SPACE.com - Two NASA astronauts will make a bit of history next month when they become the first female spacecraft commanders to lead their orbital missions at the same time.

AFP - Hurricane Humberto blasted across southeast Texas Thursday as it headed toward Louisiana, packing strong winds and triggering fears of flooding, US forecasters...

AP - Hurricane Humberto made landfall early Thursday just west of the Texas-Louisiana state line, lashing the area with heavy rain and strong wind...

AP - A second powerful earthquake in as many days jolted Southeast Asia and triggered a regional tsunami warning Thursday, sending panicked residents fleeing by foot, motorcycle and...

Reuters - Hurricane Humberto made landfall on the Texas coast as a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (137 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on...

AP - The former head of an oil field services company testified Wednesday that he paid a lawmaker nearly $8,000 to help keep him in office and advocate for the construction of a natural gas pipeline tapping the state's vast North Slope...

AP - The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered," one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Species released Wednesday by the World Conservation...

AP - The international Cassini spacecraft went into safe mode this week after successfully passing over a Saturn moon that was the mysterious destination of a deep-space faring astronaut in Arthur C. Clarke's novel "2001: A Space...

AP - NASA e-mails released Wednesday indicate the space agency was looking for ways to prevent astronaut meltdowns just three months before one-time shuttle flier Lisa Nowak was arrested in a scandalous love triangle.

AP - Encrusted with tiny shells and smelling strongly of the sea, a 2,400-year-old Greek jar lies in a saltwater bath in Durres Museum, on Albania's Adriatic...

AP - Climate change is affecting Europe faster than the rest of the world and rising temperatures could transform the Mediterranean into a salty and stagnant sea, Italian experts said...

AP - Eating less meat could help slow global warming by reducing the number of livestock and thereby decreasing the amount of methane flatulence from the animals, scientists said on...

AP - A kilogram just isn't what it used to be. The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight — if ever so...

AP - Bowing to a request from Gov. Charlie Crist, state wildlife commissioners voted Wednesday to delay a decision on whether to reclassify the manatee from an endangered to a threatened species.

U.S. News & World Report - J. Craig Venter sparked nationwide excitement in 2000 when his company, Celera Genomics, set out to sequence the human genome independently from the publicly funded Human Genome Project. Celera's "shotgun sequencing" method allowed Celera to complete the mission in only nine months, compared with the 15 years and around $3 billion the Human Genome Project...

LiveScience.com - More than 16,300 species of animals and plants are on the verge of disappearing from the planet, with nearly 200 more species approaching extinction within the last year, according to the World Conservation Union's 2007 Red List of Threatened Species.

AFP - A massive 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Wednesday, toppling buildings and triggering a tsunami alert across the Indian Ocean...

AP - A tropical storm warning was issued Wednesday for parts of the Texas and Louisiana coasts as a tropical depression intensified in the Gulf of Mexico. Rain was already falling in the two states, and forecasters warned it could cause...

Reuters - The trial of former NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak on charges she attacked a romantic rival has been postponed until next year to allow prosecutors time to prepare for an insanity defense, according to a court...

AP - The life expectancy for Americans is nearly 78 years, the longest in U.S. history, according to new government figures from 2005 released Thursday.

LiveScience.com - Two reptile-like animals living 290 million years ago are the oldest creatures to have their footprints positively identified after a fortuitous discovery allowed scientists to match fossils to preserved trackways.

AP - Most of a cold front over the East Coast will push offshore early Wednesday, but the southern portion of the front is expected to remain over an area from the Carolinas through the Gulf...

AP - Africanized honeybees, a fierce hybrid strain sometimes referred to as "killer bees," appear to have established themselves in the New Orleans area, the state agriculture commissioner said.

AP - China has selected a pair of giant pandas — Wangwang and Funi — to send to the Adelaide Zoo, an official said Wednesday, in a goodwill gesture announced during a recent visit to Australia by President Hu Jintao.