Most Emailed Science News

With the upcoming disaster film "2012" and the current hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, it seems like a good time to put such notions in context.

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.

A gigantic, previously unknown set of galaxies has been found in the distant universe, shedding light on the underlying skeleton of the cosmos.

The small earthquakes that sporadically rattle the central United States may actually be aftershocks from a few extremely large quakes that occurred in the region almost 200 years ago, according to a new study

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

The world's largest cruise ship is making its first transatlantic crossing from Finland to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where it will make its U.S. debut. Though colossal, the ship relies on the same physical principles as its smaller brethren to stay afloat.

LONDON (Reuters) - A growing storm of debris flying around in space is dramatically increasing the risk of orbital crashes, and steps to avoid them will add greatly to the costs of future space flight, British space experts say.

The ancient South American Nasca civilization may have caused its own demise by clear-cutting huge swaths of forest, a new study has found.

GENEVA (AFP) - More than 1,000 freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction, reflecting the strain on global water resources, an updated global "Red List" of endangered species showed Tuesday.

Striking new photos of water-vapor geysers erupting from Saturn's moon Enceladus were beamed to Earth this week by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around the ringed planet.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two man-eating lions terrorized Kenya during the building of a railroad bridge over the Tsavo River in the late 19th century, but only one was making regular meals of human prey, researchers said on Monday.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - A laser-powered machine has zipped thousands of feet up a cable dangling from a helicopter in a competition to develop space elevator technology.

Eating meals on the go may be unwise for those wanting to lose weight. New research reveals that scarfing down a lot of food, quickly, curbs the release of certain gut hormones that make you feel full.

Spanning just 10 feet in length and sporting a tiny horn on its nose, a newly identified dinosaur has become the oldest known relative of the fierce meat-eater, Tyrannosaurus rex. The discovery suggests such tyrannosaurs were quite petite before they evolved into giant killing machines just before their demise.

A crowd of consumer gadgets such as cell phones and wireless devices may overwhelm the small band of scientists straining to detect faint radio emissions from offbeat sources ranging from hurricanes here to galaxies in the distant cosmos.

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.

SANTIAGO (AFP) - Astronomers in Chile and Japan have for the first time seen part of the "cosmic web" of galaxies that permeates the known universe in a gigantic assembly some seven billion light-years from Earth.

A NASA spacecraft has spotted what appears to be changing seasons on Mercury and found much more iron on the surface of the small, rocky planet than previously thought.

A California-based team of engineers has snagged a $1 million NASA prize by winning a pitched competition to fly homemade rockets on mock moon landing missions.

The supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, one of the youngest in our galaxy and one that has long puzzled astronomers, is likely a dense type of star called a neutron star swathed in a carbon atmosphere, a new study finds.

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.

ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Volcanic activity may split the African continent in two owing to a recent geological crack in northeastern Ethiopia, researchers said on Tuesday.

Add one more insult to the injury of working the night shift: Drinking coffee during work hours may just keep you awake during the day.

WASHINGTON — Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has requested a Feb. 2 launch date for the maiden flight of its new Falcon 9 rocket, according to a recent launch range forecast issued by the U.S. Air Force's 45th Space Wing.

GENEVA - A rare Panamanian tree frog, a rodent from Madagascar and two lizards found only in the Philippines are among over 17,000 species threatened with extinction, a leading environmental group said Tuesday.

Great white sharks tend to patrol specific neighborhoods for weeks on end, a new study finds.

ST. LOUIS - Archer Daniels Midland Co. said Tuesday that its first-quarter profit tumbled 53 percent as the global recession dragged down demand for crops and ethanol, but demand is improving in some key markets.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Scientists pointed the finger on Wednesday at Southeast Asian countries for draining wetlands for palm oil and cheap timber production, warning the practice was stoking dangerous global warming.

If human teenagers seem terrible at times, be thankful we don't have young tyrannosaurs to deal with.

LONDON (AFP) - The X-ray was on Wednesday named the most important modern scientific achievement in a poll conducted for the Science Museum, beating Apollo spacecraft and DNA.