Crop-damaging insects, bacteria, fungus and viruses are moving poleward by nearly 3 kilometers each year, helped by global warming, a study said.A team at Britain’s University of Exeter trawled through two huge databases to chart the latitude and dates for the earliest record of 612 crop pests.Since 1960, these pests have been heading either northwards or southwards at a rate of around 2.7 kilometers yearly.They move into land that opens up for habitat because of higher temperature and its impac

One of the largest genetic investigations into the microbe which causes TB shows the germ followed early humans out of Africa at least 70,000 years ago, scientists say.In a parallel probe, investigators also said they had identified 39 new genes that drive dangerous drug resistance in this germ, Mycobacterium tuberculosis.TB is one of the deadliest diseases in the medical lexicon.Untreated, it kills roughly half the people it infects.Even today, in the era of advanced antibiotics, it causes betw

Life on Earth was kick-started thanks to a key mineral deposited by a meteorite from Mars, according to a novel theory.The vital ingredient was an oxidized mineral form of the element molybdenum, which helped prevent carbon molecules ― the building blocks of life ― from degrading into a tar-like goo.The idea comes from Steven Benner, a professor at the Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in Gainesville, Florida, who was to present it at an international conference of geochemists in F

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Being short on cash may make you a bit slower in the brain, a new study suggests.People worrying about having enough money to pay their bills tend to lose temporarily the equivalent of 13 IQ points, scientists found when they gave intelligence tests to shoppers at a New Jersey mall and farmers in India.The idea is that financial stress monopolizes thinking, making other calculations slower and more difficult, sort of like the effects of going without sleep for a night.And this

NORFOLK, Virginia (AP) ― Federal officials identified a virus as the likely reason hundreds of bottlenose dolphins died along the East Coast, but they say there’s little they can do to stop the deaths.More than 330 dolphins have been stranded between New York and North Carolina since July 1, with nearly all of them dead by the time they wash up on shore, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.That’s more than nine times the historical average for dolphin strandings in the regio

Oceans that grow more acidic through Man‘s fossil fuel burning emissions, can amplify global warming by releasing less of a gas that helps shield Earth from radiation, a study said Sunday.And the authors warned the potentially vast effect they uncovered is not currently factored into climate change projections.Scientists say that Man’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions contribute to planetary warming by letting the Sun‘s heat through the atmosphere but trapping heat energy reflected back from Earth

Nearly eight years have passed since South Korea began developing its latest multipurpose satellite, but the fate of the much anticipated project will be determined in just 15 minutes after liftoff, launch organizers said Thursday.The Arirang 5 satellite was set to be launched at 8:39 p.m. (11:39 p.m. KST) from Russia’s Yasny launch site, some 1,800 kilometers southeast of Moscow, using a Dnepr three-stage rocket converted from Russia‘s conventional intercontinental ballistic missile.In 9.2 seco

AMSTERDAM (AP) ― A rare 16th-century scientific instrument used by early astronomers that has been missing from a Swedish museum for around a decade has been recovered and will be returned this week, the London-based Art Loss Register says.The brass-and-silver astrolabe, made in 1590 and worth around half a million euros ($750,000), turned up when an Italian collector discovered that the piece was listed as missing and came forward to return it, Register Director Chris Marinello said.The collect

HAYWARD, California (AP) ― It took just seconds for a 13-story building overlooking San Francisco Bay to implode, spewing smoke and chunks of concrete as it crumbled into a heap of rubble. But U.S. Geological Survey scientist Rufus Catchings was marveling less at the visual spectacle than what he could feel with his feet.As the building collapsed, the vibrations Catchings noted told him that a novel experiment to study one of the most dangerous fault lines in the country likely was a success. “I