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Key concepts Sun and moon [More]

For feathered dinosaurs the late Cretaceous period may have been a very itchy time. Lice--the tiny wingless insects that feed on dead skin, and sometimes blood--were just beginning to dig in about 100 million years ago, and the epoch's small furry mammals, early birds and dino-birds would have provided ample food. The louse fossil record is relatively sparse

Bombs away! Scientific American Editor George Musser and his daughter Eliana simulate a meteor shower using nuts, cake mix and common kitchen items.

By Nicola Jones of Nature magazine The past five years has seen a spurt in the creation of giant marine protection areas, including a 320,000 square-kilometer marine reserve announced earlier this month in Australia. "Now we have a competition for politicians to see who can have the biggest one," said Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, at the start of the Society for Conservation Biology's 2nd International Marine Conservation Congress in Victoria, Canada, on Saturday. [More]

By Quirin Schiermeier of Nature magazine After months of soul-searching, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has agreed on reforms intended to restore confidence in its integrity and its assessments of climate science. Created as a United Nations body in 1988 to analyze the latest knowledge about Earth's changing climate, it has worked with thousands of scientists and shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. [More]

Take a look at this map of the U.S. at night.

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration plan to protect wildlife and water in U.S.

When someone divides a complex phenomenon into two basic categories, he invariably oversimplifies and distorts reality.

If you want to guess how many jelly beans are in a jar, you should ask your friends.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has numerous lakes and seas. But they're not bodies of water--Titan's reservoirs are full of liquid hydrocarbons such as methane.

Editor's Note: The following blog post first appeared May 15 on the World Science Festival's Web site [More]

NASA's shuttle Endeavour made a successful and historic launch at 8:56 a.m.

By James Mitchell Crow of Nature magazine The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is starting to heal, say researchers in Australia. [More]

Key concepts Gravity [More]

After seven hours of dragging a metal trawl in the ocean, we pulled the manta ray-looking contraption on board--salt water splashing everywhere--to see what was inside. We reached into the slimy net, flipped it inside out and dumped the contents onto a mesh screen.