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Ig Nobel prizes highlight quirky science

Ten research teams were honored Thursday at a satirical science awards ceremony that was hosted outside the U.S. for the first time due to travel concerns. Researchers who studied milk from cockroaches and analyzed soil health using underwear received Ig Nobel prizes celebrating unusual and ...

Rescue satellite close, but not quite, in rescuing Swift Observatory

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A private spacecraft that was supposed to supply a lifeline to NASA's Swift Observatory managed to get close to the sinking telescope and even snap photos more than a week after the rescue was abandoned. But the three-armed robotic salvager had to turn away because ...

Celeste Ng novel studies a rather dysfunctional family

Dateless family portraits painted in shiny, wet oils. Tense, posed family photos — bodies frozen in a porcelain perfection — taken with bright smiles after a terse bark from dad. If you take each person and fold them forward like they were made of nothing but flimsy paper — a ...

Cyclospora outbreak reaches 3 more states

WASHINGTON — Parasitic illness cases linked to recalled iceberg lettuce have now been confirmed in 20 states, federal health officials said Thursday, expanding the scope of the largest outbreak of its kind in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration said government scientists have now ...

Climate change may be strengthening El Nino effect

WASHINGTON — A new study suggests that El Ninos — the natural climatic chaos agent that pops up periodically and spikes global temperatures — are getting stronger because of human-caused climate change. El Ninos are more than 36% stronger than they were before the industrial age began in the mid 1800s, with a 16% jump in just the last 40 years showing that the increase is accelerating, according to a study in Thursday's journal Science. The findings come as a strong El Nino that formed a couple months ago is forecast to be the biggest on record in coming months. El Ninos, which ...

Beluga whale dies at Chicago aquarium soon after rescue

CHICAGO — A beluga whale died days after it was transported hundreds of miles to a Chicago aquarium from a shuttered Ontario park as part of an ongoing effort to rescue Canada's last captive whales. The whale, a 23-year-old female named Peekachu, died suddenly Tuesday as caretakers tried ...