Science News

An intrepid spider may have survived the long months at the International Space Station, with scientists eager to know for sure once it returns to Earth aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronauts aboard space shuttle Discovery conducted a final inspection of the vehicle Thursday and at first glance found no significant damage which would prevent it from returning to Earth.

WASHINGTON - The White House is warning North Korea that a suspected rocket launch set for next month would be a "provocative act" in violation of U.N. Security Council mandates. North Korea says the rocket is designed to carry a satellite into orbit. The North says the launch is timed for the eve of the inaugural session of its new parliament and for the April 15 birthday of its late founder, Kim Il Sung.

BERLIN - Germany's highest court has ruled that a PETA ad campaign comparing animal slaughterhouses to the Holocaust is an offense against human dignity.

SYDNEY - A brilliant green tree frog with huge black eyes, jumping spiders and a striped gecko are among more than 50 new animal species scientists have discovered in a remote, mountainous region of Papua New Guinea.

WASHINGTON - Two rare and endangered clouded leopard cubs are being taken care of at a National Zoo facility in northern Virginia.

Three juvenile Triceratops, a species thought to be solitary, died together in a flood and now have been found in a 66 million-year-old bone bed in Montana, lending more evidence to the idea that teen dinosaurs were gregarious gangsters.

NEW YORK - A New York gallery says a 150-million-year-old complete skeleton of a dinosaur has failed to sell at auction.

DETROIT - Ian Wallace is a graduate student in anthropology in New York who has studied fossils in Kenya, combed excavations in Syria and France and written about his research in scholarly journals.

THURSDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) -- Variations in several genes can influence children's lung growth and function, as well as how vulnerable they are to secondhand smoke, say University of Southern California researchers.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan on Thursday announced plans to set up a venture capital fund totalling 60 billion Taiwan dollars (1.76 billion US) in a bid to boost the island's biotech industry and create more jobs.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Biogen Idec Inc said on Wednesday it is developing a test that can identify the presence of a virus that can cause a potentially deadly brain infection in certain patients taking its multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri, and hopes to have it available by year-end.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Police officers who lose their sense of smell also risk losing their jobs, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Thursday. A suburban Pittsburgh township had the right to terminate Officer David J. Agostino after he lost his sense of smell in an off-duty motorcycle accident, because officers must be able to detect drugs, alcohol, hazardous materials, natural gas and other substances, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel ruled.

WASHINGTON, Mar 25 (OneWorld.net) - Despite promises to the contrary, a monumental new wind-power project in Oaxaca, Mexico is encroaching on the lands and livelihoods of local farmers and indigenous people, writes Latin America expert Zach Dyer.

BRIGHTON, Colo. - Danish Crown Prince Frederik said Wednesday that expanding a country's renewable energy sources and recovering from a recession didn't have to be mutually exclusive.

Are you listening to me? Didn't I just tell you to get your coat? Helloooo! It's cold out there...

WASHINGTON - For the first time scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed and an idea how to avoid a future asteroid Armageddon.

With gold prices topping $900 an ounce and jobs still disappearing, a new gold rush is on.