SCIENCE

British classical performer Sarah Brightman has recently completed medical checks in Russia for her imminent tour into space, while comedian Ashton Kutcher may have to wait longer for his own space tour.

At the tail end of Shark Week, a solar-powered robot has begun a shark-stalking voyage across the Pacific — and a new app lets anyone tag along.

To save Australia's reefs and marine life, scientists from the University of Queensland are proposing new methods for protection against heat stress such as the use of shade cloth.

Tropical fish species are showing up in Australian waters as a response of marine life to climate change. The report on oceans and climate change, released Friday, called the movement as southern migration.

Green and health groups are seeking protection of Alice Springs from uranium mining. To give the initiative a stronger push, the Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) and the Public Health Association of Australian (PHAA) asked Northern Territory Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis to come up with a special reserve land order.

American scientists have caught the biggest Burmese python ever weighed, and they are now examining the euthanized giant snake at the Florida Museum of Natural History, hoping to manage invasion threats posed by the species.

A manufacturing plant in Taranto, Italy by ILVA, Italy's largest steel maker, may be forced to close shop after a court ruling released over the weekend ordered the particular plant cannot fabricate steel while in the process of carrying out court-ordered improvements to its production line in light of the environmental and public health hazards it has created to its community.

A manufacturing plant in Taranto, Italy by ILVA, Italy's largest steel maker, may be forced to close shop after a court ruling released over the weekend ordered the particular plant cannot fabricate steel while in the process of carrying out court-ordered improvements to its production line in light of the environmental and public health hazards it has created to its community.

British scientists have uncovered 10 new gene regions where DNA changes are linked to Type 2 diabetes. The discovery brings nearer the science community of a biological understanding of the ailment.

Queenslanders should expect another controversy to erupt soon as another safe sex campaign ads featuring a condom and gay men were posted on Sunday in bus shelters and billboards.

Some people still doubt the Roswell UFO story due to insufficient reports on the matter, but a former Air Force official has recently stood up to assert there were actually two aircrafts that crashed on the site almost 65 years ago.

Scientists from the Murdoch Children's Research Institute of the Melbourne University had established a link between the heavy use of marijuana and damage to brain memory and learning capacity.

After a week of continuous heavy downpour which flooded Metro Manila and nearby provinces, the sun finally shone on the Philippines on Thursday.

Is Adelaide ready for an earthquake? A panel of four experts from South Australia will explore Adelaide's preparedness for an earthquake.

The more than 300 millimetres of rain that the monsoon dumped on Metro Manila and nearby Philippine provinces failed to dampen the Filipinos' penchant for updating their statuses on social networking sites.

Does Australia's love for sport making it sick?

Despite the absence of a typhoon, monsoon rains which dumped 300 millimetres (12 inches) of rain in the Philippine national capital region (NCR) caused half of Metro Manila to be flooded. The amount is thrice the daily average of 80 to 100 mm of rain, the Philippine weather bureau said.

NASA scientists celebrated Monday the first landing of its six-wheeler Curiosity rover on the Martian surface.

Despite the lack of a storm signal, torrential rains since Monday flooded parts of the Philippines, especially the national capital region (NCR). Hard hit by the heavy rains is Metro Manila where some parts are several metres deep in flood water.

For the first time in a hundred years, New Zealand's Mount Tongariro erupted Monday night, spewing an ash cloud that spans one kilometre. A local witnessed and reported the eruption just before midnight. The witness said the eruption had created "a new hole in the side of the mountain."

The failure by the timber industry and environmental groups to reach an agreement on Monday would result in the Tasmanian government stepping in to resolve the impasse. The battle over the largest temperate rainforest in the region has extended to mining in the Tarkine wilderness.

The Liberals in Canberra promised to repeal the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) ban on free plastic bags if they grab the territory's political leadership after the October ACT polls. The position is a U-turn from the previous stand taken by the Libs in 2004.

"Grids supplying electricity to half of India's 1.2 billion people collapsed on Tuesday," reports Reuters. "The outage was the worst to hit India in more than a decade and embarrassed the government, which has failed to build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand."

Nature is returning to Australians the trash they carelessly leave behind in the country's beaches. Reports said that over 4,500 pieces of rubber footwear were washed up in a Queensland beach.

The cat is out of the bag, as more evidence continues to emerge proving that clean-up workers at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility in Japan deliberately covered up high radiation readings at the order of their superiors.

The Blue Moon in August brings to mind the frequently asked questions about the cosmic event. Along with the questions come tales of love and deadly tragedies, and this is the case every two or three years, when there is an extra full moon in a year.

Using the half glass point of view, Opposition leader Tony Abbott insisted on Monday that despite recent survey results showing more acceptance of the carbon tax, many Aussies still dislike the $23 per tonne carbon price.

The Delta Aquarid meteor shower is expected to peak through the last nights of July, with the best time to look up to the sky before dawn. Here are ten things to know about the spectacular cosmic trails of light for stargazers.

UFO watchers gathered Saturday at a historical crash site in Kecksburg, PA as part of the ceremonies for an annual festival celebrating UFOs and other unusual sightings in the area.