Science News

A Pacific storm system that pounded the West Coast earlier this week will progress eastward on Wednesday, bringing snow to parts of the Rockies and rain to other areas in the country's midsection.

LONDON - More than two-thirds of the world's large cities are in areas vulnerable to global warming and rising sea levels, and millions of people are at risk of being swamped by flooding and intense storms, according to a new study released Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday approved a two-year extension of a program offering tax credits for construction of low-income housing in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A 90-year-old woman whose mobile home was flattened when tornadoes swept through the state over the weekend died of her injuries Tuesday, becoming the storm's only known fatality.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has called for a treaty to stop the spread of weapons in outer space, state media reported on Wednesday, two months after it blew up an aging weather satellite, prompting fears about its own space plans.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Russia will mount a joint effort to explore Mars and one of its moons in 2009, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday following an agreement to boost cooperation between the two ambitious space powers.

The delay of NASA's next space shuttle flight has thrown a monkey wrench into plans to return a U.S. astronaut home from the International Space Station (ISS), mission managers said Tuesday.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) discarded an unmanned cargo ship packed full of trash Tuesday as they ready the orbital laboratory to welcome a new crew.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronaut Sunita Williams is stuck in space — at least temporarily. She flew up to the international space station last December planning to come home in early July after a seven-month stay.

TOKYO (AFP) - A Greenpeace ship that protested Japan's controversial Antarctic whaling hunt was on Wednesday barred entry to Tokyo Bay after opposition from the sailors union.

MIAMI - Animal rights advocates praised Burger King for its new commitment to begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that do not keep their animals in cages or crates.

BANGALORE (AFP) - Film footage showing dozens of lifeless dogs being dumped in a pit outside India's hi-tech hub of Bangalore after being poisoned has outraged animal rights activists.

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department is considering a broad revamping of how it protects animals and plants in danger of extinction, including changes that critics contend will reduce the number of species that will be saved.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin Zoo denied media allegations on Tuesday that Knut the celebrity polar bear cub was responsible for the sudden demise of one of its older attractions, a 22-year-old panda who was found dead in her cage.

NEW YORK - The skull of a large carnivorous dinosaur and the tusk of a shaggy-coated mammoth from the Ice Age sold for a combined $372,000 at a natural history auction Sunday, auction officials said.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - In a makeover of extraordinary proportions, scientists have dismantled a 75-foot-long sauropod dinosaur that roamed Wyoming 150 million years ago and will rebuild it to reflect the latest paleontological research findings.

The fossil of an ancient amphibious reptile with a crocodile's body and a fish's tail has been unearthed in Oregon. Scientists believe the creature's remains were transported by geologic processes nearly 5,000 miles away from where it originally died more than 100 million years ago.

PARIS (AFP) - Fossil hunters have found the remains of small dinosaurs that made their home in a burrow, a finding which implies the reptiles that once ruled the world could exploit a much wider habitat than thought.

An ancient arboreal lizard coasted through the air using a wing-like membrane stretched across elongated ribs, a new fossil reveals.

NEW ORLEANS (AFP) - Doctors have rejuvenated post-heart attack patients by injecting them with stem cells, said two studies released Sunday.

SAN FRANCISCO - It was nearly a decade ago that Jose Cibelli plugged his own DNA into a cow's egg in a novel cloning attempt that was condemned as unethical by President Clinton and landed the Michigan State University researcher in a mess of controversy.

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva eased rules on importing genetically modified agricultural organisms, the official news agency said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered a genetic mutation linked with colon cancer that may work like a spigot, controlling the number of precancerous growths that develop and determining a person's susceptibility to cancer.

WASHINGTON - Federal health officials used a flawed analysis when they gave preliminary approval to food from cloned animals, a consumer group charged Wednesday.

BEIJING (AFP) - The Chinese government has blasted local officials for setting a bad example in energy conservation with their luxurious office buildings, state media reported Wednesday.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Chinese President Hu Jintao meets Wednesday with the leader of Russia's energy-rich Tatarstan region, one day after signing four billion dollars' worth of trade deals on his visit focusing on securing new energy sources.

MOSCOW (AFP) - China and Russia signed four billion dollars' worth of trade deals on Tuesday during a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao focused on securing new energy sources.

LONDON (AFP) - British oil firm Cairn Energy said on Tuesday that it dived into the red in 2006 with a net loss of 41 million pounds (82 million dollars) after downgrading energy reserves estimates at its Sangu field in Bangladesh.

LONDON (AFP) - Oil firm Cairn Energy said Tuesday that it made a net loss of 41 million pounds (82 million dollars) in 2006 after downgrading the energy reserves estimates at its Sangu field in Bangladesh.

DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a "monster" toad the size of a small dog.

Remains from a 95-million-year-old marine creature with nubs for legs is clarifying how some lizards shed their limbs as they crept through evolutionary time and morphed into slinky snakes.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - There's an old joke about the number of people it takes to change a light bulb. But because the newer energy-efficient kinds contain tiny amounts of mercury, the hard part is getting rid of them when they burn out.

NEW YORK – It’s been years since NASA last heard from either of its two Pioneer probes hurtling out of the solar system, but scientists are still debating the source of an odd force pushing against the outbound spacecraft.

CHILIKA LAGOON, India (Reuters) - Hope is rising the endangered Irrawaddy dolphin can be saved in India after a survey showed more of the animals than before in a vast, brackish lagoon in the east of the country.