The Columbian

Science & Technology

The terribly destructive and invasive gypsy moth has been renamed the spongy moth, part of the Entomological Society of America's Better Common Names project.

Gypsy moth becomes the spongy moth

March 22, 2022, 6:02am Clark County Life

If you pay attention to environmental news, you’ll already be aware of the invasive, extremely destructive moth with tawny, speckled wings and feathery antennae that’s threatened to munch Washington’s greenery into oblivion since 1974. Read story

Washington creates first sea grass and kelp sanctuary off Everett

March 21, 2022, 7:53am Northwest

A first-of-its-kind sanctuary has been created offshore of Everett, where 2,300 acres of state tidelands have been put off-limits to development for 50 years. Read story

In this photo taken from video footage released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-21 space ship carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, March 18, 2022.

3 Russian cosmonauts arrive at International Space Station

March 18, 2022, 2:37pm Nation & World

A trio of Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, the first new faces in space since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine. Read story

This image of a star 2,000 light-years away, with galaxies and other stars also visible, was used to align the mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Image of star photobombed by galaxies

March 16, 2022, 7:25pm Life

NASA’s new space telescope has gazed into the distant universe and shown perfect vision: a spiky image of a faraway star photobombed by thousands of ancient galaxies. Read story

An octopus swims at the zoo in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2005.

Octopus ancestors lived before era of dinosaurs

March 15, 2022, 6:02am Life

Scientists have found the oldest known ancestor of octopuses — an approximately 330 million-year-old fossil unearthed in Montana. Read story

FILE - The Joro spider, a large spider native to East Asia, is seen in Johns Creek, Ga., on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. Researchers say the large spider that proliferated in Georgia in 2021 could spread to much of the East Coast.

Scientists: Asian spider could spread to much of East Coast

March 15, 2022, 6:02am Life

Researchers say a large spider native to East Asia that proliferated in Georgia last year could spread to much of the East Coast. Read story

An adult and young manatee swim together in a canal in Coral Gables, Fla.

Manatee feeding program touted

March 15, 2022, 6:00am Life

More than 55 tons of lettuce have been fed to starving Florida manatees as part of an experimental program to help the slow-moving marine mammals since their natural food is being destroyed by water pollution, wildlife officials said last week. Read story

U.S. astronaut to ride Russian spacecraft home during tensions

March 14, 2022, 10:57am Nation & World

U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei has made it through nearly a year in space, but faces what could be his trickiest assignment yet: riding a Russian capsule back to Earth in the midst of deepening tensions between the countries. Read story

NASA astronaut Kayla Barron, a graduate of Richland High in Eastern Washington, center, answers questions during a news conference with astronauts Tom Marshburn, left, and Raja Chari after they arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. The mission with a crew of four astronauts will launch aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A early Sunday morning to the International Space Station.

Richland astronaut ready for her 2nd spacewalk. 1st was ‘awesome’

March 14, 2022, 7:59am Northwest

NASA’s astronaut from Richland called her first spacewalk “awesome,” and now she’s preparing for a repeat. Read story