Most Emailed Science News

BEIJING (AFP) - Chinese meteorologists covered Beijing in snow Sunday after seeding clouds to bring winter weather to the capital in an effort to combat a lingering drought, state media reported.

When they do their thing, female Chinese fruit bats add oral sex to get the males to prolong the act, scientists now find, suggesting the behavior confers evolutionary benefits.

WASHINGTON - The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain's white peak — made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway — is rapidly melting, researchers report.

Circle Nov. 17 on your calendar, for early that morning a moderate to possibly very strong showing of annual Leonid meteor shower is likely.

A new panoramic image of the full night sky — with the Milky Way as its centerpiece — has been made by piecing together 3,000 individual photographs.

A husband and wife team of paleontologists has discovered a newfound species of armored dinosaur that lived 112 million years ago in what is now Montana.

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - The mysterious people who etched the "Nasca Lines" across deserts in Peru hastened their own demise by clearing forests 1,500 years ago, according to a study on Monday.

NASA's Mars rover Spirit is suffering a new bout of amnesia, one that comes after months of being stuck in deep Martian sand.

WASHINGTON - Independent health advisers begin monitoring safety of the swine flu vaccine on Monday, an extra step the government promised in this year's unprecedented program to watch for possible side effects.

CHICAGO - An international group of scientists has decoded the DNA of the domestic pig, research that may one day prove useful in finding new treatments for both pigs and people, and perhaps aid in efforts for a new swine flu vaccine for pigs.

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

OMUTA, Japan (AFP) - Swathes of dirty clouds brood over a coal plant in rural Japan, but scientists are now hoping to send the pollutants the other way, deep into the bowels of Mother Earth.

It's no secret the stress of work can keep you up at nights. Now research shows that retirement can spur less fitful sleep, at least for people who are financially stable.

There's a special treat waiting for you this Halloween.

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

CHICAGO (AFP) - The two man-eating lions of Tsavo which terrorized a railroad camp in Kenya and have inspired three Hollywood films may not have been as deadly as legend would have it, a study published Monday has found.

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.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An oil rig burned uncontrollably off Australia Monday as officials warned the massive blaze could not be contained until they plug a leak which has gushed tonnes of crude over the past 10 weeks.

In the arachnid version of trying to get some, male suitors of a female cannibalistic spider must perform a 100-minute-long dance on the gal's web lest they be eaten before copulation is complete.

PARIS (AFP) - The European Space Agency on Monday launched a water tracking satellite that will help give faster predictions of floods and other extreme weather incidents caused by global warming.

Japan's first unmanned space cargo ship cast off from the International Space Station Friday as it nears the end of a successful maiden voyage.

WASHINGTON - The nightly attacks by two man-eating lions terrified railway workers and brought construction to a halt in one of east Africa's most notorious onslaughts more than a hundred years ago. But the death toll, scientists now say, wasn't as high as previously thought.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - European palm oil buyers who are refusing to purchase expensive eco-friendly palm oil were named and shamed Monday by environmental campaigners WWF International.

Silken spider webs dating back some 140 million years have been discovered preserved in amber, scientists announce today.

Once every 15 years, Saturn's ring system is plunged into a four-day-long night, throwing the orbiting dust particles into startling relief.

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?

Each year at Halloween, parents have concerns about trick-or-treating, and many believe that a danger far graver than chocolate overdose awaits their children in quiet neighborhoods: sex offenders.

PARIS (AFP) - Leaders from nine major faiths meet at Windsor Castle on Tuesday in an exceptional initiative that supporters predict will harness the power of religion in the fight against climate change.

NASA engineers still aren't sure what went wrong with a pair of parachutes that failed during Wednesday's Ares I-X rocket test flight, causing damage to the spent booster when it splashed into the Atlantic Ocean harder than planned.

CARACAS (AFP) - Residents of the Venezuelan capital face cuts in water service for as much as 48 hours per week, after the government imposed rationing to stem a 25 percent shortfall in the city's supply, officials said Monday.