Science Headlines

Study: Orangutan populations declining sharply

AP - Saturday, July 5, 2008 8:49 a.m.

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Orangutan numbers have declined sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn\'t taken, a new study says....

UN chief to G8: climate change, food crisis linked

AP - Friday, July 4, 2008 3:47 p.m.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- The global food crisis will only worsen because of climate change, the U.N. climate chief said Friday, urging leaders of the world\'s richest countries meeting in Japan next week to set goals to reduce carbon emissions within the next dozen years....

Syria returns stolen marble artifact to Iraq

AP - Friday, July 4, 2008 1:49 a.m.

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Syria has returned a marble artifact to Iraq that was stolen from one of the country\'s archaeological sites....

July 4th boaters: Steer clear of NJ dolphin family

AP - Thursday, July 3, 2008 9:57 p.m.

SEA BRIGHT, N.J. (AP) -- Authorities protecting a dolphin family in a New Jersey river are stepping up enforcement over the July Fourth holiday....

Mars lander's next bake test could be its last

AP - Thursday, July 3, 2008 2:05 p.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Phoenix lander\'s first chemical sniff of Martian soil did not turn up any trace of the building blocks of life. Its next whiff could be its last....

Merger of US earth sciences agencies proposed

AP - Thursday, July 3, 2008 2:04 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- From climate change to volcanoes and earthquakes, the world\'s growing challenges have leaders in earth science proposing a merger of agencies that study the planet....

Scientists: Watermelon yields Viagra-like effects

AP - Thursday, July 3, 2008 4:45 a.m.

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- A slice of cool, fresh watermelon is a juicy way to top off a Fourth of July cookout and one that researchers say has effects similar to Viagra - but don\'t necessarily expect it to keep the fireworks all night long....

G-8 climate scorecard shows US in last

AP - Thursday, July 3, 2008 3:24 a.m.

BERLIN (AP) -- The U.S. has done the least among the world\'s eight largest economies to address global warming, a study released Thursday found....

Mass. lobstermen promote practices as whale safe

AP - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 5:59 p.m.

BOSTON (AP) -- New green rubber bands that will bind the claws of Massachusetts lobsters beginning this weekend won\'t save the lobsters from the dinner table. But they signify a state initiative aimed at saving whales....

Washington's boyhood home found, but no hatchet

AP - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 3:02 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington\'s boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet....

First floods, now pesky mosquitoes for Midwest

AP - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 2:52 p.m.

CHICAGO (AP) -- First came the floods - now the mosquitoes. An explosion of pesky insects are pestering clean-up crews and just about anyone venturing outside in the waterlogged Midwest....

Space probes show solar system dented, not round

AP - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 1:07 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When viewed from the rest of the galaxy, the edge of our solar system appears slightly dented as if a giant hand is pushing one edge of it inward, far-traveling NASA probes reveal....

Hot future shock: Heat wave temperatures to soar

AP - Wednesday, July 2, 2008 1:04 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- During the European heat wave of 2003 that killed tens of thousands, the temperature in parts of France hit 104 degrees. Nearly 15,000 people died in that country alone. During the Chicago heat wave of 1995, the mercury spiked at 106 and about 600 people died....

Experts say tourists harming Machu Picchu

AP - Tuesday, July 1, 2008 11:27 a.m.

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- An influx of tourists to Peru\'s famed Inca citadel of Machu Picchu may prompt UNESCO to add the jungle-shrouded ruins to its list of endangered World Heritage sites....

Study finds long benefit in illegal mushroom drug

AP - Tuesday, July 1, 2008 5:59 a.m.

NEW YORK (AP) -- In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project....

Scientists say ailing penguins signal sea problems

AP - Tuesday, July 1, 2008 4:16 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The dwindling march of the penguins is signaling that the world\'s oceans are in trouble, scientists now say. Penguins may be the tuxedo-clad version of a canary in the coal mine, with generally ailing populations from a combination of global warming, ocean oil pollution, depleted fisheries, and tourism and development, according to a new scientific review paper....

Groups seek drilling halt near sage grouse habitat

AP - Tuesday, July 1, 2008 2:56 a.m.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Two conservation groups have asked the federal government to impose new restrictions on oil and gas development in the West to protect the greater sage grouse, a popular game bird on the decline....

Rocky Mountain conservation deal tops $500 million

AP - Monday, June 30, 2008 8:02 p.m.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Some of the most prized land in the northern Rocky Mountains is being protected from development in a conservation land deal hailed as the largest of its kind in U.S. history....

