We know a lot about how babies learn to talk, and youngsters learn to read. Now scientists are unraveling the earliest building blocks of math — and what children know about numbers as they begin first grade seems to play a big role in how well they do everyday calculations later on.

The findings have specialists considering steps that parents might take to spur math abilities, just like they do to try to raise a good reader.

More than a quarter of a million Californians live in coastal areas which could be hit by devastating floods from a major tsunami in the quake-prone U.S. state, a new study says.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study, published to mark Tsunami Awareness Week, says tidal waves of eight meters or more could hit northern California following a quake of magnitude 8 or more from a well-known tectonic fault line.

Scientists Tuesday made a rare live addition to the order of primates, unveiling two new species of mouse lemur -- tiny, big-eyed animals that inhabit the forests of Madagascar.

The find brings to 20 the known tally of mouse lemurs, nocturnal tree-dwellers that weigh less than a large apple.

The quest for rare earths vital to some of modern life's most indispensable technologies may see mining robots jet to the stars within decades, a world-first conference in Australia was told Wednesday.

Yttrium, Lanthanum and the other 15 minerals which make up the group of elements known as rare earths are crucial to everything from wind turbines and hybrid cars to cruise missiles and the ubiquitous smartphone.

Slowing the buildup of greenhouse gases responsible for warming the planet is one of the biggest challenges President Barack Obama faces. The effects of rising global temperatures are widespread and costly: more severe storms, rising seas, species extinctions, and changes in weather patterns that will alter food production and the spread of disease.

Politically, the stakes are huge.

Canada welcomed two cute and furry ambassadors on Monday -- giant pandas on loan from China for 10 years to mark a warming of Sino-Canadian ties.

Er Shun and Da Mao landed in Toronto after a nearly 24-hour journey from the Research Base For Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China, aboard a transport jet stocked with in-flight meals of bamboo and apples.

U.S. labs that research bioterror germs such as anthrax are at risk for accidents because they do not have uniform building and operation standards, a Congressional investigative group said on Monday.

A lack of oversight has persisted despite a 2009 report by the Government Accountability Office on the same topic, leaving no single agency in charge of safety or research goals at bioterror labs, the GAO said in its report.

It is perhaps not surprising that there are only a handful of humans on one of the most remote islands on Earth, coral atolls far out in the turquoise seas of the Indian Ocean.

What is unexpected are the 100,000 giant tortoises - more than are found on the world famous Galapagos Islands - with some weighing a staggering 250 kilogrammes (550 pounds) and with shells more that a metre (yard) across.

Six of 19 pilot whales that were stranded Sunday on a beach in the South African city of Cape Town have died and authorities said they planned to euthanize some of the surviving whales.

Police and other rescue workers had hosed down the surviving whales at Noordhoek Beach to try to keep them alive.

Mexican forensic expert Alejandro Hernandez dips dry, yellowish cadavers in a see-through bath, hoping his technique to rehydrate mummified bodies will solve murders in crime-infested Ciudad Juarez.

The city bordering Texas has endured drug-related violence and a wave of murders of women in recent years, with bodies dumped anywhere and drying up quickly in the desert climate, complicating the task of identifying victims and their cause of death.