WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have discovered the world's largest bacterium in a Caribbean mangrove swamp.
Most bacteria are microscopic, but this one is so big it can be seen with the naked eye.
BOSTON (AP) — NASA wants its moon dust and cockroaches back.
The space agency has asked Boston-based RR Auction to halt the sale of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that had subsequently been fed to cockroaches during an experiment to determine if the lunar rock contained any sort of pathogen that posed a threat to terrestrial life.
Amazon’s Alexa might soon replicate the voice of family members - even if they’re dead.
The capability, unveiled at Amazon’s Re:Mars conference in Las Vegas, is in development and would allow the virtual assistant to mimic the voice of a specific person based on a less than a minute of provided recording.
ATTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man and woman face fines of $500 each after they took a raccoon to a pet store to shop for food and a store worker ratted them out, authorities said.
A state Department of Environmental Conservation police officer got an urgent call from the Erie County Department of Health about a potentially rabid raccoon on June 2, the department said in a news release.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State University has won its fight to trademark the word “The.”
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved the university’s request Tuesday. The school says it allows Ohio State to control use of “The” on branded products associated with and sold through athletics and collegiate channels, such as T-shirts, baseball caps and hats.
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — A team of biologists recently hauled in the heaviest Burmese python ever captured in Florida, officials said.
The female python weighed in at 215 pounds (98 kilograms), was nearly 18 feet long (5 meters) and had 122 developing eggs, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida said in a news release.
BANGKOK (AP) — The world’s largest recorded freshwater fish, a giant stingray, has been caught in the Mekong River in Cambodia, according to scientists from the Southeast Asian nation and the United States.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Disney workers traded their character costumes for yoga pants early Tuesday and planked, did the downward dog and folded into lotus poses at Walt Disney World in Florida to celebrate International Yoga Day.
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s the end of the line for many of the old subway cars that remain in New York City rail yards.
When New York City put R-32s into service in the mid-1960s, people called the shiny new train cars “Brightliners.” Over several decades, millions of people have traveled on R-32s, but the days when the iconic stainless steel cars were used to transport passengers are long gone.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — An aardvark cub born at the San Diego Zoo is doing well and developing quickly, according to wildlife specialists.
The female cub was born May 10 and will nurse from her mother, Zola, for about six months, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance said this week in announcing the zoo's first aardvark birth in nearly four decades.
MIAMI (AP) — Flanked by a huge writhing snake, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday that the annual prize-winning hunt for invasive Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades will begin Aug. 5.
People must register to participate and complete an online training course for the event, which typically draws hundreds from across the country.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A minister in Pakistan's newly elected government faced criticism Wednesday following his plea to the nation to drink less tea to help save on imports amid a deepening economic crisis.
CHICAGO (AP) — Frank Schwindel's eephus pitch last weekend attracted the attention of Stephen Colbert.
The Chicago Cubs first baseman made his second pitching appearance of the season during Sunday's 18-4 loss at the New York Yankees.
The FBI either lied to a federal judge about having video of its secretive 2018 dig for Civil War-era gold, or illegally destroyed the video to prevent a father-son team of treasure hunters from gaining access to it, an attorney for the duo asserted in new legal filings that allege a government cover-up.
Chelsea Blackwell's dachshund, Blue, disappeared Monday, and the distraught owner went in search.
She drove for an hour before coming upon a line of squad cars and people with cameras near the Greyhound bus station in Albany, New York, and set aside her search to investigate.
STONE HARBOR, N.J. (AP) — The circle of life was on vivid display Wednesday at the Jersey Shore in a way that even the youngest children could understand.
Seventeen young turtles that had been raised from eggs retrieved from the smashed bodies of mothers killed on roads were released back into the wild by a class of kindergartners.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Have you thought about Malm, Kivik or Trotten?
Swedish retailer Ikea is known for the distinctive names of its flat-pack home products. The company's Norway branch wants to use the brand's experience to help parents browsing the baby-naming department.
SALEM, Mass. (AP) — In the wiggle of a nose, a man partially covered the “Bewitched” statue in Salem with red paint, police said.
Witnesses called police at about 5 p.m. Monday to report someone spray painting the bronze statue, Capt.
An Iditarod sled dog was found safe after disappearing from a checkpoint in the race three months ago and covering nearly 150 miles, the Iditarod Trail Committee said Saturday.
Musher Sebastien Dos Santos Borges of France was picking Leon up and returning with him to France, the trail committee said in a statement.
TOKYO (AP) — An 83-year-old Japanese adventurer returned home Saturday after successfully completing his solo, nonstop voyage across the Pacific, becoming the oldest person to reach the milestone.
Kenichi Horie arrived in the Kii Strait off Japan’s western coast, completing his trans-Pacific voyage in 69 days after leaving a yacht harbor in San Francisco in March.
OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — A speller has been reinstated into the Scripps National Spelling Bee field after successfully appealing that he was denied relevant root information about a word.
PESCADERO, Calif. (AP) — A quick-thinking custodian safely confined a curious cougar in an empty classroom after it entered a Northern California high school Wednesday morning, authorities said.
The custodian was opening Pescadero High for the school day when the juvenile mountain lion was spotted, said Detective Javier Acosta with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas chapels of love that use Elvis Presley's likeness could find themselves becoming Heartbreak Hotels.
The licensing company that controls the name and image of “The King” is ordering Sin City chapel operators to stop using Elvis in themed ceremonies, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported on Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists have discovered the world's largest plant off the Australia coast — a seagrass meadow that has grown by repeatedly cloning itself.
Genetic analysis has revealed that the underwater fields of waving green seagrass are a single organism covering 70 square miles (180 square kilometers) through making copies of itself over 4,500 years.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A black bear wandered into Albany, climbed a tree several blocks from the state Capitol and rested on branches about 30 feet (nine meters) up Tuesday before workers tranquilized the animal and caught it in a net.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — For 60 years, Ted Sams regretted missing his high school graduation.
Now 78, Sams can finally call himself a graduate after donning a cap and gown and receiving his diploma Friday with the class of 2022 at Southern California's San Gabriel High School.
PARIS (AP) — A man seemingly disguised as an old woman in a wheelchair threw a piece of cake at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum and shouted at people to think of planet Earth.
A scientific analysis commissioned by the FBI shortly before agents went digging for buried treasure suggested that a huge quantity of gold could be below the surface, according to newly released government documents and photos that deepen the mystery of the 2018 excavation in remote western Pennsylvania.
BURRILLVILLE, R.I. (AP) — The Rhode Island farmhouse that inspired the 2013 horror movie “The Conjuring” has been sold to a Boston developer who plans to keep it open to the public.
The 18th century home in Burrillville sold for $1.525 million on Thursday, far higher than the $1.2 million asking price.
BOSTON (AP) — It took more than three centuries, but the last Salem “witch” who wasn’t has been officially pardoned.
Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr., clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nation's largest wildfire as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West.
OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) — A man who as a child had a brief but key role in “Jaws” has been named police chief on the Massachusetts island on which the 1975 movie was partially filmed.
Jonathan Searle was offered the job of police chief in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard last week.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A couple hundred people grabbed their pool noodles and headed to a Nebraska park again this weekend to battle over the right to the name Josh.
The event started as an online joke when Josh Swain from Tucson, Arizona, sent out a tweet challenging anyone who shared his name to fight over it.