Six years ago, Illinois became the second state in the nation to offer subsidies to farmers for planting cover crops in the fall, an effort to reverse its status as one of the worst states for agriculture runoff.

Participating vendors at Saturday’s Trash Bash will be accepting everything from electronics and expired prescription drugs to musical instruments and eyeglasses.

The U.S. needs more publicly funded research and development on agriculture to offset the effects of climate change, according to a paper out in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this month. But instead the U.S. has been investing less. 

A newly identified parasitic wasp that buzzed and flew among dinosaurs 99 million years ago evolved a bizarre mechanism to snare other creatures and force them to unwittingly shelter its young, according to new research.

San Francisco-based 23andMe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday and said it would pursue a sale, after years of struggling to find a sustainable business model. That means the company — and the genetic information of its 15 million customers — will likely soon be up for grabs to the highest bidder.

Fermilab received near-failing federal grades in its annual report card following a tumultuous year of budget mismanagement, safety concerns and leadership turnover. Whistleblower reports highlighted serious problems at the premier physics facility before its management contractor took over in January.

"Unofficial" trails were damaging rare ecosystems in Swallow Cliff Woods. The forest preserve district asked people to stick to marked paths and the message succeeded.

A new notification system is being proposed at access points along the Chicago River to warn recreational users when untreated wastewater has entered the waterway.

The images and other information released Wednesday by the European Space Agency’s Euclid observatory includes a preview of three cosmic areas that the mission will spy in finer detail, mapping the shapes and locations of galaxies billions of light years away.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the forecast for Chicago includes a chance of almost anything and everything: rain, thunderstorms, wind and even snow.

A group of microscopic sunflower sea star larva arrived at Shedd Aquarium last year and have been bulking up behind the scenes ever since. Now, after growing 16,000%, they’re ready to make their public debut.

A high wind warning is in effect for Chicago through noon on Saturday, with the potential to bring down trees and power lines, according to the National Weather Service.

This week’s lunar eclipse will be the first witnessed in high-def from the moon itself — technically a solar eclipse on the moon — thanks to a lunar lander. “I cannot wait for this to happen,” said astronomer Michelle Nichols of Adler Planetarium.

The decades-old St. Patrick's Day tradition routinely attracts tens of thousands of revelers to the riverfront, but in recent years it's also attracted criticism from environmentalists.

Brian Gladstein, a long-time Rogers Park resident with an extensive background in nonprofit management, will lead the organization into its 50th year.

The dump — known as a confined disposal facility — was constructed in 1984 to store polluted sediment dredged from the Calumet River and Cal-Sag Channel. When it reached capacity, the initial plan was to top off the 45-acre site and turn it over to the Chicago Park District. Instead, the Army Corps proposed a 22-foot vertical expansion that would extend the dump’s life for another 20 years.