Most Recommended Science News

LOS ANGELES - A Seattle team has collected a $900,000 prize in a NASA-backed competition to develop the concept of an elevator to space — an idea spurred by science fiction novels.

BEIJING - A Chinese scholar persecuted during the Cultural Revolution for smuggling a rare collection of mushrooms out of China before World War II was honored Saturday when the collection was returned more than 70 years later.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - Finance officials from rich and developing countries pledged Saturday to maintain emergency support for their economies until recovery is assured, but failed to reach a clear agreement to bear the cost of fighting climate change.

WASHINGTON — As an evangelical Christian living in Texas, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe found that many conservatives had questions about climate change based on things they'd heard on talk radio.

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (AFP) - G20 countries committed to work for an "ambitious outcome" at next month's vital UN climate change conference after meeting Saturday, but fell short of agreeing a figure on climate funding.

A small chunk of space trash made an uncomfortably close pass by the International Space Station late Friday, but not close enough to force the astronauts aboard to take shelter in their Russian lifeboats.

The European Alps are both growing and shrinking, with two dynamic processes acting against each other for a net effect of ... nothing.

Editor's Note: This is Part 6 in a 10-part LiveScience series on the origin, evolution and future of the human species and the mysteries that remain to be solved.

ST ANDREWS, Scotland (Reuters) - Britain threw its weight on Saturday behind proposals to impose a global levy on banks to fund future bailouts but failed to make much progress on securing a G20 deal to meet the cost of climate change.

LONDON (AFP) - The country could face a serious energy crisis unless plans to build new nuclear power stations are implemented, the energy secretary revealed in an interview Saturday.

The amount of junk floating in space is getting out of hand and the United States must step up its effort to control orbital trash, experts are saying.

OAKLAND, Calif. - Shell Oil Co. has been ordered to pay $19.5 million to the state for environmental violations at gas stations around California.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Lower-than-feared sea temperatures this summer gave a break to fragile coral reefs across the Caribbean and the central Gulf of Mexico that were damaged in recent years, scientists said Thursday.

BARCELONA, Spain - After two years of tough U.N. climate talks often pitting the world's rich against the poor, negotiators said Friday a new global agreement now rides on industrial nations pledging profound emissions cuts next month in Copenhagen.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - The United States said on Friday it could still present proposals for curbing its carbon emissions at next month's climate change meeting in Copenhagen, even if Congress was still debating global warming legislation.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Asia-Pacific powers including the United States, China and Russia are expected to call next week for sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions on the final countdown to a crunch climate meeting.

LONDON (AFP) - Negotiations ahead of the crucial UN climate talks in Copenhagen are "not going well", Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has warned.

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Sweden's Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, acting as president of the EU, warned Friday of the impact of climate change on India unless a new emissions pact was reached in upcoming UN climate talks.

A new survey has found 22 of the earliest galaxies to form in the universe, confirming the age of one at just 787 million years after the theoretical Big Bang.

In the current atmosphere of heightened concern over the H1N1 virus, the everyday sneeze can trigger fears of totally unrelated hazards, including heart attacks, new research suggests.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Gov. Phil Bredesen says a legislative staff member who attacked a state-backed initiative to turn switchgrass into ethanol is playing politics and endangering chances to land a large investment for East Tennessee.

SINGAPORE (AFP) - Asia-Pacific leaders plan to call for sweeping cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at a summit here next week, according to a draft communique obtained by AFP Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The heads of two key Japanese prefectures called for US troops to toughen environmental protection as a goodwill gesture, as a row over bases brews ahead of President Barack Obama's visit next week.

When scientists search the heavens for habitable worlds beyond Earth, they don't necessarily know what to look for. A new study has found that the most probable place to find intelligent life in the galaxy is around stars with roughly the mass of the sun, and surface temperatures between 5,300 and 6,000 Kelvin (9,100 and 10,300 degrees Fahrenheit) - in fact, stars very similar to our own sun.