Rare red auroras dazzle as part of Manitoba light show

Solar storm chasers, rejoice: 2025 was an excellent year for aurora borealis, and the remainder of the year could be just as active.

US takes a stake in another company, this one is operating a massive lithium mine in Nevada

The U.S. government is taking a minority stake in Lithium Americas, a company that is developing one of the world’s largest lithium mines in northern Nevada.

The Department of Energy will take a 5% equity stake in the miner, which is based in Vancouver. It will also take a 5% stake in the Thacker Pass lithium mining project, a joint venture with General Motors.

Thacker Pass is considered crucial in reducing U.S. reliance on China for lithium, a critical material used to produce the high tech batteries used in cell phones, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Both Republicans and Democrats support the project and narrowing the production gap. China is the world’s largest lithium processor.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement that the deal with Lithium Americas “helps reduce our dependence on foreign adversaries for critical minerals by strengthening domestic supply chains and ensures better stewardship of American taxpayer dollars.”

Another subdivision, another city problem

So, here we go again folks. We just get the protection of the Lemay Forest done and dusted and bingo, there’s another proposed subdivision for 23 homes on two-acre flood plain lots right across the Red River from the Lemay on the old Daman Farm site.

Endangered pink river dolphins face a rising mercury threat in the Amazon

PUERTO NARINO, Colombia (AP) — A flash of pink breaks the muddy surface of the Amazon River as scientists and veterinarians, waist-deep in the warm current, patiently work a mesh net around a pod of river dolphins. They draw it tighter with each pass, and a spray of silver fish glistens under the harsh sun as they leap to escape the net.

When the team hauls a dolphin into a boat, it thrashes as water streams from its pink-speckled sides and the crew quickly ferries it to the sandy riverbank where adrenaline-charged researchers lift it onto a mat. They have 15 minutes — the limit for how long a dolphin can safely be out of the water — to complete their work.

Fernando Trujillo, a marine biologist leading the effort, kneels beside the animal’s head, shielding its eye with a small cloth so it can’t see what’s happening. He rests his hand gently on the animal and speaks in low tones.

“They’ve never felt the palm of a hand. We try to calm them,” said Trujillo, sporting a pink dolphin bandana. “Taking a dolphin out of the water, it’s a kind of abduction.”

Researchers solve decades-old color mystery in iconic Jackson Pollock painting

NEW YORK (AP) — Scientists have identified the origins of the blue color in one of Jackson Pollock's paintings with a little help from chemistry, confirming for the first time that the abstract expressionist used a vibrant, synthetic pigment known as manganese blue.

“Number 1A, 1948,” showcases Pollock's classic style: paint has been dripped and splattered across the canvas, creating a vivid, multicolored work. Pollock even gave the piece a personal touch, adding his handprints near the top.

The painting, currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is almost 9 feet (2.7 meters) wide. Scientists had previously characterized the reds and yellows splattered across the canvas, but the source of the rich turquoise blue proved elusive.

In a new study, researchers took scrapings of the blue paint and used lasers to scatter light and measure how the paint's molecules vibrated. That gave them a unique chemical fingerprint for the color, which they pinpointed as manganese blue.

Residents pour cold water on proposed development in St. Vital

Some south St. Vital residents hope to stop a development proposal to build 23 new homes over fears the construction would put their well water at risk.

The proposal aims to add the homes at 45 Daman Farm Rd., 100 Jean Louis Rd. and 2974 St. Mary’s Rd., a 57-acre property on the west side of St. Mary’s Road in the St. Vital Perimeter South neighbourhood. The area is located within city limits but does not have city water and sewer service.

“This particular property lies in a sensitive groundwater area and every well that’s drilled in this area just contaminates the water even further by adding more salt,” said Michelle Olivson, who lives in the area.

City staff recommended the housing application be rejected over the groundwater concerns but city council’s property and development committee voted in favour of the project Friday, echoing a previous community committee vote.

U of M chemist earns award for work on new drug candidate for treating Lou Gehrig’s disease

A University of Manitoba PhD candidate with a dramatic life story has been awarded the Mitacs Innovation Award for co-inventing an aspiring new drug candidate for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, announced Monday.

“I thought, like, it’s a spam call. Then someone told me that, ‘You have been selected for the (award),’ so I was numb for 10 to 20 seconds,” says medicinal chemist Nitesh Sanghai, currently pursuing a doctorate at the U of M’s college of pharmacy under the supervision of Prof. Geoffrey K. Tranmer.

Sanghai doesn’t talk about “rags to riches” but instead “grass to grace” in describing his trajectory. The 43-year-old from Jharia, a small town in the Jharkhand district of India, says he was the first person in his family to pass India’s Grade 10 board examination, a gateway to further secondary and post-secondary education.

“I thought of breaking the cycle and pursuing studies with passion and privilege, which my family never had,” he says.

New findings by NASA Mars rover provide strongest hints yet of potential signs of ancient life

NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance has uncovered rocks in a dry river channel that may hold potential signs of ancient microscopic life, scientists reported Wednesday.

Takeaways from a hunt for ‘secret’ fresh water under the North Atlantic seabed

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — It turns out the Continental Shelf has been holding a secret from the ages. Beneath the sea floor off the U.S. northeast lies an enormous reserve of fresh water whose existence was long unknown, then was suspected and now is confirmed.

The first global expedition to drill systematically for undersea fresh water has come away with thousands of samples of it. And this comes as rising sea levels and other harms from a warming climate threaten freshwater supplies on land.

Expedition 501, a $25 million collaboration of more than a dozen countries including the U.S., drilled 20 to 30 miles (30 to 50 kilometers) off the coast into what is now believed to be a freshwater reserve stretching from New Jersey to Maine. It's just one of many prospective depositories of fresh water hiding under shallow salt waters around the world that might some day be tapped to slake the planet’s intensifying thirst.

Associated Press journalists visited the drilling platform last month, some seven hours out to sea by supply boat from Fall River, Massachusetts, to view the operation. Here are some takeaways:

Scientists tap ‘secret’ fresh water under the ocean, raising hopes for a thirsty world

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — Deep in Earth's past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern United States. Nearly 50 years ago, a U.S. government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see what it could find.

It found, of all things, drops to drink under the briny deeps — fresh water.

This summer, a first-of-its-kind global research expedition followed up on that surprise. Drilling for fresh water under the salt water off Cape Cod, Expedition 501 extracted thousands of samples from what is now thought to be a massive, hidden aquifer stretching from New Jersey as far north as Maine.

It's just one of many depositories of “secret fresh water” known to exist in shallow salt waters around the world that might some day be tapped to slake the planet’s intensifying thirst, said Brandon Dugan, the expedition's co-chief scientist.