NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter has successfully changed its orbit in preparation for a 2016 arrival at the giant gas planet, the space agency says. In performing its first deep-space maneuver, the spacecraft initiated the first of two planned firings of its main engine to refine the...

California lawmakers have passed a bill that could make the state the second in the United States to approve self-driving cars on its roads. The bill, passed unanimously by the state senate, will go to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law, TG Daily reported Friday. Under the...

Hong Kong geologists say they've mapped out the extent of an ancient supervolcano in the territory, the first such discovery of its kind in southeastern China. Located in the southeastern part of Hong Kong, the ancient supervolcano is tilted on its side by about 30 degrees and had an...

Disease-causing germs and harmless bacteria in soil are exchanging genes that make them resistant to antibiotics, U.S. researchers say. A study published in the journal Science says the finding may have implications for the widespread use of antibiotics in livestock, and could lead to...

NASA says planning is under way for a national memorial service for astronaut Neil Armstrong to be held in Washington sometime in the next two weeks. In the meantime, two NASA centers were holding public tributes Friday to the first moonwalker, who died Aug. 25 in Cincinnati at age 82,...

Invertebrates — including insects such as butterflies, beetles and bumblebees — are at greater risk of extinction than mammals or birds, U.K. scientists say. Britain's Zoological Society, conducting the biggest study of invertebrates ever done, found one in five species is at...

Chinese archaeologists say the discovery of tombs and ruins of residential structures in northwest China offers a glimpse into nomadic life in the Bronze Age. The settlement in the country's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region dates back 3,700-3,900 years, placing it in the time of the Xia...

As leaked photos from tech sites multiply on the Web, speculation is mounting Apple will announce a new version of its iPhone on Sept. 12, tech watchers say. The photos and samples from Apple's supply chain point to a longer, thinner phone with a larger screen and longer battery...

Electronic Arts says its newest NFL video game series entry, “Madden NFL 13,” set a franchise record for launch-day sales, shipping 900,000 copies Tuesday. Associated online activity and downloads on the game's first day of availability also were at record levels, USA Today...

Amazon says its Kindle Fire tablet is sold out, ahead of a Sept. 6 event at which it is widely expected to unveil a new version of the device. “Kindle Fire is sold out, but we have an exciting road map ahead,” Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said in a release. The top...

Governments criticized for their human rights records are using sophisticated off-the-shelf computer software to spy on dissidents, U.S. researchers say. The FinSpy software tool is intended to be sold only for use in criminal investigations but Google engineer Morgan Marquis-Boire and...

The genome of a cave-dwelling girl from 80,000 years ago has been analyzed in such detail it's known she had brown hair, eyes and skin, German researchers say. The cave dweller was a Denisovan, named because bone fragments were found in Siberia's Denisova cave in 2010. Denisovans...

China says it will create the first artificial breeding base for endangered golden monkeys, regarded, along with giant pandas, as a “state treasure.” The facility will be in the Shennongjia Nature Reserve in central China's Hubei Province, home to about 1,200 golden monkeys,...

Very few Americans say they feel overwhelmed by the volume of news and information flooding their lives, despite talk of “information overload,” a study found. “Little research has focused on information overload and media consumption, yet it's a concept used in public...

American are increasingly using a combination of phones, tablets, computer and TVs to consume digital content, research conducted by Google found. With market analysts Ipsos and Sterling Brands assisting, Google found 90 percent of all U.S. media consumption, or 4.4 hours per day, is happening...

U.S. scientists say NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows ice patches could make up 5 percent to 10 percent of material in the shaded walls of a crater. Using a radar instrument on the orbiter, astronomers have estimated the amount of ice likely to be found inside the permanently...

Sony says it's entering the Windows 8 tablet arena with the VAIO Duo 11, a slide-out tablet with a keyboard that is part tablet and part notebook. The Duo 11 is seen as a direct competitor for Microsoft's upcoming Surface tablet in both configuration and price, Slash Gear reported...

“Hot spots” of melting rock in fault zones can act as triggers to turn moderate earthquakes into massive temblors, U.S. seismologists say. Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California said fault zones weaken in select locations shortly after a fault reaches...

U.S. scientists say a dying star that lit up the galactic scene is the most distant explosion of its kind ever studied, some 9.5 billion light-years from Earth. Astronomers said they were able to use the light of the exploding star, called an ultra-luminous core-collapse supernova, as a probe...

A jackpot of newly discovered supermassive black holes and hot, dusty galaxies are in the latest data from NASA's WISE mission, the U.S. space agency says. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission has revealed millions of black hole candidates across the universe and about 1,000...

Fossil evidence suggests a feathered but flightless dinosaur was able to snag and consume smaller flying dinosaurs, Canadian paleontologists say. A University of Alberta paleontology team has found the fossilized remains of three flying dinosaurs in the belly of a raptor-like predator called...

NASA says the launch of a mission to study Earth's radiation belts went off smoothly Thursday, putting two scientific probes into orbit. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes are in orbit after a successful launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 4:05 a.m. EDT from Cape...

Food production for a growing global population can be increased with a reduction in the environmental impact of agriculture, U.S. and Canadian researchers say. Scientists from the University of Minnesota and McGill University in Montreal say more strategic use of fertilizer and water could...

California heatwaves are changing due to global warming and could affect residents living near the ocean who are used to moderate temperatures, researchers say. Climate scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, say the mid-summer...

Danish researchers report they can monitor marine biodiversity and fish stocks by using DNA traces in seawater samples to keep track of fish and whales. The DNA method is superior to traditional methods that use selective and invasive techniques mostly limited to commercial species and...

China”s search giant Baidu is in an Internet war with rival search engine Qihoo 360, which alleges Baidu is using aggressive measures to preserve its user base. Qihoo 360, launched just two weeks ago, said when people use its new engine to search for a Baidu-related service, its...

A Chicago zoo says it has released 18 smooth green snakes, a threatened species being reared at the zoo, into the Lake County Forest Preserve. Listed as an Illinois Species in Greatest Need of Conservation, the tiny green serpents have seen their numbers dwindle with ongoing loss of their...

Israeli archaeologists unearthed two figurines estimated to be more than 9,000 years old, dating back to the New Stone Age in excavations outside Jerusalem. The figurines were found near a large round building with a fieldstone foundation and mud-brick walls in Tel Motza, the Israel...

Winners of a science competition will see their space experiments transmitted live from the International Space Station via YouTube, officials said. In the culmination of the YouTube Spacelab competition held by NASA, YouTube, the European Space agency and Lenovo, astronauts will reveal the...

The island of Newfoundland is sinking in the North Atlantic at a rate of a little over a tenth of an inch a year, a Canadian expert in coastal erosion says. Although that only amounts to about a foot in 100 years, Memorial University geography Professor Norm Catto says the change is important...