Science News

Showers and thunderstorms were expected in Florida and parts of the Southeast Coast on Saturday.

MANILA (AFP) - Tropical storm Halong gained strength as it approached the northern Philippines and was expected to hit land late Saturday, the government weather station said.

YANGON (Reuters) - Torrential rain lashed survivors of Cyclone Nargis on Friday as Myanmar's junta raised its toll sharply to more than 133,000 people dead or missing, putting the disaster on a par with a 1991 cyclone that killed 143,000 in neighboring Bangladesh.

NEW ORLEANS - A former Army Corps of Engineers consultant and a dirt subcontractor were indicted Thursday on bribery charges stemming from an investigation into levee work after Hurricane Katrina.

NEW ORLEANS - The state will take over an effort to collect grant money from Hurricane Katrina victims who got too much, citing a lack of confidence in a private contractor's ability to determine who owes money, a Louisiana official said Thursday.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed the arrival of a new Russian cargo ship filled with fresh food, water and other vital supplies Friday after a flawless orbital rendezvous.

MOSCOW (AFP) - A Russian Progress M-64 cargo ship docked Saturday with the International Space Station, the Interfax news agency reported.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A Russian supply ship docked to the international space station on Friday, delivering more than 2 tons of food, water, equipment and scientific experiments.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Astronomers are puzzled by the discovery of a pulsar with an unusual orbit never before seen in similar fast-spinning neutron stars that beam regular pulses of radio waves.

The meandering poles of Jupiter's moon Europa etched tell-tale scars across the satellite's icy surface, a new study finds.

BEIJING (AFP) - An American tourist who survived China's deadly earthquake says he is not only lucky to be alive -- he had a "surreal" experience of sharing the moment with giant pandas.

LONDON (AFP) - The world's wildlife populations have reduced by around a quarter since the 1970s, according to a major report published Friday by the WWF conservation organization.

WASHINGTON - Put at risk by global warming, the polar bear is getting a life line: The government has declared it a threatened species in need of increased protection. But another round of legal battles surrounding the majestic animal may be just beginning.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government has listed polar bears as a threatened species owing to a drastic reduction in Arctic sea ice, but insisted the step did not mark a policy shift to attack global warming.

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department declared the polar bear a threatened species Wednesday because of the loss of Arctic sea ice but also cautioned the decision should not be viewed as a path to address global warming.

The sun bounces up and down as it roams the Milky Way, and such wavering might have hurled showers of comets Earth's way that caused mass extinctions, including the one that killed the dinosaurs, a new study claims.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - A senior U.S. Homeland Security official is in Argentina to discuss money laundering, human trafficking — and dinosaur eggs.

Fossil microbes found along an iron-rich river in Spain reveal how signs of life could be preserved in minerals found on Mars. The discovery may help to equip the next generation Mars rover with the tools it would need to find evidence of past life on the planet.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scraps of protein from the bones of a 68 million-year-old dinosaur and a mastodon carcass confirm their places in the family tree of life on Earth, researchers reported on Thursday.

Tyrannosaurus rex just got a firm grip on the animal kingdom's family tree, right next to chickens and ostriches. New analyses of soft tissue from a T.rex leg bone re-confirm that birds are dinosaurs' closest living relatives.

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea's parliament on Friday passed a law to regulate research into cloning, following a scandal in which a now-disgraced expert claimed to have made the first human clone stem cells.

PARIS (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy's government suffered a setback on Tuesday as lawmakers unexpectedly threw out a controversial bill on genetically-modified (GM) crops.

NEW YORK - News that scientists have for the first time genetically altered a human embryo is drawing fire from some watchdog groups that say it's a step toward creating "designer babies."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An experimental gene therapy treatment appears to have helped eight children with a rare and incurable neurological disorder, although it may have been responsible for the death of one, researchers reported on Tuesday.

MANILA (AFP) - With food prices hitting record highs the jury is still out in Asia as to whether genetically modified crops hold the key to future food security.

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that a hike in oil output by Saudi Arabia would not solve American energy problems.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is halting shipments to its strategic oil reserve for the second half of the year after Congress passed a bill calling for the suspension, the Energy Department said Friday.

WASHINGTON - Responding to congressional pressure, the Bush administration on Friday said it is suspending oil deliveries into the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the remainder of the year.

WASHINGTON - Congress responded speedily to voters' angst over rising grocery prices and $4-a-gallon gasoline Thursday, bucking President Bush's veto threats with lopsided votes to boost food stamps and farm subsidies — after ordering Bush to quit pouring oil into the nation's emergency reserves.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Crude oil prices were slightly higher in Asian trade on Wednesday despite a forecast for slower energy demand growth, analysts said.

As gay couples celebrate their newfound right to marry in California and opposition groups rally to fight the ruling, many struggle with this question: Is homosexuality natural?

WASHINGTON - While carbon dioxide has been getting lots of publicity in climate change, reactive forms of nitrogen are also building up in the environment, scientists warn.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Astronomers are puzzled by the discovery of a pulsar with an unusual orbit never before seen in similar fast-spinning neutron stars that beam regular pulses of radio waves.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers are baffled after finding an exotic type of star called a pulsar apparently locked in an elongated orbit around a star much like the sun -- an arrangement defying what had been known about such objects.

Potentially toxic computer waste could instead wind up fueling your car one day.