Latest Science News
As wildfires grow deadlier, officials search for solutions
BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — Creating fire buffers between housing and dry brush, burying spark-prone power lines and lighting more controlled burns to keep vegetation in check could give people a better chance of surviving wildfires, according to experts searching for ways to reduce growing death tolls from...
Serhii Plokhy wins nonfiction book prize for Chernobyl story
LONDON (AP) — A book about the causes and consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster has won Britain's leading nonfiction literary award. Serhii Plokhy was awarded the 30,000-pound ($39,000) Baillie Gifford Prize at a ceremony in London on Wednesday for "Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy." Plokhy, a...
State completes inspections of 43 Detroit funeral homes
DETROIT (AP) — State regulators have found no serious mortuary science or pre-paid funeral violations following inspections of 43 funeral homes in Detroit. Michigan's Licensing and Regulatory Affairs office says Wednesday that the completed inspections followed the discoveries last month in Detroit of the...
Next generation of biotech food heading for grocery stores
WASHINGTON (AP) — The next generation of biotech food is headed for the grocery aisles, and first up may be salad dressings or granola bars made with soybean oil genetically tweaked to be good for your heart. By early next year, the first foods from plants or animals that had their DNA "edited" are...
Skulls reveal Neanderthals, humans had similarly harsh lives
NEW YORK (AP) — Life as a Neanderthal was no picnic, but a new analysis says it was no more dangerous than what our own species faced in ancient times. That challenges what the authors call the prevailing view of our evolutionary cousins, that they lived risky, stressful lives. Some studies have suggested...
Houston skyscrapers may have worsened Hurricane Harvey rain
WASHINGTON (AP) — Humans helped make recent devastating U.S. hurricanes wetter but in different ways, two new studies find. Hurricane Harvey snagged on the skyscrapers of Houston, causing it to slow and dump more rain than it normally would, one study found. The city's massive amounts of paving had an even...
Rare conservation win: Mountain gorilla population ticks up
WASHINGTON (AP) — There are more gorillas in the mist — a rare conservation success story, scientists say. After facing near-extinction, mountain gorillas are slowly rebounding. On Wednesday, the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature updated mountain gorillas' status from...
CIA considered potential truth serum for terror suspects
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shortly after 9/11, the CIA considered using a drug it thought might work like a truth serum and force terror suspects to give up information about potential attacks. After months of research, the agency decided that a drug called Versed, a sedative often prescribed to reduce anxiety, was...
Trumps to skip Kennedy Center Honors for 2nd straight year
NEW YORK (AP) — For the second straight year, President Donald Trump will not be attending the Kennedy Center Honors celebrating cultural achievement. Neither Trump nor first lady Melania Trump will be at the Dec. 2 event, Stephanie Grisham, the first lady's director of communications, said Tuesday....
Identifying wildfire dead: DNA, and likely older methods too
NEW YORK (AP) — Authorities doing the somber work of identifying the victims of California's deadliest wildfire are drawing on leading-edge DNA technology, but older scientific techniques and deduction could also come into play, experts say. With the death toll from the Northern California blaze topping 40...
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