Sea turtle Dylan is released back into the wild

AP - Monday, June 30, 2008 9:46 a.m.

JEKYLL ISLAND, Ga. (AP) -- A 150-pound sea turtle raised by humans returned to freedom on Monday after nine years of captivity, swimming away after the veterinarians who cared for her helped steer her toward the ocean....

Want scientific immortality? Name a sea worm

AP - Monday, June 30, 2008 9:27 a.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jeff Goodhartz is single and has no children. But he wanted to ensure the family name would live on after he\'s gone....

Researchers make noises of pre-Columbian society

AP - Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:13 p.m.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Scientists were fascinated by the ghostly find: a human skeleton buried in an Aztec temple with a clay, skull-shaped whistle in each bony hand....

Great Lakes compact focus shifting to Congress

AP - Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:05 p.m.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) -- A year ago, it seemed a proposed interstate compact designed to prevent thirstier regions from raiding the Great Lakes might be sunk by squabbles among the eight states with jurisdiction over the vast reservoir....

Scientists: Nothing to fear from atom-smasher

AP - Saturday, June 28, 2008 12:08 p.m.

MEYRIN, Switzerland (AP) -- The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August....

This summer may see first ice-free North Pole

AP - Friday, June 27, 2008 6:02 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There\'s a 50-50 chance that the North Pole will be ice-free this summer, which would be a first in recorded history, a leading ice scientist says....

Navy approves plan for sonar training off Hawaii

AP - Friday, June 27, 2008 4:34 a.m.

HONOLULU (AP) -- The Navy has adopted a new plan for training in Hawaii waters that it says will allow it to accelerate some exercises and hold them more frequently while continuing to limit the effects of its sonar on marine mammals....

Tony Blair urges action on climate change

AP - Friday, June 27, 2008 12:20 a.m.

TOKYO (AP) -- The world already knows that global warming is a serious problem and the time has come for politicians and experts to come together to map out a practical solution, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday....

California air regulators tackling climate law

AP - Thursday, June 26, 2008 7:21 p.m.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California air regulators on Thursday released the country\'s most sweeping global warming plan, outlining ambitious measures for cleaner cars, renewable energy and a cap on major polluters....

Court says no deadline for EPA on global warming

AP - Thursday, June 26, 2008 5:27 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal appeals court refused Thursday to make a resistant Bush administration speed up a decision on whether greenhouse gases and global warming threaten public health and welfare....

Study: Global warming chases plants uphill

AP - Thursday, June 26, 2008 3:02 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Faced with global warming, plants are heading for the hills. A study of 171 forest species in Western Europe shows that most of them are shifting their favored locations to higher, cooler spots....

Museum confirms discovery of rare fossil

AP - Thursday, June 26, 2008 1:55 p.m.

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Scientists with the Virginia Museum of Natural History have confirmed the discovery of a 500 million-year-old fossil called a stromatolite....

No-fishing zones studied for ecosystem protection

AP - Thursday, June 26, 2008 9:09 a.m.

DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK, Fla. (AP) -- Reeling in a 45-pound grouper used to be just an average day on the water in the Florida Keys....

Project to dissect cocoa genome, protect crop

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 9:30 p.m.

MIAMI (AP) -- Government scientists are launching a five-year project Thursday aimed at safeguarding the world\'s chocolate supply by dissecting the genome of the cocoa bean....

Scientists think big impact caused two-faced Mars

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 7:44 p.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Why is Mars two-faced? Scientists say fresh evidence supports the theory that a monster impact punched the red planet, leaving behind perhaps the largest gash on any heavenly body in the solar system....

Ex-EPA official critical on climate change

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 5:38 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A high-ranking political appointee resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency after concluding there was no more progress to be made on greenhouse gases under the Bush administration....

Fossil of most primitive 4-legged creature found

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 5:12 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists unearthed a skull of the most primitive four-legged creature in Earth\'s history, which should help them better understand the evolution of fish to advanced animals that walk on land....

Report: Climate change linked to national security

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 5:11 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Global warming probably will mean more illegal immigration and humanitarian disasters, undermining shaky governments and possibly expanding the terrorism threat against the U.S., intelligence agencies say....

Scientists identify possible Alzheimer's gene

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:08 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Scientists have identified a gene that may raise the risk of getting the most common kind of Alzheimer\'s disease by about 45 percent in people who inherit a certain form of it....

