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From Nature magazine Negotiations over the sale of products from cloned animals in the European Union have broken down and run out of time.

By David Cyranoski of Nature magazine TOKYO Japan has the world's densest seismometer network, the biggest tsunami barriers and the most extensive earthquake early-warning system. [More]

Human illnesses are being transmitted to critically endangered mountain gorillas, putting these rare animals further at risk, new research shows. Centuries ago, mountain gorillas ( Gorilla beringei beringei ) lived in relative isolation and were rarely seen by people

By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States fell one spot to third place in clean-energy investment last year as the lack of a national energy policy hurt purchases in wind and solar power and other technologies, a report said on Tuesday.

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - Aircraft condensation trails criss-crossing the sky may be warming the planet on a normal day more than the carbon dioxide emitted by all planes since the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903, a study said on Tuesday.

An artificial "leaf" that collects energy in much the same way as a natural one could provide a day's worth of power for homes without access to an electricity grid. The leaf, a silicon-based square the size of a playing card, closely mimics the way plants use the process of photosynthesis to create energy. The device is dropped into a bucket of water, or even a muddy puddle, and placed in direct sunlight

The tentacled snake may be the strangest serpent you've never heard of. [More]

By Yoko Nishikawa [More]

Natural disasters always seem to strike in the worst places. The Sendai earthquake has caused over 8,000 deaths, destroyed 450,000 people’s homes, crippled four nuclear reactors and wreaked over $300 billion in damage. And it’s only the latest disaster.

NEW YORK CITY--Who brewed--and then enjoyed--the first beer? The civilization responsible for the widely beloved beverage must have been a very old one, but we don't yet know who first brewed up a batch of beer, Christine Hastorf explained in a March 10 lecture at New York University on the archaeology of beer

NEW YORK -- Could coal be the key to manufacturing lighter, more energy-efficient vehicles, including electric cars? It may seem counterintuitive to use coal to reduce a vehicle's fuel consumption, and thus its CO2 output. But one scientist at a New York technical school thinks he's found a way, and hopes to market it to automakers and the growing electric vehicle industry.

If you're ever at a loss for conversation amid a group of information-graphics professionals, bring up the topic of pie charts or proportional circles.

Boreal forests across the Northern hemisphere are undergoing rapid, transformative shifts as a result of a warming climate that, in some cases, is triggering feedback loops producing even more regional warming, according to several new studies. Russia's boreal forest - the largest continuous expanse of forest in the world - has seen a transformation in recent years from larch to conifer trees, according to new research by University of Virginia researchers. [More]

Airplane manufacturers have been changing over from aluminum to advanced composite materials. These lighter, stronger composites are made of fibers of carbon or glass embedded in a second material, often plastic

Accent matters more than looks when it comes to identifying a person’s ethnicity, according to a study published in the November Journal of Personality and Social Psychology . [More]