NEW YORK – Stephen Colbert is still clinging to hope that NASA will name a new room at the international space station after him. The space agency said Friday it would announce the name of the module Tuesday on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” Astronaut Sunita Williams will appear on the program. The agency held [...]

SYDNEY – A brilliant green tree frog with huge black eyes, jumping spiders and a striped gecko are among more than 50 new animal species scientists have discovered in a remote, mountainous region of Papua New Guinea. The discoveries were announced Wednesday by Washington D.C.-based Conservation International, which spent the past several months analyzing more [...]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -NASA will soon be on the lookout for possible Earths in one faraway corner of the galaxy. A planet-hunting spacecraft, named Kepler after the German 17th -century astrophysicist, is scheduled to rocket away from Cape Canaveral late Friday night. Excellent launch weather is forecast. The telescope will spend 3 1/2 years staring [...]

HONOLULU – Scientists have identified seven new species of bamboo coral discovered thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface, officials said Thursday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the six of the seven species found off Hawaii may represent entirely new genera, calling it a “remarkable feat” given the broad classification a genus represents. [...]

Droplets seen on the landing struts of the Phoenix Mars lander could be water according to a new report. Images taken of the legs of the lander in the days after its landing on May 28, 2008, show what appear to be drops of liquid. Over the course of the next Martian month, the drops [...]

WASHINGTON – We learn from toddlerhood that red means danger – so should we use red ink for medication warnings? And if blue signals the freedom of open skies, how about brainstorming in a room painted blue? Maybe so, says new research into how the brain reacts to colors: Red seems to improve attention to [...]

TURRITOPSIS nutricula may be the world’s only “immortal” creature. Jellyfish usually die after propagating but Turritopsis reverts to a sexually immature stage after reaching adulthood and is capable of rejuvenating itself. The 4-5mm diameter creature, technically known as a hydrozoan, is the only known animal that is capable of reverting to its juvenile polyp state. [...]

Agence France-Presse|PARIS – A few lucky people in the Indian Ocean will be treated to a rare event on Monday when an annular solar eclipse will transform the Sun into a dark disc with a blazing ring-shaped corona around its rim. In solar eclipses, the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow [...]

Agence France-Presse|BANGKOK – Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday. A rat thought to have become extinct 11 million years ago and a cyanide-laced, shocking pink millipede were among creatures [...]

On December 12, weather permitting, sky-watchers around the world will see the biggest and brightest full moon of 2008. Although a full moon happens every month, the one that rises tomorrow will appear about 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than the other full moons seen so far this year. That’s because our cosmic neighbor will [...]