A University of Hamburg-led study maps urban flood risk building by building, combining hazard, exposure and social vulnerability such as age, income and education. It finds flood-prone areas do not always match the most socially vulnerable ones, and the freely available data can support adaptation planning in other cities.

— via Phys.org

A modeling study in Cell Reports Sustainability suggests that treating PFAS results below minimum reporting levels as zero captures only 44% of the average concentration of 25 PFAS across 9,991 community water systems. The model puts the six regulated PFAS average at 5.2 ng/L versus 2.6 ng/L, though the authors stress these are predictions, not proof of health risk.

— via Phys.org

A study led by Ern Wong with TU Darmstadt finds that sensation seekers differ both in how much they value strong stimuli and in how they react to uncertainty about when stimulation occurs. Impulsive people showed the opposite pattern, avoiding uncertain stimuli more.

— via Phys.org

Autumn shifts mating biology across species: humans see a testosterone rise that leads to more conceptions in November and December, red deer begin the rut, walruses revert to same-sex pairings, and hydra, coral gobies and northern shrimp alter reproduction or sex with the season.

— via Phys.org

Research with three flood action groups in northwestern England, based on 17 interviews and five years of observation, finds residents distrust resilience messaging. They see it as shifting responsibility from institutions onto citizens, and want investment and accountability instead.

— via Phys.org

Anthropic launched OSS Scanner, a free opt-in service that sends maintainers of critical open-source projects security reports generated by its models without human review. Anthropic says it produced over 29,000 candidate vulnerabilities, and maintainers such as wolfSSL and curl have confirmed valid findings, including a curl CVE, though some severity ratings were inflated.

— via InfoQ, Matt Saunders

Rep. Ilhan Omar says she will leave her Washington, D.C., home, which federal agents searched last week, because the attention has left her feeling unsafe. Authorities are reportedly probing possible fraud in her family's immigration paperwork, and she says she did nothing wrong.

— via PBS NewsHour, Hannah Schoenbaum, Associated Press

A court filing by Christa Pike's attorney describes about 10 needles and nearly an hour of attempts to place IVs before her failed Sept. 30 Tennessee execution, with team members voicing fears that veins had blown. She complained of burning arm pain and was later hospitalized after surviving two pentobarbital doses.

— via PBS NewsHour, Rebecca Boone, Associated Press

Montreal-based Bombardier is putting US$270 million into the first phase of a U.S. expansion, planning 800 hires in Kansas, Texas, Indiana and Connecticut. CEO Eric Martel cited talks with the U.S. administration, days after Trump dropped a threat to ban its plane sales.

— via iPolitics, The Canadian Press

A Pew-Knight Initiative survey conducted June 22-28, 2026 finds 58% of U.S. adults call social media an important way to keep up with news, up from 43% in 2022, with 13% naming it the most important source. Younger adults rely on it far more: 76% of those 18 to 29, versus 41% of those 65 and older.

— via Pew Research, Beshay Sakla

The essay traces how Chief Justice John Roberts steadily dismantled Humphrey’s Executor through a trilogy of removal-power cases, culminating in Trump v. Slaughter, which lets the president unilaterally fire leaders of nearly all independent agencies.

— via SCOTUSblog, Rodger Citron

Boom Supersonic plans a $150 million, 200,000-square-foot factory near Centennial Airport to build 42-megawatt natural gas turbines for data centers, hiring 500 people. The company is prioritizing turbines over its supersonic jet, with first shipments expected by mid 2027.

— via Colorado Sun, Tamara Chuang

The Prime of Your Life, at Marc Straus Gallery in New York, brings together 18 women artists over 75 in varied media. The review uses Linda Nochlin's idea of late style to ask what "prime" means when recognition and market validation come late, citing Marina Abramovic's photograph as an example.

— via Hyperallergic, Leah Triplett Harrington

In a world where SSDs with up to 256TB capacity are about to enter the scene to compete against hard disk drives that store over 40TB, magnetic tape storage may seem archaic. However, the 25-year-old Linear Tape-Open (LTO) format continues to evolve at a rather impressive pace.

The current LTO-10 generation stores up to 40TB of uncompressed data per cartridge, while HPE, IBM, and Quantum — the companies behind the LTO Program — now envision LTO-14 cartridges with up to 365TB of native capacity. But capacity is not the only advantage of LTO. In fact, the consortium has deliberately slowed its capacity roadmap in a bid to prioritize reliability, cost per terabyte, and manageable backup and recovery times over the previous goal of doubling capacity with every generation.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will stage the first posthumous museum show for Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, the designer behind Sea Ranch supergraphics, from January 16 to July 11, 2027. Curated by Martin Strickland, it draws on newly accessible archive material and centers on how California shaped her work.

— via Hoodline, Eric Tanaka

American Canyon's council is considering cutting its 1.8% share of the $6.8 billion Sites Reservoir project to about 1%, since city water use fell 39% since 2014. The $177 million commitment would be financed over time, with a final decision due December 15.

— via Hoodline, Emily Johnson

University of Warwick-led researchers modeled 151 white dwarfs within 20 parsecs and found five, about 3.3 percent, glowing yellow or pink rather than white. Dense atmospheres with elements such as carbon appear to shift their colors, defying the simple blackbody picture.

— via Universe Today, Laurence Tognetti, MSc

A Napa County jury convicted Amador Solano on multiple counts, including first-degree burglary and sexual penetration by a foreign object, over a June 20, 2024 home invasion in which he assaulted a woman in her shower. The victim fought him off and testified at trial; his next court date is November 17.

— via Hoodline, Eileen Vargas

Scott Wiener and Connie Chan, the congressional candidates in CA-11, answer whether they would expand work visas and green card pathways. Both say yes; Wiener stresses long green card waits, while Chan wants fair wages, labor protections and freedom to change employers.

— via Mission Local, Yujie Zhou