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Wildfires have burned about 1.5 million acres in Texas since January, egged on by a drought that federal forecasters say is the worst to hit the state in 45 years. Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say their weather models predict the severe drought that has parched the southern United States will continue to midsummer -- and beyond. "Predictions over weeks to one to three months suggest the drought will continue, and even intensify, in some areas as we struggle to get any rainfall," said David Brown, director of climate services for NOAA's Southern Region

By Geoff Brumfiel of Nature magazine From the name, one might expect the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to have been a major force in the response to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan. [More]

(Adds farmers' protest) By Shinichi Saoshiro [More]

MAY 1961 Cosmonaut [More]

On April 26, 1986, the world's worst nuclear disaster took place. How has the area recovered, and what lessons does it hold

Take a fire ant--don’t forget your gloves. Toss it in water, and it’ll eventually drown. But throw a group of fire ants into the water, come back the next day, and they’ll still be floating

Carmakers have long known that everything takes a back seat to emotion when it comes to buying a new vehicle, so it is no surprise to see plenty of emphasis on gadgets, environmentally friendly engines and safety at this year's New York International Auto Show . [More]

COCODRIE, La.-- Five million barrels of oil seems like a lot. That is approximately what spewed from the blowout at BP's Macondo well last year, about enough to fill an American football field more than 90 meters deep--and much of it has gone missing. [More]

Dear EarthTalk: Is air quality in the United States improving or getting worse? Is it cleaner in some parts of the country than in others?

Why can most people remember a color, but only a few can remember pitch? --David Hardie, Perth, Australia [More]

It may still sound futuristic, but the era of mind-controlled machines is here. An electrode is implanted in or sits on top of the brain, and records patterns of neurons firing; this pattern is then translated, via an algorithm, into computer language

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Europeans ate their way through the island nation of Mauritius , most famously eliminating the dodo bird. Less well known was their effect on the island now known as Ile aux Aigrettes or Island of White Herons, where they exterminated giant skinks and tortoises, and logged the native ebony trees for firewood

The hunt for extraterrestrial life just lost one of its best tools. The Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a field of radio dishes in rural northern California built to seek out transmissions from distant alien civilizations, has been shuttered, at least temporarily, as its operators scramble to find a way to continue to fund it.

One might think that it would be hard to hide a star some 500,000 times more radiant than the sun, but distance and dust seem to have conspired to do just that.