Nasty, home-wrecking 'crazy' ants even drive out fire ants in Southeast

Invasive fire ants have been a thorn in the sides of Southerners for years. But another invasive species, the so-called "crazy" ant — which many describe as being worse — has arrived and is displacing fire ants in several places."When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back," said Edward LeBrun, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin

Puzzling! Swine flu virus detected in elephant seals off West Coast

The H1N1 virus strain that caused a 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans was detected in northern elephant seals off the coast of central California.Scientists say this is the first time marine mammals have been found to carry the H1N1 flu strain, which originated in pigs. The seals seem to have picked up the virus while at sea, but it's unclear how this happened."We thought we might find influenza v

Scientists create world's tiniest drops of liquid in biggest atom smasher

Scientists think they've created the smallest drops of liquid ever — the size of only three to five protons.The droplets were made inside the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, where particles are sped up to near light speed and then smashed together. When researchers collided protons with lead nuclei, they were surprised to find that the result was tee

Fed's chairman tells graduates that the best tech is yet to come

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says pessimists forecasting that the economy will not reap sizable benefits from the computer revolution are likely to be proven wrong.Bernanke told a college graduating class Saturday that the long-range practical consequences of innovations such as faster computers and the Internet are hard to predict. But he said inventors have only scratc...

Teen's invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds

Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student's invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds.The fast-charging device is a so-called supercapacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges qu

'Wild, Wild Web,' Part 1: Online romance gets reality check

Students can't resist distraction for two minutes ... and neither can you

Are gadgets making us dumber? Two new studies suggest they might be. One found that people who are interrupted by technology score 20 percent lower on a standard cognition test. A second demonstrated that some students, even when on their best behavior, can't concentrate on homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves by using social media or writing an email.Interruptions are

Scientists respond to planet hunter's plight with pointers – and poetry

NASA is getting plenty of advice — and sympathy — as it assesses whether its Kepler planet-hunting telescope can be revived after the failure of its reaction-control system. The reactions from scientists and engineers range from repair tips to an Audenesque elegy. Here's a sampling:How to fix KeplerThe reason why the $600 million Kepler spacecraft can no longer search for planetary transits is tha

Buggy hordes of cicadas sighted in Virginia ... but New York? Not yet

There's been a groundswell of 17-year cicadas in Virginia and other southern states, as revealed by a fresh wave of photos and eyewitness reports. In some areas, the outbreak has been accompanied by the insects' loud chorus call. And that's music to the ears of University of Connecticut entomologist John Cooley."That's where I'm heading," Cooley told NBC News. The weather is still too cool in New

Microscopic crystal 'flowers' build themselves in a Harvard lab

Imagine peering into a microscope and finding yourself in a garden.That's the case at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where researchers have found a way to shape microscopic crystals into complex and often beautiful structures.Inspired by coral reefs, seashells and other naturally occurring complex mineral structures, postdoctoral fellow Wim L. Noorduin and Harvard colleague...

Bigger than an ocean liner, asteroid 1998 QE2 will zip by Earth this month

By Mike WallSpace.comA big asteroid will cruise by Earth at the end of the month, making its closest approach to our planet for at least the next two centuries.The May 31 flyby of asteroid 1998 QE2, which is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) long, poses no threat to Earth. The space rock will come within 3.6 million miles (5.8 million km) of our planet — about 15 times the distance separating Earth

Nintendo wants totake YouTube profits back from its players

YouTube has always proved fertile ground for the entrepreneurial and tech savvy. But gamers may soon be getting the short end of the stick.That's if Nintendo has anything to do with it. The Japanese gaming giant revealed this week that YouTube clips featuring gameplay from Nintendo titles will now display advertising, meaning that any resulting ad revenue will go back to Nintendo rather than the u

Facebook shutters page that taunted lawmaker's push to curb military rape

A "direct threat" against a U.S. congresswoman — posted on a military-oriented Facebook page that graphically belittled her and her efforts to stem sexual misconduct within the branches — has been referred to U.S. Capitol Police for investigation. The threat was made last week against Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and her husband shortly after Speier sent a letter May 8 to Defense Secretary Chuck

Could photo magic lure you over to Google+ (and away from Facebook)?

During the Google I/O developers conference this week, the tech giant unveiled a slew of new photo-related features now available on Google+. Could those features — which work their magic without any user intervention — be what lures some away from the billion-user mammoth that is Facebook and into Google's 190-million-user "ghost town" over time?"I remember, about nine months ago, we were doing s

MIT's Cheetah-bot gallops into your post-apocalyptic nightmares

An ongoing robotics project at MIT aiming to recreate the gait of a cheetah is sharing a new video showing off the latest progress. There's a long way to go before anyone would call it catlike, but it's impressive nevertheless.The Biomimetic Robotics Lab at MIT is attempting to create things much like those being made by the more well-known Boston Dynamics, whose creepily realistic robots frequent

Ottawa earthquake felt widely because of old bedrock

By Becky OskinLiveScienceThe moderate magnitude-4.4 earthquake that rattled Canada and the Northeast Friday morning made a big impact thanks to old bedrock.Quakes on the East Coast are generally more widely felt than out West because of differences in the Earth's crust between the two regions, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). East of the Rockies, earthquakes of the same size are oft

