What holds energy tech back? The infernal battery

As 21st century technology strains to become ever faster, cleaner and cheaper, an invention from more than 200 years ago keeps holding it back.

What holds energy tech back? The infernal battery

As 21st century technology strains to become ever faster, cleaner and cheaper, an invention from more than 200 years ago keeps holding it back.

James Cameron and others plan to explore the real abyss

Earth's lost frontier is about to be explored firsthand after more than half a century. It's a mission to the deepest part of the ocean, so deep that the pressure is the equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe.

James Cameron, others to explore the real abyss

Earth's lost frontier is about to be explored firsthand after more than half a century. It's a mission to the deepest part of the ocean, so deep that the pressure is the equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe.

New federal map for what to plant reflects warming

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The government's colorful map of planting zones, most often seen on the back of seed packets, is changing, illustrating a hotter 21st century.

Report: An American life worth less today

It's not just the American dollar that's losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn't worth what it used to be.

Scientists find sex and money risk link in brain

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A new brain-scan study may help explain what's going on in the minds of financial titans when they take risky monetary gambles -- sex.

Can't quit smoking? Blame your genes

WASHINGTON (AP) | Scientists say they have pinpointed a genetic link that makes people more likely to get hooked on tobacco, causing them to smoke more cigarettes, making it harder to quit, and leading more often to deadly lung cancer.

Scientists find appendix's job

EPA study: House dust with flame retardant may sicken cats, could be an issue for kids

A new federal study suggests that household dust containing a common flame retardant may be linked to an increase in cats getting sick from overactive thyroids.

European astronomers find potentially habitable planet outside solar system

WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."

On Earth Day, a view from afar

The rarest view in humanity -- Earth from afar -- moves many of the lucky few observers to tears and gives them a new appreciation of that blue marble we all call home.

For science, year's white lab coats were stained with feuds, fraud, recalls

Astronomers feuded about calling Pluto a planet. Ornithologists clashed over whether a magnificent woodpecker really did come back from extinction.

Robot humanity

George the robot is playing hide-and-seek with scientist Alan Schultz. George whirrs and hides behind a post until he's found.

Flying in zero gravity

WEIGHTLESS ABOVE THE ATLANTIC OCEAN (AP) -- Science teacher Mike Hickey has long understood the difference between mass and weight. Now, floating in zero gravity, he doesn't just understand it, he feels it.

A for accuracy

The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.

Dirty rats offer lesson

Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate.