What's happening A new study shows natural gas to contain more carcinogens than previously thought. The same study found that about 5% of stoves leak small amounts of gas when not in use.
Why it matters While more research is needed to nail down the dangers, these findings could mean your gas stove is emitting harmful amounts of airborne toxins into your home.
What's next We've provided some easy ways to mitigate risk while we wait for more conclusive results on exposure levels and health risks associated with the study's findings.
A new study from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that natural gas used in homes contains more toxins than previously thought. It also shows that gas-powered kitchen stoves often leak low levels of potentially harmful gas, even when they're not on.
The 16-month study published on June 28 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology took samples from 69 stoves in homes serviced by three different natural gas companies across the Boston area. Testing of the precombustion (unburned) methane gas found over 300 chemicals, including 21 airborne toxins. Those toxins notably included low levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, which was discovered in 95% of the natural gas tested. READ MORE...
At a time when it costs up to $100 to fill a gas tank, but as little as $10 to charge an electric car, buying an EV may seem like an obvious choice. But EV economics are complicated and you need to be savvy about a lot of unfamiliar factors before you can stick it to the oil companies.
Buying a new car To drive an EV you have to buy an EV, an often pricey proposition. Even after you sell or trade your current, conventional car you could easily be in the hole $10,000 or more.
It'll take you several years to just break even, as my CNET Cars colleague Craig Cole calculates here, even assuming a scenario where you buy a very cheap EV, live in a place with cheap electricity and always charge at home. That's a lot of "ifs" to make the purchase of a new EV an economic slam dunk.
This is not a new concern: I can't count the number of people I know who bought a hybrid or other fuel-efficient car at a net cost far higher than they could ever save on fuel with it.
One friend insisted on trading in their Porsche Cayenne for a Cayenne Hybrid, even after I penciled out that it would take them 111 years to break even. READ MORE...
NASA flight surgeon Dr. Josef Schmid gives a space greeting Oct. 8, 2021, as he is holoported
on to the International Space Station. ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet
What's happening -- A NASA flight surgeon was holoported beyond Earth and shook hands with astronaut Thomas Pesquet
Why it matters -- "It is a brand new way of human exploration where our human entity is able to travel off the planet," according to NASA flight surgeon, Josef Schmid.
I have a new noun to add to your vocabulary: holoportation. It's an amalgam of "hologram" and "teleportation," and it isn't a niche sci-fi term buried somewhere in Isaac Asimov novels and Star Trek episodes.
Schmid was joined on this transdimensional journey by Fernando De La Pena Llaca, the CEO of AEXA Aerospace, an organization that helped develop the holoportation equipment, and a few other team members.
"It is a brand new way of human exploration where our human entity is able to travel off the planet," Schmid said in a statement earlier in April. "Our physical body is not there, but our human entity absolutely is there." READ MORE...
Former US President Donald Trump's social media app Truth Social became available for download in Apple's App Store on Sunday night, but some people had trouble creating an account. Despite this, it hit No. 1 in the App Store's top charts early Monday.
People who downloaded the app reported seeing error messages when they tried entering a birthdate, e-mail or phone number to create an account. "Something went wrong. Please try again," the message read.
Others reported they were placed on a waitlist after signing up. "Due to massive demand, we have placed you on our waitlist," read the message, which included a waitlist number. People who preordered Truth Social had the app automatically downloaded to their iPhones.
The app's release underscores Trump's plans to return to social media after being booted from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube last year. The companies made the rare move to bar Trump, who was president at the time, from its platforms because of concerns that his remarks could spark violence following the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.
Truth Social, which looks similar to Twitter, is also another example of an alternative social media app like Parler, Gettr and Rumble that conservatives have flocked to because of censorship concerns. Facebook and Twitter have long denied that they intentionally suppress conservative content. The companies have rules against hate speech and inciting violence, but users don't always agree with how they interpret these policies.
The Trump Media and Technology Group first announced it was launching Truth Social in October as part of an effort "to stand up to the tyranny of Big Tech."
CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman, told Fox News on Sunday that the app would roll out this week to more people in the Apple App Store. The company has a goal of making the app fully operational by the end of March at least within the US, he told Fox News.
On Feb. 15, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. posted what he said was the former president's first post on Truth Social: "Get Ready! Your favorite President will see you soon!" About 500 people have reportedly started using an early version of Truth Social, Reuters reported last week.
