The esoteric world of theoretical physics went into spasms of enthusiasm last week when Brookhaven National Laboratory announced the identification of a new elementary particle. It is not the biggest particle known or the smallest, and it lives only one ten-billionth of a second. But physicists all over the world were stirred up because it has almost precisely the mass that was predicted for it by long-range theory. It was rather as if Columbus, sailing across the Atlantic, had really found ...

By the time the trumpets sound, the candles have been lit and the salmon platters garnished. Harald V, King of Norway, enters the room, and 200 guests stand to greet him. Then a chorus of 30 men and women, each wearing a blue police uniform, launches into a spirited rendition of "We Are the World." This isn't cabaret night at Oslo's Royal Palace. It's a gala to inaugurate Halden Fengsel, Norway's newest prison. Ten years and 1.5 billion Norwegian kroner ...

The promise of biofuels like ethanol is that they will someday help the world grow its way out of its addiction to oil. Nine billion gallons of corn ethanol were produced in the U.S. in 2008, while countries like Brazil have already widely replaced gasoline with ethanol from sugar cane and countless start-ups are working to bring cellulosic and other second-generation biofuels to market. The reasoning is that if we use greener biofuels in place of gasoline, ...

That's what the latest analysis of national health data on adolescents shows. Between 1988-94 and 2005-06, the percentage of teens with hearing loss jumped by about a third, from 15% of 12-to-19-year-olds to 19.5%. And the reason may not be the ubiquitous earphones that snake from nearly every teen's ears during most hours of the day. A team headed by Dr. Josef Shargorodsky, an ear, nose and throat specialist at Channing Laboratory at Brigham and Women's ...

Singer Stephen Gately, a member of the Irish band Boyzone, died of natural causes, a court spokeswoman on the Spanish island of Majorca said Tuesday. The court spokeswoman, who by custom is not identified, said Gately, 33, died Saturday of acute pulmonary edema, according to preliminary autopsy reports. There was no sign of violence in his death, the spokeswoman said. The judge has authorized Gately's family to transfer the body out of Spain, the spokeswoman added. According to the Mayo ...

It's the most complex construction project in history. Flying 250 miles overhead, the international space station can be seen with the naked eye, orbiting the Earth every 90 minutes, usually carrying a crew of six. Now, before construction of the station is even complete, there is already talk of when the lights will be turned off. NASA is waiting for the Obama administration to decide how much longer the station will fly and exactly which direction the U.S. space agency ...

Scientists at NASA have discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- one so large that it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it. The ring's orbit is tilted 27 degrees from the planet's main ring plane. The bulk of it starts about 3.7 million miles (6 million km) away from the planet and extends outward another 7.4 million miles (12 million km). Its diameter is equivalent to 300 Saturns lined up side to side. And its entire volume ...

The days of being able to walk through airport security checkpoints while wearing shoes and a jacket could return if an experimental program proves successful, some Department of Homeland Security officials say. The Homeland Security-funded project is Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST. Instead of focusing on whether you have hidden explosives or whether you're carrying a weapon, sensors and cameras located at security checkpoints would measure the natural signals coming from your body -- your heart rate, breathing, eye ...

Talks with Iran on its nuclear program might be more urgent after the Islamic republic's revelations of a second nuclear facility but trust will be an impediment, former President Bill Clinton said Friday. The terms of the negotiations will make or break the talks, Clinton said in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Now that Iran knows its nuclear facilities have been discovered, discussions might be worthwhile, Clinton said. Clinton compared it to past negotiations with Iraq. "It's just like ...

A 14-year-old boy allegedly beaten at a boot camp in China for young Internet addicts was in critical condition Thursday, less than three weeks after a youth at a different camp died, Chinese state media reported. Internet use has skyrocketed in China, especially among teens. And Chinese parents have turned to hundreds of training camps that offer to wean their children -- mostly teenagers -- from excessive Internet use. There are at least 400 private rehabilitation clinics or camps in ...