SCIENCE

Salvage crews are in a desperate rush to off-load oil from Rena, a Liberia-flagged 47,000-tonne vessel, which crashed into a reef Wednesday morning. NZ weather forecasters have announced possible gale-force winds from Monday afternoon, causing fears of the cargo ship sustaining more damages and sinking in the waters with its oil cargoes.

Prostate cancer is getting more attention especially after the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine were chosen for their contributions in the promotion of therapeutic cancer vaccine which treats men with advanced prostate malignancy.

The sun will undergo the closest scrutiny yet when two new instruments are placed on the European Space Agency's newly selected Solar Orbiter, which is to be launched in 2017.

Students from a remote area in Central California close to the Nevada border may get a rare to opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Draconid meteor shower Saturday.

Maritime New Zealand said some fuel from hydraulic pumps on the Rena, a Liberia-flagged 235m vessel, had leaked, but its fuel tanks were still intact.

British scientists warned on Thursday exposure to filtered sunlight is still dangerous. They said sunlight at the break and end of the day still places people at the risk of acquiring skin cancer.

The Aurora Australis, or the southern lights as it is often called, is visible from the high southern latitudes in Antarctica, South America and Australia. This natural light display is caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high latitude atmosphere.

A photograph of a very rare quadruple rainbow was published online at LiveScience.com on Thursday. Only five such rainbows have been reported during the last 250 years.

New research may prove that much of Earth's oceans are the result of a comet colliding with the young Earth bringing loads of ice to our planet.

For dissenting earlier scientists’ assertions that the expanding universe has been slowing down, Australian National University Professor Brian Schmidt won the 2011 Nobel Physics prize.

A Princeton University graduate student has created a real flying carpet, a sheet of plastic that travels through the air in a manner not unlike the way giant manta rays swim through the water.

More evidence the Australian economy is better placed than all the business and consumer sentiment surveys have been suggesting.

Environmental News You Shouldn't Miss

British researchers have found in a new study that culling Tasmanian Devils will not stop the spread of the Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD) affecting the animals.

A container ship carrying around 1700 tonnes of fuel has crashed into a reef off the coast of Tauranga. New Zealand Dive and Salvage general manager Howard Saunders says Rena looks to be "well stuck."

The Tasmanian devil could become extinct in 25 years if an infectious cancer would not be properly managed, experts predict. A study's findings on the threat to the devils were reported in the Journal of Applied Ecology, published by the British Ecological Society.

More than one billion people are using Google Earth making the map app one of the most downloadable software of all time. Google Inc. announced the milestone on Wednesday as it revealed that the free online Earth atlas is not only a useful tool for travelers.

Australian Nobel laureate, Brian Schmidt first thought when he received the call that would change his professional career was that it was nothing but an elaborate joke.

Growing your own fish food for aquaponics is the holy grail for many folk wishing to be autonomous and not dependent on commercial fish food pellets.

Researchers from the University of Dallas in Texas have made fact out science fiction. A new cloaking device that uses the "mirage effect" can hide objects from view and even works under water.

Watch out the Abominable Snowman, scientists are out to get you. An international team of scientists including Russian and the U.S. researchers will hunt down the mythical Yeti after a spurt of sightings in Kemerova region of Siberia.

The European Space Agency, counterpart of NASA in the U.S., is willing to provide substantial funding for cost-effective missions to outer planets and outside the solar system as well as studies about the Earth's northern or southern lights and particle acceleration in the sun.

Scientists will launch the Solar Orbiter in 2017 to fly closer to the Sun than ever before in the history of space exploration. In another endeavor, European Space Agency will also launch a space telescope called Euclid in 2019 to explore the "Dark Energy."

Residents at Queensland State are outraged on the improper handling and management of the Queensland government after it failed to inform residents of the toxic gas coming out from explosive blasts in Queensland's giant open-cut coalmines.

Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean declined to its second lowest level on record last month, satellite observations show.

Environment Minister Vicky Darling has admitted water quality could have contributed to the poor health of fish in the Gladstone Harbour, as fishing and environmental groups have questioned the reliability of her report showing no significant changes were observed in the water analysis,

Scientists from various countries are joining forces in their search for the Siberian Yeti. Scientists estimate that there is a current population of at least several dozen Yeti in Kemerovo and the Altai region, considering reported sightings have tripled since 20 years ago.

The head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) underscored the need for sustained cooperation among nations to achieve significant milestones in space exploration endeavors.

NASA said it expects commercial operators to start transporting cargo to space within months. Both NASA and the European Space Agency said governments are still keen on space development efforts even as there is a rise of private business in the industry.