Most Recommended Science News

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama sought to boost hopes of a landmark deal at the Copenhagen climate summit, as a new report showed the crisis facing the planet is deeper than previously thought.

BEIJING (AFP) - China called on the European Union Tuesday to step up cooperation on climate change, saying global warming would be at the top of the agenda at next week's China-EU summit.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Ships are on alert and maritime authorities are monitoring the movements of hundreds of menacing icebergs drifting toward New Zealand in the southern Pacific Ocean, officials said.

Internet security and climate change had a surprising run-in last week, as thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit wound up on climate-skeptic web sites. The University says it is cooperating with police and launching its own investigation into how the emails wound up online.

Junk Science: The Senate expects to take up global warming legislation by spring, but nothing more should happen in Congress on this issue until there's been a thorough probe of the ClimateGate scandal.

ST. PAUL, Minn. - A push to scrap a Minnesota law barring new nuclear power plants gained a pair of influential supporters Tuesday, adding intensity to a debate before a state Legislature that has narrowly resisted the change.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A Democratic candidate for agriculture commissioner has a response to Republican calls to "Drill, Baby, Drill."

Knowledge is power, unless that knowledge comes with so much baggage that it becomes crippling. Such is the trouble with many cancer and health screening tests.

A new solar telescope, scheduled to launch this winter, will probe the sun's atmosphere and inner workings, helping scientists better understand how solar storms.

In the chronicles of UFO oddness, there's been a long-standing oddity – some say folklore, others deem it reality. This saga, now over four decades old, centers on a reported out-of-the-sky incident involving the small town of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.

Scientists have long suspected that smoking increased the risk that a transplanted heart would be rejected. Now they have a smoking gun.

More brains doesn't necessarily equal more smarts, a new comparison of animal noggins reveals.

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is continuing its crackdown on coal pollution with a new plan to cut sulfur dioxide — a move that would clean up the air for millions of Americans and bring some relief to people who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases.

LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County leaders responding to the summer's destructive Station Fire voted Tuesday to urge the U.S. Forest Service to allow helicopters to battle wildfires at night.

A new website will let people play a form of "cosmic slot machine," matching up images of colliding galaxies with millions of simulated mash-ups to find the best model.

MONTPELIER, Vt. - Maine and Vermont are moving ahead of other states on regulating pollution in storm water running off roofs and parking lots, which often carries oil and other toxic substances.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Quebec said on Monday it aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, the same target as that set by the European Union.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station early Wednesday, headed home with one astronaut eager to hold his newborn daughter for the first time and another who's been away from her young son since the summer.

GENEVA - The world's largest atom smasher used its accelerator Tuesday to speed up proton beams for the first time as scientists moved ahead in efforts to learn more about the universe.

BEIJING - A panda research center in northwestern China has been closed to visitors as a precaution to protect the endangered species from catching swine flu, state media reported on Tuesday.

MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii - The readings at this 2-mile-high station show a troubling upward curve as the world counts down to crucial climate talks: Global warming gases are building in the atmosphere at record levels from emissions that match scientists' worst-case scenarios.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday that the emerging economy was ready to do more on climate change if developed nations make financial commitments.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will announce a target for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions before the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, removing a major obstacle to a deal, officials have said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Humanity would need five Earths to produce the resources needed if everyone lived as profligately as Americans, according to a report issued Tuesday.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia's opposition leader Tuesday pledged his party's support for contentious legislation proposed by the government aimed at curbing the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

STRASBOURG, France - The United States should be ready to spell out its long-term vision for reducing carbon emissions over the next two decades, not just until 2020, the European Union said Tuesday.

A tiny chameleon species with a scaly horn atop its snout and blue dots on its limbs has been discovered in Tanzanian forests.

CANBERRA (AFP) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urged parliament Tuesday to approve legislation aiming to slash carbon pollution by up to 25 percent by 2020 ahead of next month's global talks on climate change.