Scientists seek to sort sundry names for sealife

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:07 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The underwater world and the underworld have at least one thing in common - lots of aliases. The Census of Marine Life, an effort to catalog all species of life in the oceans, has validated 122,500 species names so far, as well as 56,400 aliases, different names that have been applied to the same species over the years....

NASA beefs up next-generation moon rocket

AP - Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:05 p.m.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- NASA unveiled a beefed-up redesign of a proposed moon rocket Wednesday, saying the Ares V spacecraft that is to carry astronauts to the lunar surface in 12 years will be around 38 stories tall and carry a heftier load than originally planned....

Plastics expert wins $500K Lemelson-MIT award

AP - Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:05 p.m.

BOSTON (AP) -- Consumers have environmentally friendlier plastics, patients in clinical trials have a new device to treat clogged arteries and we all might get disease-treating nanoparticles inside our bodies thanks in part to the work of one man, the winner of this year\'s Lemelson-MIT Prize....

Hurricane Center director talks forecasting in interview

AP - Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:26 p.m.

MIAMI (AP) -- Substantially improving the accuracy of hurricane intensity predictions could take years and tens of millions of dollars, the National Hurricane Center\'s director said Tuesday....

NASA warming scientist: 'This is the last chance'

AP - Monday, June 23, 2008 6:35 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Exactly 20 years after warning America about global warming, a top NASA scientist said the situation has gotten so bad that the world\'s only hope is drastic action....

Canadians argue for polar bear hunt

AP - Monday, June 23, 2008 5:38 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Officials from northern Canada were in Washington on Monday to make an unpopular argument: Let U.S. hunters continue to kill polar bears for sport....

Scholars set date for Odysseus' bloody homecoming

AP - Monday, June 23, 2008 5:09 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Using clues from star and sun positions mentioned by the ancient Greek poet Homer, scholars think they have determined the date when King Odysseus returned from the Trojan War and slaughtered a group of suitors who had been pressing his wife to marry one of them....

Supreme Court weighs whales vs war preparation

AP - Monday, June 23, 2008 1:43 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court will have the final say on whether war preparation trumps whale protection....

Some searchers still expect to see rare woodpecker

AP - Monday, June 23, 2008 1:34 p.m.

BRINKLEY, Ark. (AP) -- For the last three years, researchers in camouflage and waders have slogged through the east Arkansas woods hoping to spot a rare bird that so far seems unwilling to be seen....

NASA estimates 3,000 to 4,000 shuttle job losses

AP - Monday, June 23, 2008 1:20 p.m.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA told a Senate panel on Monday that it anticipates losing 3,000 to 4,000 jobs at its launching site once the space shuttles stop flying in two more years, about half the cutback initially reported....

Can the Martian arctic support extreme life?

AP - Sunday, June 22, 2008 10:25 a.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Bizarre microbes flourish in the most punishing environments on Earth from the bone-dry Atacama Desert in Chile to the boiling hot springs of Yellowstone National Park to the sunless sea bottom vents in the Pacific....

What to do with an aged lemur?

AP - Saturday, June 21, 2008 9 p.m.

Even as a youngster, Rollie looked older and wiser than his years. His white mustache sprouted longer by the month, until it flamed from his cheeks like a German kaiser\'s. Sometimes, it all but hid his mouth....

Navy conducts hearing tests on rare whale in Fla.

AP - Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:59 p.m.

KEY LARGO, Fla. (AP) -- A team of U.S. Navy audiologists conducted a hearing test Saturday on a rare beaked whale convalescing at a marine mammal rehabilitation center in the Florida Keys....

Deals transfer water from northern Wash. counties

AP - Saturday, June 21, 2008 12:05 p.m.

TONASKET, Wash. (AP) -- Ray Colbert wanted out after five decades of growing apples, but his son didn\'t want the farm in northern Washington. No one else did either....

Opposition mounts to clean air change affecting parks

AP - Saturday, June 21, 2008 11:37 a.m.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Critics fear the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will adopt a rule in the waning days of the Bush administration that will make it easier to build coal-fired power plants near national parks....

Report compares costs of animal disease outbreak

AP - Saturday, June 21, 2008 4:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government acknowledged that an outbreak of one of the most contagious animal diseases from any of five locations being considered for a new high-security laboratory - an event it considered highly unlikely - would be more devastating to the U.S. economy than an outbreak from the isolated island lab where such research is now conducted....

Protected Royal Bengal tiger killed by villagers

AP - Saturday, June 21, 2008 1:23 a.m.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- A news report says villagers and forest guards have beaten to death a protected Royal Bengal tiger after it killed three people near the world\'s largest mangrove forest in southwestern Bangladesh....

