Most Emailed Science News

PARIS (AFP) - It took 13 billion years to reach Earth, but astronomers have seen the light of an exploding mega-star that is the most distant object ever detected, two studies published Thursday reported.

We're often told, "You should sleep on it" before you make an important decision. Why is that? How does "sleeping on it" help your decision-making process?

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The booster rocket used in a test flight was badly dented when it fell into the Atlantic because of a deflated parachute, NASA said Thursday.

MOSCOW - Russia should build a new nuclear-powered spaceship for prospective manned missions to Mars and other planets, the nation's space chief said Thursday.

Researchers have simulated a mini black hole in the lab, though luckily not the kind that could swallow up the Earth.

LONDON (Reuters) - A molecule found in a curry ingredient can kill esophageal cancer cells in the laboratory, suggesting it might be developed as an anti-cancer treatment, scientists said on Wednesday.

Big orange veggies are pretty strange as far as holiday symbols go, but there are actual historical reasons that we carve pumpkins every Halloween.

LONDON (Reuters) - Tackling just five health factors could prevent millions of premature deaths and increase global life expectancy by almost 5 years, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday.

Some people really are just bad drivers. That's according to new research suggesting individuals born with a certain variant of a gene don't stay on the road as well as their counterparts.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have found a way to coax human embryonic stem cells to turn into the types of cells that make eggs and sperm, shedding light on a stage of early human development that has not been fully understood.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - No need to curse that bad driver weaving in and out of the lane in front of you -- he cannot help it, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

A mass phishing email scheme aims to steal banking information under the guise of the FDIC, just the most recent in a long line of scams, bilking millions from consumers.

Volcanic eruptions were responsible for a deadly ice age 450 million years ago, as well as - in an ironic twist - a period of global warming that preceded it, a new study finds.

GOLDEN, Colo. A space rock explosion earlier this month over an island region of Indonesia is now being viewed as perhaps the biggest object to tangle with the Earth in more than a decade.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers have seen the furthest back in time ever, measuring light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago, just after the dawn of the universe.

NASA's gleaming new Ares I-X rocket grew an odd-looking hood Wednesday as it launched skyward on a suborbital test flight — a telltale sign of a rocket going supersonic.

At times, NASA's attempts to launch a new Ares I-X rocket Tuesday seemed surreal — with bad weather, a stuck sensor sock and a wayward cargo ship offshore appearing to conspire to prevent the booster's liftoff. But believe it or not, there have been stranger things to pop up in NASA's launch history.

On Oct. 29, 1969, UCLA student Charles Kline sent the first message over the ARPANET, the computer network that later became known as the Internet. Though only the "l" and "o" of his message ("login") were successfully transmitted, the interactive exchange ushered in a technological revolution that has - as anyone alive long enough to witness the shift knows - revolutionized human interaction.

Light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago has been detected, becoming the most distant object in the universe ever observed.

There is no shortage of people seeking to turn ghosts into gold and spooks into silver. Hundreds of amateur ghost-hunting groups across the country offer tours of local haunts, allegedly spirit-infested hotels, mansions, cemeteries, and so on.

This Week's Question: When my husband misses his daily BM, he complains that he's constipated. Don't you think that's a bit of an exaggeration?

The skin from your Jack-o'-Lantern could contain a fungus-fighting medicine, according to a new study.

HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S., Cuban and Mexican scientists have drawn up plans for joint research in the Gulf of Mexico, in another sign of improvement in long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned NASA rocket designed to help develop a new space taxi service to the moon streaked through the sky on Wednesday on a successful two-minute test flight.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Men with larger foreskins are more likely to become infected with the AIDS virus, researchers said Wednesday in a finding that helps explain why circumcision can protect men.

PARIS (AFP) - Culture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes, according to a study released Wednesday that compares individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe.

The pitter-patter of little feet running from door to door this Halloween, dressed to the nines in their creepiest costumes sounds, like good old-fashioned fun.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The apparent success of NASA's first test flight of a new experimental moon rocket has the American space agency beaming with joy.

Hundreds of home videos along with thousands of miniature banners have been stowed aboard NASA's first test flight of a rocket designed to replace the space shuttle. Their journey onboard the Ares I-X will be lofted by a booster assembled from parts previously flown on 30 shuttle missions, including the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope.

HONG KONG (AFP) - The live fish facing death in the glass tanks in Hong Kong's famous seafood restaurants tell a strange and haunting tale of a looming global tragedy.