WASHINGTON — For decades, there were tales from fishermen and tourists, even lots of photos, of a mysterious killer whale that just didn't look like all the others, but scientists had never seen one. Now they have. An international team of researchers says they found a couple dozen of these...
Have You Seen the Snowman Floating in Outer Space?
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space snowman visited by NASA on New Year's Day is pitted all over and has a bright "collar" between its two fused spheres. These are the newest details to emerge about Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever explored. A close-up picture taken by NASA's...
Asteroids Are Smacking Earth Twice as Often as Before
WASHINGTON — Giant rocks from space are falling from the sky more than they used to, but don't worry. For the past 290 million years, large asteroids have been crashing into Earth more than twice as often as they did in the previous 700 million years, according to a new...
No Stethoscope for Pain: Scientists Seek Real Way to Measure
WASHINGTON — Is the pain stabbing or burning? On a scale from 1 to 10, is it a 6 or an 8? Over and over, 17-year-old Sarah Taylor struggled to make doctors understand her sometimes debilitating levels of pain, first from joint-damaging childhood arthritis and then from fibromyalgia. "It's really...
Gene-Edited Baby Claim by Chinese Scientist Sparks Outrage
HONG KONG — Scientists and bioethics experts reacted with shock, anger and alarm Monday to a Chinese researcher's claim that he helped make the world's first genetically edited babies. He Jiankui of Southern University of Science and Technology of China said he altered the DNA of twin girls born earlier this month...
Mount Shasta Volcano Rated as 'Very High Threat'
WASHINGTON — Government scientists are classifying 18 U.S. volcanoes as a "very high threat" because of what's been happening inside them and how close they are to people. The U.S. Geological Survey is updating its volcano threat assessments for the first time since 2005. The danger list is topped by...