Ecuador boy sets zero-G flight record

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 9:14 p.m.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- A 7-year-old Ecuador boy has become the youngest passenger ever aboard a zero-gravity flight....

Mexico recovers 929 pre-Columbian pieces

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 5:09 p.m.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico recovered more than 900 pre-Columbian artifacts seized from smugglers in the U.S. and Canada, including 800-year-old fiber sandals, spears and hunting bows looted from nomadic caves, officials said Friday....

Floodwaters to widen 'dead zone' in Gulf of Mexico

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 1:03 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Floodwaters loaded with farm runoff are heading down the Mississippi River, and scientists fear the deluge will dramatically increase this summer\'s dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, covering an area the size of Maryland....

Ocean-monitoring satellite blasts off from Calif.

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 3:53 a.m.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- A rocket carrying a U.S.-French ocean-monitoring satellite lifted off early Friday from the central California coast....

California scientist to get Kyoto Prize

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 2:19 a.m.

TOKYO (AP) -- A California-based computer scientist, a philosophy professor and a molecular biologist will each receive $460,000 after being selected Friday as winners of this year\'s Kyoto Prizes for achievement in the arts and sciences....

Business leaders call for global warming action

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 2:16 a.m.

TOKYO (AP) -- The world\'s developed countries should take the lead in the battle against global warming and push for halving global emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, a group of business leaders said Friday....

Pioneer in field of molecular biology dies at 84

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 2:13 a.m.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Gunther Stent, who helped pioneer the field of molecular biology as one of the first scientists to confirm the structure of DNA, has died. He was 84....

Alaska Zoo gets 2 new rare Amur tigers from N.Y.

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 12:54 a.m.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- The Alaska Zoo has welcomed two new rare tigers....

Greenpeace members arrested in theft of whale meat

AP - Friday, June 20, 2008 12:35 a.m.

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese police arrested two Greenpeace activists on Friday on suspicion of stealing about 50 pounds of whale meat that the environmentalists said had been illegally siphoned by whalers from government-backed hunts....

Officials suspend Calif. aerial spraying program

AP - Thursday, June 19, 2008 8:49 p.m.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Officials on Thursday abruptly canceled a state program to spray chemicals to combat crop-eating moth in urban areas after months of public uproar over its unclear effects on the environment and human health....

Genetically modified mosquitoes may combat malaria

AP - Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:45 p.m.

LONDON (AP) -- In a cramped, humid laboratory in London, mosquitoes swarming in stacked, net-covered cages are being scrutinized for keys to controlling malaria. Scientists have genetically modified hundreds of them, hoping to stop them from spreading the killer disease....

Extreme weather to increase with climate change

AP - Thursday, June 19, 2008 1:44 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Droughts will get dryer, storms will get stormier and floods will get deeper with changing climate, a government research report said Thursday. Events that have seemed relatively rare will become commonplace, said the latest report from the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, a joint effort of more than a dozen government agencies....

Russia launches US commercial satellites

AP - Thursday, June 19, 2008 4:19 a.m.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia successfully launched six U.S. communications satellites into orbit Thursday, officials said....

South Korean ex-professor claims dog clones

AP - Thursday, June 19, 2008 3:12 a.m.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A South Korean team led by disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk said Thursday it has created 17 clones of an endangered dog breed popular in China....

Both sides claim victory in Calif. stadium ruling

AP - Thursday, June 19, 2008 2:54 a.m.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) -- Supporters and foes of a proposed University of California, Berkeley sports center that ignited a rancorous tree-sitting protest claimed victory after a judge issued a complex ruling on the matter....

Scientists fighting disease with climate forecasts

AP - Wednesday, June 18, 2008 3:10 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A cyclone wrecks coastal Myanmar, spawning outbreaks of malaria, cholera and dengue fever. Flooding inundates Iowa, raising an array of public health concerns....

House adds extra shuttle flight in NASA budget

AP - Wednesday, June 18, 2008 2:21 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Wednesday approved a $20 billion NASA spending bill that calls for an extra Space Shuttle flight before the spacecraft program is shut down....

Peanut probe part of NASA mission

AP - Wednesday, June 18, 2008 1:11 p.m.

GRIFFIN, Ga. (AP) -- Tim Williams\' goal was to create a device to test soil moisture around peanut pods, but his modest invention is now helping probe the soil of the Red Planet for traces of water....

