Every Tuesday, our lead climate reporter brings you the big ideas, expert analysis, and vital guidance that will help you flourish on a changing planet. This explainer from The Texas Tribune describes how the architects of the Texas grid made sure it avoided crossing state lines in order to prevent the federal government from regulating it.2. A talking point has developed that the Texas grid shut down because wind turbines iced over.

The 109th edition of the Australian Open tennis tournament is currently underway in Melbourne—despite a five-day COVID-19 lockdown put in place by the state government. Players from all over the world have been competing in empty arenas in the heat of the Australian summer. This week, matches are progressing into the semifinals, with the final day of the tournament coming on February 21. Collected here are some colorful glimpses of the 2021 Australian Open.

In my personal opinion, the greatest coming-of-age story on Earth does not take place in a Dickens novel or a Disney movie, but rather in a white fish at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.The fish in question, called a zoarcid, looks like a creature caught in an identity crisis, too long to be a fish but too short to be an eel, its lips permanently drooping in a sullen pout. Otherwise, the fish has no real reason to be grumpy.

In what is becoming a familiar scene in American higher education, a Chinese-born scientist at a high-profile university was recently arrested for his ties to the Chinese government. About a month ago, Gang Chen, a naturalized American citizen and highly respected professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, was indicted by a grand jury for “failing to disclose contracts, appointments and awards from various entities in the People’s Republic of China.

Anissa Jordan was born in Oakland, California, in 1968, the last of eight children. For years, her mother’s live-in boyfriend beat and molested her and her half sister Althenia. The girls didn’t tell their mother. “It was our secret,” Jordan told me. When Jordan was in fourth grade, Althenia was murdered. The case was never solved.Jordan was held back in school, started acting out, and was sent to juvenile hall.