Science News

With a potentially spectacular solar eclipse to grace the skies of the western United States on Sunday (May 20), here's a helpful reminder for new eclipse chasers: Be safe. A fraction of a second of magnified, unfiltered sunlight will sear your eye’s retina irreparably.

When the moon blots out the sun in a solar eclipse on Sunday (May 20), producing a "ring of fire" in the sky, it will cover roughly 94 percent that of the sun and offer a rare view of our nearest star.

People in the western United States, Pacific and parts of Asia will have the chance to see a partial solar eclipse on Sunday (May 20). While it may be tempting to brush off warnings against looking up at this eclipse bare-eyed, don't: The light of an eclipse really can damage your eyes — though warnings of total blindness are likely overstated.

A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground Saturday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight.

The origin of a rare tyrannosaur skeleton, now sitting mounted and prepared at an auction house in New York City, has been questioned, with some saying the specimen is from Mongolia; if so, that would mean it entered the United States illegally.

One of the first trials of geoengineering Earth's climate would have launched a balloon with a hose that could pump two bath loads of water into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight. But disagreements about that small, symbolic step combined with a patent issue to force a cancellation of the British experiment.

In this weekly series, Life's Little Mysteries rates the plausibility of popular science fiction concepts.

And the heat goes on. Forecasters predict toasty temperatures will stretch through the summer in the U.S. And that's a bad sign for wildfires in the West.

(Reuters) - Human Genome Sciences Inc said on Thursday it adopted a stockholder rights plan as the biotechnology company defends itself against a $2.6 billion (1.6 billion pounds) hostile takeover bid by drug maker GlaxoSmithKline Plc . Human Genome said its board determined the $13-a-share bid by the British drug maker was inadequate and undervalued the company and it recommended stockholders not tender their shares. Glaxo, however, said it plans to proceed with its tender offer and restated its preference to complete the acquisition on a friendly basis. ...

The first private spacecraft ever to launch toward the International Space Station will be carrying a host of student science experiments when it blasts off Saturday (May 19), including projects looking at spiders in space and how microgravity affects wine.

Sunrises and sunsets often dazzle, but they'll have a special ring to them in a few days for people in the western United States and eastern Asia: The moon will slide across the sun, blocking everything but a blazing halo of light.

Tarantulas, like all spiders, extrude silk fromso-called spinnerets on their abdomens, and scientists recently found evidence suggesting the arachnids also shoot silk from their feet, Spider-Man style. Butthese powers were fleeting, it seems, with new research showing tarantulas are not so like the famed superhero, after all.

The turtle is a closer relative of crocodiles and birds than of lizards and snakes, according to researchers who claim to have solved an age-old riddle in animal evolution.

In this weekly series, Life's Little Mysteries scores the plausibility of popular science fiction concepts.

A NASA sun-watching spacecraft will have an unbeatable view of June's historic Venus transit, but some of the probe's scientists are taking measures to get a great look for themselves here on Earth, too.

Adult sleepwalkers are more common than previously realized, with upward of 8 million American adults prone to nighttime ambulation, a new study finds.