Catch-22: Feds cut climate research to save fuel

AP - Wednesday, June 18, 2008 12:54 p.m.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- They haven\'t rechristened a ship the Irony, but federal researchers are canceling and cutting back on voyages aimed at studying climate change and ocean ecosystems so they can save money on boat fuel....

Utah announces 'major dinosaur fossil discovery'

AP - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 5:39 p.m.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A newly discovered batch of well-preserved dinosaur bones, petrified trees and even freshwater clams in southeastern Utah could provide new clues about life in the region some 150 million years ago....

Panda habitat damaged by China quake

AP - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 5:39 p.m.

BEIJING (AP) -- At least 80 percent of the habitat for giant pandas in China\'s earthquake-hit province was destroyed or damaged, a forestry official said Tuesday....

Scientists reverse vasectomy on endangered horse

AP - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 1:50 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution\'s National Zoo have revealed they reversed a vasectomy on an endangered horse to allow it to reproduce naturally - the first-known operation of its kind on an endangered species....

Zoo performs first reverse vasectomy on horse

AP - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:16 a.m.

Study: Chimps calm each other with hugs, kisses

AP - Monday, June 16, 2008 6:16 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For most folks, a nice hug and some sympathy can help a bit after we get pushed around. Turns out, chimpanzees use hugs and kisses the same way. And it works. Researchers studying people\'s closest genetic relatives found that stress was reduced in chimps that were victims of aggression if a third chimp stepped in to offer consolation....

Group: Northern white rhinos near extinction

AP - Monday, June 16, 2008 5:04 p.m.

GLAND, Switzerland (AP) -- The northern white rhino of central Africa is on the verge of being wiped out, a conservation group said Tuesday....

Astronomers find 'super Earths' circling a star

AP - Monday, June 16, 2008 3:33 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- European astronomers have found a trio of "super-Earths" closely circling a star that astronomers once figured had nothing orbiting it, demonstrating that planets keep popping up in unexpected places....

Group seeks emergency protection for 32 species

AP - Monday, June 16, 2008 3:06 p.m.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Environmentalists are seeking emergency protection for nearly three dozens rare plants, animals and insects under the Endangered Species Act, saying all are at risk due to habitat destruction and other threats....

APNewsBreak: Companies get OK to annoy polar bears

AP - Saturday, June 14, 2008 9:06 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas....

Explorers find 1780 British warship in Lake Ontario

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 9:33 p.m.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers announced Friday....

Flooding from a weather rut of clashing air masses

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 3:21 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hot sticky air hovers on the East Coast. Cool air is parked in the West. And when they repeatedly collide, it storms over an already saturated Iowa....

Scientists: 115-year-old's brain worked perfectly

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 1:36 p.m.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- A Dutch woman who was the oldest person in the world when she died at age 115 in 2005 appeared sharp right up to the end, joking that pickled herring was the secret to her longevity....

Chile volcano eruption regains strength

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 12:57 p.m.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) -- The six-week eruption of a volcano in southern Chile has regained strength with bursts of thick gas, seismic rumblings and the emergence of two new craters....

Finance ministers weigh rising oil, food prices

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 12:40 p.m.

OSAKA, Japan (AP) -- Finance ministers from the world\'s top industrialized nations vowed Friday to grapple with the economic risks of soaring oil and food prices, as well as assist developing countries in the fight against global warming....

Warm spring reported

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 12:26 p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Planet Earth continues to simmer, with this year\'s spring the seventh warmest on record....

Johns Hopkins raps AP story on lead experiment

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 8:59 a.m.

For about 20 years, Dr. Michael Klag has used a fertilizer made from Milwaukee municipal sludge on azaleas and yew shrubs at his suburban Baltimore home. And Klag, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, says he\'s never had any question about its safety....

Seismologist: China quake had no warning signs

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 4:12 a.m.

BEIJING (AP) -- Last month\'s massive earthquake in central China likely could not have been predicted, a leading American seismologist said Friday....

Alaska village threatened by warming gets funding

AP - Friday, June 13, 2008 12:27 a.m.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- One of Alaska\'s most eroded villages is getting more than $3 million in state aid to help it relocate to higher ground as Alaska tries to cope with the effects of global warming....

Endangered sea dragon at Ga. aquarium pregnant

AP - Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:16 p.m.

ATLANTA (AP) -- A weedy sea dragon at the Georgia Aquarium has something to celebrate this Father\'s Day. One of the rare creatures is pregnant for only the third time ever at a U.S. aquarium, aquarium officials said. But don\'t look for the expectant mom - dads carry the eggs in this family....

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