AP - NASA's new moon rocket passed a key design milestone late Wednesday. Senior NASA management unanimously approved the preliminary design review of the planned Ares I rocket that would launch astronauts into space by 2015 and back to the moon by 2020. -- read full article
AP - About four out of 10 freshwater fish species in North America are in peril, according to a major study by U.S., Canadian and Mexican scientists. -- read full article
AP - A tiny frog species thought by many experts to be extinct has been rediscovered alive and well in a remote area of Australia's tropical north, researchers said Thursday.
AP - A small blip on a computer screen sent champagne corks popping among physicists in Switzerland. Near Chicago, researchers at a "pajama party" who watched via satellite let out an early morning cheer.
AFP - Pioneering stem-cell scientist Shinya Yamanaka, whose work could help transform medicine and find cures for a range of debilitating diseases, says he was a pretty awful doctor.
AP - Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday. -- read full article
SPACE.com - Six months ago, satellite telescopes
spotted an exceptionally bright burst of energy that would have been the most
distant object in the universe ever visible to the naked eye, if anyone saw it. -- read full article
AFP - President George W. Bush declared an emergency in Texas Wednesday and state authorities began ordering evacuations as deadly Hurricane Ike churned in the Gulf of Mexico toward the US state.
LiveScience.com - An okapi, a rare giraffe-like mammal not seen for 50 years in an African wildlife park, has been captured on
film. Or, at least the striped legs of the forest-dwelling creature
have been photographed. -- read full article
AP - The world's largest particle collider passed its first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile (27-kilometer) underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.
Time.com - According to a new study of an active Amish population, researchers say fat genes may not destine you to a lifetime of obesity -- read full article
The Christian Science Monitor - On Tuesday, oil prices dipped below $100 a barrel for the first time since April as expectations grew that ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would not officially cut production. -- read full article
AP - China said Wednesday it is ready to send two long-promised pandas to Taiwan by the end of the year in the latest sign of improved ties between the rivals. -- read full article
SPACE.com - HOUSTON
— Seven NASA astronauts are gearing up to tackle a risky shuttle mission to
repair the Hubble Space Telescope. -- read full article
