Alpine driver Pierre Gasly of France slides off the track during a qualifying session at the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix auto race, Friday, November 21, 2025 in Las Vegas. (Photo by Nick Didlick/AP Photo)

Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)

Jolon Clinton, 15, (L), and her sister, Halcy, 17, take photos of a fissure near their home on the outskirts of Pahoa during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 14, 2018. (Photo by Terray Sylvester/Reuters)

In this July 29, 2021 file photo, the pillars of the massive Rosario-Victoria Bridge are exposed during a drought affecting the Parana River near Rosario, Argentina. At the port city of Santa Fe the river registered a level of 22 centimeters, the lowest in 50 years. (Photo by Victor Caivano/AP Photo/File)

This November 8, 2019, photo provided by John Guillote shows a view from the main lab of the Sikuliaq in the Chukchi Sea. University of Washington scientists onboard the research vessel are studying the changes and how less sea ice will affect coastlines, which already are vulnerable to erosion because increased waves delivered by storms. More erosion would increase the chance of winter flooding in villages and danger to hunters in small boats. (Photo by John Guillote via AP Photo)

A child buys goods from a partially submerged shop in Companiganj of Sylhet district on June 20, 2024. In Sylhet, lashing rain and rivers swollen by flooding upstream in India also swamped heavily populated areas. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP Photo)

“The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) has released the largest-ever three-dimensional map of massive galaxies and distant black holes, which will help astronomers explain the mysterious “dark matter” and “dark energy” that scientists know makes up 96 percent of the Universe”. – SDSS-III