approximately 37 million km² – or around ¼ of the world’s land mass – is covered by natural forest, a habitat which is home to the majority of the planet’s wildlife, so it’s no surprise that scientists are eager to study as much of the planet’s forest canopy as possible...

The European Extremely Large Telescope will dwarf all other telescopes. In 1609 Galileo’s “Old Discoverer” had a lens an inch in diameter. Now the Keck Observatory on top of a mountain in Hawaii has two mirrors, each of them 10m across, that are so smooth and so perfect that even if they were...

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Bars, pubs, and taverns of the world can hold as much history as any museum and present as much drama as any theater. Members and editors of travel website VirtualTourist.com (www.virtualtourist.com) have come up with a list of the world’s 10 most legendary bars....

The government announced Friday night that it had seized all of Bernard Madoff’s property in a deal that also forces his wife to give up homes and property worth millions. Federal prosecutors obtained a $170 billion legal judgment against Madoff. Madoff, 71, masterminded the largest and most sweeping...

Brazil’s president Lula has approved a controversial law which grants land rights to squatters occupying land in the Amazon — campaigners fear it will result in a further increase in deforestation of the Amazon region. The law – known as “provisional measure 458″ –...

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A funky, psychedelic fish that bounces on the ocean floor like a rubber ball has been classified as a new species, a scientific journal reported. The frogfish – which has a swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes that extend from its aqua eyes to its tail – was first discovered...

The oldest and largest trees within California’s world famous Yosemite National Park are disappearing. Climate change appears to be a major cause of the loss. The revelation comes from an analysis of data collected over 60 years by forest ecologists. They say one worrying aspect of the decline is...

A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers. By using gene transfer technology that produces molecules that block infection, the scientists protected...

Sittin on the porch countin squirrels this weekend? Email those numbers to a Chicago scientist and you can take part in a citizen-science project that has implications not just for the furry tree-dwelling varmints, but for animals and ecosystems throughout the world. The Chicago Academy of Sciences...

Since the ratification of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, many species have been saved from extinction. For over three decades, the Endangered Species Act has served as America’s safety net for wildlife. Its purpose, to protect fish, plants and wildlife from going extinct is yet to be reached but...