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Astronauts finish another spacewalk, still no baby - 11/21/2009
A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday. Expectant father Randolph Bresnik and Michael Foreman were so far ahead despite their late start and interrupted sleep the night before _ false fire and decompression ala

Hackers leak e-mails, stoke climate debate - 11/21/2009
Computer hackers have broken into a server at a well-respected climate change research center in Britain and posted hundreds of private e-mails and documents online _ stoking debate over whether some scientists have overstated the case for man-made climate change. The University of East Anglia, in eastern England, said in a statement

Restored machine to explore mysteries of Big Bang - 11/21/2009
Scientists are preparing the world's largest atom smasher to explore the depths of matter after successfully restarting the $10 billion machine following more than a year of repairs. When the machine is fully operational, its magnets will control the beams of protons and send them in opposite directions through two parallel tubes the

Ukraine's `hot air' bedevils global climate deal - 11/21/2009
Vladimir Gapor is a plumber by trade, but now he's a scavenger, prying bits of scrap steel from the ruins of his old factory and selling them for a pittance. For others beyond this manufacturing graveyard, however, Ukraine's economic collapse has produced a potential multibillion-dollar bonanza. In an era of climate change regulation

Bangladeshi mom want twins to stay in Australia - 11/21/2009
The mother who gave up conjoined Bangladeshi newborn twins for adoption said Saturday she is overjoyed the toddlers have been successfully separated and wants them to grow up in Australia. "My babies are alive and doing well. It's the best news I've ever got in my life," a tearful Lovely Mollick told The Associated Press in

Report: Bangladeshi mom doesn't want twins back - 11/20/2009
The mother of recently separated conjoined Bangladeshi twins does not want custody of the daughters she gave up for adoption and wants them to have new lives in Australia, newspapers reported Saturday. The twins, who turn 3 next months old, had been joined at the top of their heads and shared brain tissue and blood vessels. They were

Asian carp may have breached electronic barrier - 11/20/2009
Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday. Scientists recently collected 32 DNA samples of Asian carp between the barrier and Lake Michigan in waterways south of Chicago, al

Ask AP: Shuttle complexity, credit union agency - 11/20/2009
A space shuttle is no tinker toy. But is it the most complex machine ever built? Curiosity about the complexity of the reusable spacecraft inspired one of the questions in this edition of "Ask AP," a weekly Q&A column where AP journalists respond to readers' questions about the news. And that particular question led NASA

U. of Neb. board mulls new stem cell restrictions - 11/20/2009
The University of Nebraska's governing board was expected to vote Friday on a resolution that would limit stem-cell research at the university system's facilities to rules approved under former President George W. Bush. The vote by the Board of Regents would come eight months after President Barack Obama removed government funding res

3 new ancient crocodile species fossils found - 11/19/2009
A 20-foot-long crocodile with three sets of fangs _ like wild boar tusks _ roamed parts of northern Africa millions of years ago, researchers reported Thursday. While this fearsome creature hunted meat, not far away another newly found type of croc with a wide, flat snout like a pancake was fishing for food. And a smaller,

Correction: Vaccine Revolution story - 11/19/2009
In a Nov. 18 story about the vaccine industry, The Associated Press misspelled the surname of a government official quoted in the story. The director of the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority is Robin Robinson, not Robertson.

UN: Fight climate change with free condoms - 11/18/2009
The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday. The agency did not recommend countries set limits on how many children people should have, but said: "Women with access to reprod

Rare crocs found hiding in plain sight in Cambodia - 11/18/2009
Conservationists searching for one of the world's most endangered crocodile species say they have found dozens of the reptiles lounging in plain sight _ at a wildlife rescue center in Cambodia. DNA taken from 69 crocodiles housed in the moats of the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center showed nearly 50 percent were Siamese crocodiles, w

Meteor showers in Asia disappoint - 11/18/2009
Thousands of stargazers across Asia stayed awake overnight to catch a glimpse of what was advertised as an intense Leonid meteor shower, but the show fizzled rather than sizzled for many because of cloudy conditions. One group of about 30 amateur Indian astronomers saw the meteors light up the sky at the Siriska wildlife sanctuary, ab

Vaccines on horizon for AIDS, Alzheimer's, herpes - 11/18/2009
Malaria. Tuberculosis. Alzheimer's disease. AIDS. Pandemic flu. Genital herpes. Urinary tract infections. Grass allergies. Traveler's diarrhea. You name it, the pharmaceutical industry is working on a vaccine to prevent it. Many could be on the market in five years or less. Contrast that with five years ago, when so many co

Led by China, carbon pollution up despite economy - 11/17/2009
Pollution typically declines during a recession. Not this time. Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon dioxide pollution jumped 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study published online Tuesday. "The growth in emissions since 2000 is almost entirely driven by the growth in China

Denmark seeks specific pledges at climate talks - 11/17/2009
Denmark's premier indicated Tuesday he expected the United States to bring specific pledges to cut greenhouse gases to next month's climate change conference. Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said President Barack Obama supported his proposal for a sweeping political deal in Copenhagen covering all essential elements, including co

Hiccups that bother Big Bang machine - 11/17/2009
The Sept. 19, 2008, failure of the Large Hadron Collider is costing 40 million Swiss francs ($40 million) to fix and it set back experiments for more than a year. But the world's largest atom smasher has lesser hiccups to contend with: _ On Nov. 3 electricity from a substation was knocked out briefly to part of the superconductor refr

Jellyfish swarm northward in warming world - 11/16/2009
A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass. The fishermen leaned into the nets, grunting and grumbling as they tossed the transluc