Oral arguments are scheduled to begin Dec. 13 for a legal case challenging Hawaii's decision to grant a permit for the construction of the world's largest optical telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea.

Opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope appealed a Board of Land and Natural Resources decision to the Third Circuit Court in Hilo in May.

Citrus production in Florida, the world's second largest orange juice supplier after Brazil, is being threatened by a bacteria from Asia that has scientists racing for a remedy.

Known as citrus greening, the disease makes oranges bitter and fall from the tree before they can ripen.

New Zealand authorities said Tuesday that eight endangered kiwi birds have died from respiratory infections while being treated at Wellington Zoo, in a loss described as "a tragedy" for conservation efforts.

The eight birds were all juvenile rowi kiwi, the rarest sub-species of New Zealand's emblematic flightless birds, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said.

NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

The printers would serve as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them to build exquisite jewelry.

Russia on Monday successfully launched a Proton-M rocket with a European communication satellite on board, marking a return of its most important unmanned space vehicle three months after one exploded on takeoff.

The launch from the Baikonur space center that Russia leases from the neighboring Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan had been originally scheduled for July 21.

Researchers in Sweden said Friday they had developed a new medicine to protect bees from diseases that kill entire populations of the insect in the U.S. and Europe.

A team of microbiologists at Lund University have patented the treatment, known as SymBeeotic -- made from lactic acid bacteria from the stomachs of healthy bees -- which they described as a major "boost" to bees' immune system and are hopeful that it could slow down the rate at which bees are dying.

Top U.N. experts have just delivered the first volume of a massive new climate change report, but already whispers are starting to be heard: Will it be the last such review?

By the end of 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should have delivered all three tomes, plus a synthesis of the trio, of only its fifth such report in more than a quarter-century of existence.

The Georgia Aquarium is giving visitors the chance to peer inside the bodies of giant sea creatures.

The exhibit, "Sea Monsters Revealed: Aquatic Bodies," includes the preserved bodies of shark and other animals with their flesh stripped away to expose muscles, bones and organs underneath.

A noisy technology that blasts high-frequency sounds below water to map the ocean for oil probably caused the deaths of 75 melon-headed whales off Madagascar, experts said Thursday.

An independent panel of scientists found that sonar surveying by ExxonMobil in late May 2008 led to the sudden displacement of around 100 whales, of which at least three-quarters died.

Years of training cause structural changes in a ballerina's brain that help her stay balanced in the pirouette, said a report Friday that may aid the treatment of chronic dizziness.

Brain scans of professional ballerinas revealed differences from other people in two parts of the brain: one that processes input from the balancing organs in the inner ear, and another responsible for the perception of dizziness.