For decades, the strange substance called dark matter has teased physicists, challenging conventional notions of the cosmos.Today, though, scientists believe that with the help of multi-billion-dollar tools, they are closer than ever to piercing the mystery -- and the first clues may be unveiled just weeks from now."We are so excited because we believe we are on the threshold of a major discovery," said Michael Turner, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of

The twin punch of a meteor raining destruction on remote Russia and an asteroid hurtling past Earth prompted calls from scientists and political leaders for greater vigilance to combat risks from the heavens. The meteor exploded Thursday over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains, causing shock waves that shattered windows over 50 acres and injured 1,200 residents. The meteor struck 16 hours before an asteroid half the size of a U.S. football field flew within 17,200 miles of Earth,

The light signatures of lichens and algae reflected in a distant planet's distinctive coloring could be evidence of alien life, German researchers say.Seen from space, Earth gives off a large amount of near-infrared light reflected off the chlorophyll in plants, and similar light wavelength might be seen on distant exoplanets if they also host green vegetation, they said.However, Siddharth Hegde and Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, said they thin

Domestic dogs are more likely to steal food if they think nobody's watching, suggesting they understand a human's point of view, a British researcher says.Psychologist Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth has demonstrated when a human forbids a dog from taking food, the dog is four times more likely to disobey in a dark room than a lighted one, suggesting they're taking into account what the human can or cannot see."That's incredible because it implies dogs understand the human can't

PARIS (AFP) ― Scientists on Monday said that for the first time they had printed 3D objects using human embryonic stem cells, furthering the quest to fabricate transplantable organs.Once fine-tuned, the technology should allow scientists to make three-dimensional human tissue in the lab, eliminating the need for organ donation or testing on animals, they reported.Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can replicate indefinitely and become almost any type of cell in the human body.They are touted as