Nintendo's 'software problem' for the Wii U just went from bad to worse

Friday, Nintendo took to its online Nintendo Direct platform to announce the latest batch of games for the new Wii U console. Most of the games showcased were standard Nintendo fare — Mario, Luigi, and Pikmin all made big appearances. The company even announced a new partnership with Sega to bring several "Sonic the Hedgehog" titles exclusively to the Wii U and Nintendo's popular mobile gaming con

Nasty 'crazy' ants even drive out fire ants in Southeast

By Douglas Main LiveScienceInvasive fire ants have been a thorn in the sides of Southerners for years. But another invasive species, the so-called "crazy" ant — that many describe as being worse — has arrived and is displacing fire ants in several places."When you talk to folks who live in the invaded areas, they tell you they want their fire ants back," said Edward LeBrun, a researcher at the Uni

Rock slams into moon, sparks giant explosion

By Clara MoskowitzSpace.comThe moon has a new hole on its surface thanks to a boulder that slammed into it in March, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen on the moon since they started monitoring it.The meteorite crashed on March 17, slamming into the lunar surface at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph) and creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 meters). The crash sparked a brig

In ancient Egypt, summer was the season for making babies

By Owen JarusLiveScienceThe peak period for baby-making sex in ancient Egypt was in July and August, when the weather was at its hottest.Researchers made this discovery at a cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt whose burials date back around 1,800 years. The oasis is located about 450 miles (720 kilometers) southwest of Cairo. The people buried in the cemetery lived in the ancient town of Kellis

Virgin birth or hanky-panky? Anteater mom sparks a scientific debate

Is it a case of anteater virgin birth, a hormonal quirk or just some desperate hanky-panky? Whatever it is, Armani the anteater's surprising pregnancy has sparked a debate over what animals are capable of when it comes to sex.The story unfolded at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center in Greenwich, Conn.: Last month, Armani gave birth to a cute baby pup named Archie. The only problem was, Archie

Student's self-driving car tech wins Intel science fair

When self-driving cars reach the masses, thanks may be due to a 19-year-old high-school student from Romania who developed an artificial intelligence that slashes the cost of the technology. He took top prize — a $75,000 scholarship — Friday at an international science and engineering fair.Self-driving cars are nothing new. Tech giant Google, for example, has been working on one since 2010. But G.

Fallout from huge solar flare to sideswipe Earth

By Mike WallSpace.comA huge explosion on the sun will deal Earth a glancing blow Friday but should not pose a threat to the planet, scientists say.The sun storm erupted late Tuesday during a powerful solar flare — the fourth unleashed by a single sunspot in just 48 hours — and hurled a massive cloud of charged particles out into space at millions of miles an hour.Such eruptions — known as coronal

Should FBI manhunts use drones? US lawmakers debate

At Friday's house hearing on privacy and domestic drones, government representatives and civil rights advocates tried to wrap their brains around a drone-filled future.Once drones are a common sight as scheduled in 2015, activists have suggested that privacy laws need an update. Police drones, for example, are already proving their use, but will privacy be threatened by more capable technology? Wh

The smartphone effect: Olympus cuts low-end cameras from lineup

It's taken awhile, but cheap point-and-shoots are beginning to actually disappear from the market because of the increasingly ubiquitous smartphone. Camera manufacturer Olympus has decided to cease production of its budget V series of cameras — will Canon, Sony, and others follow their lead?The Wall Street Journal reports that Olympus, blaming lower-than-expected demand, will no longer make their

Smuggled dinosaur's return may boost Mongolian paleontology

By Wynne ParryLiveScience When Mongolia’s most famous dinosaur, a relative of T. rex, returns to the Asian country on Saturday, it returns to a homeland rich in dinosaur fossils, but with scant resources to display and study them.But there are signs this dinosaur's celebrity status — the Tarbosaurus skeleton made headlines as the subject of a custody battle and federal smuggling case here in the U

Don't want to be tracked? Turn cellphone off, says magistrate

Don't want your location to be tracked on your cellphone by police? Just turn the GPS off, otherwise you've got no expectation of privacy, a federal magistrate said recently in a ruling. The ACLU calls the decision an "opinion straight from the Twilight Zone," as well as a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protections against illegal search-and-seizure.The case involves a New York doctor who was

Astronaut won't let gravity's ill effects bring him down

By Irene KlotzReutersCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Back on Earth, Canadian astronaut and cyberspace tweeter Chris Hadfield is getting a rough re-introduction to gravity after a five-month stint aboard the International Space Station, the former commander told reporters during a video webcast from Houston. Hadfield became a social media rock star with his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's "Space Oddit

Pro-Assad hackers attack Financial Times

LONDON (Reuters) - The website and Twitter feed of the Financial Times were hacked on Friday, apparently by the "Syrian Electronic Army", a group of online activists who say they support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.The group posted links on the newspaper's Twitter feed to a YouTube video, uploaded on Wednesday, which purports to show members of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front Syrian rebel...

Minnesota lakes are loaded with chemicals -- even cocaine

By Emily SohnDiscovery NewsFrom urban and developed to remote and isolated, lakes around Minnesota contain a wide range of chemicals, including DEET, BPA, prescription drugs and even cocaine.The findings, which came out of the first large-scale, systematic statewide study, suggest that it might be worth taking a wider look at bodies of water around the country for chemicals that have potential con