there is no substitute for word-of-mouth.

• Give Volts a good review on Apple Podcasts or the platform of your choice. It helps.

If this earnest post didn’t do it for you, stay tuned for later this month, when I’ll have a fun, data-rich post on Volts history to share!

In the meantime, thank you for subscribing, thank you for reading, and thank you for caring about decarbonization.

Higher average daily wholesale electricity prices between January and November 2025 may be improving the operational competitiveness of some natural gas- and coal-fired generators in the PJM Interconnection compared with the same period in 2024. PJM is the largest wholesale electricity market in the United States. The spark and dark spreads, common metrics for estimating the profitability of natural gas- and coal-fired electric generators, have both increased over the past two years.

Researchers discovered that a tiny structural feature of the enzyme GPX4 helps keep neurons safe. A rare mutation removes this protection, allowing harmful molecules to damage cell membranes and trigger early dementia. Mouse and cell studies showed changes resembling Alzheimer’s. Early tests to slow this damage give scientists new directions to explore.

A remarkably clean gravitational-wave detection has confirmed long-standing predictions about black holes, including Hawking’s area theorem and Einstein’s ringdown behavior. The findings also provide the strongest support yet that real black holes follow the Kerr model.

Deep-brain recordings showed that Mounjaro and Zepbound briefly shut down the craving circuits linked to food noise in a patient with severe obesity. Her obsessive thoughts about food disappeared as the medication quieted the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward hub.

Researchers uncovered rare azurite traces on a Final Paleolithic artifact, overturning assumptions that early Europeans used only red and black pigments. The find suggests ancient people possessed deeper knowledge of minerals and colors than believed. It also hints at vanished forms of decoration or artistic practices. The discovery opens new avenues for exploring identity and symbolism in Ice Age cultures.