5

  Google has already begun to demolish buildings in a formerly industrial part of town to clear the way  for the first phase of its new transit-oriented neighborhood, which will consist of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, hotel facilities, open spaces, cultural attractions and entertainment hubs. The search giant intends to employ up to 25,000 people in the transit village, officially known as Downtown West, near the Diridon train station and SAP Center. Ahead of the full-fledged start of construction, Google will build an array of infrastructure, including water and sewer lines that are a prerequisite for the first phase of the company’s new neighborhood. Google also plans to build a green energy plant to serve the ambitious development. Big office building projects can easily take 24 to 27 months — potentially more than two years — to be completed, easily taking the completion dates to early or mid-2026. Such a timeframe is so distant that no analysts can credib...

  Japan Meteorological Agency  A zoomed-in view of the eruption, taken by Japan's Himawari -8 satellite on Jan. 15, 2022, about 100 minutes after the eruption started. An island near Tonga that emerged from the ocean in 2015 was teeming with unique life-forms, but the 21st century's largest volcanic eruption completely obliterated it, a new study has revealed. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island emerged from the Pacific Ocean due to volcanic activity in 2014 and 2015. Its short, seven-year existence gave scientists a rare window to study how life develops on new land masses, until the devastating Tonga eruption in 2022 blasted it away. And the scientists were surprised by what they found. Instead of the bacteria families that they expected would first colonize the island, the researchers found a weird group of microbes that likely came from deep underground. The researchers published their findings Jan. 11 in the journal mBio. Related: Scientists find deep-sea bacteria tha...