New advances in hearing aids and medical imaging may be possible thanks to a tiny insect from the South American jungle, according to a study released Thursday.

The South American bush cricket, also called the katydid, has some of the smallest ears of any creature on the planet.

Freestyle rap, an improvised style of the music genre associated with back-to-front baseball caps, baggy jeans and gold chains, has burst onto the science stage, shedding light on the workings of the brain.

Researchers at the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders in the United States have examined freestyle rappers' brains to see which areas light up during the creative phase.

Australia Friday created the world's largest network of marine reserves, protecting a huge swathe of ocean environment despite claims it will devastate the fishing industry.

The announcement, after years of planning and consultation, will significantly expand the protection of creatures such as the blue whale, green turtle, critically endangered populations of grey nurse sharks, and dugongs.

Brazilian researchers are turning to cloning to help fight the perilous decline of several animal species.

The scientists at Brazil's Embrapa agriculture research agency said this week they have spent two years building a gene library with hundreds of samples from eight native species, including the collared anteater, the bush dog, the black lion tamarin, the coati, and deer and bison varieties, as well as the leopard and the maned wolf.

A scientific method used in a landmark U.N. report that said warming was intensifying global drought is badly flawed, a study published on Wednesday said.

Contrary to what the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested in 2007, there is little evidence that global droughts have become longer or more extreme in recent decades, it said.

Scientists have identified a new gene variant that seems to strongly raise the risk for Alzheimer's disease, giving a fresh target for research into treatments for the mind-robbing disorder.

The problem gene is not common — less than 1 percent of people are thought to have it — but it roughly triples the chances of developing Alzheimer's compared to people with the normal version of the gene. It also seems to harm memory and thinking in older people without dementia.

American Samoa is banning shark fishing in its waters in hopes of stopping the population's decline.

American Samoa is among a number of Pacific islands to record a dramatic drop in shark numbers. Sharks are often harvested for their fins, which typically end up in restaurants as shark-fin soup.

Scientists in Brazil will try cloning endangered animal species like the jaguar, a researcher said Wednesday.

"The idea is to start with an animal that is endangered, or where species numbers have gone down sharply, such as the jaguar, the maned wolf or even the local deer," said Carlos Frederico Martins, a researcher with Embrapa Cerrado.

Austrian experts say melting glaciers have been the single greatest cause of rising sea level over the past century.

Scientists at the respected University of Innsbruck say that between 1902 and 2007, glaciers contributed 11 centimeters (4.33 inches) to a total sea level rise of about 20 centimeters (nearly 8 inches).

Astronomers on Wednesday reported they had detected a planet that had strayed from its star system and was wandering alone in deep space.

Object CFBDSIR2149 is believed to be a cold, young world that for unknown reasons has pulled free of the gravitational pull of its mother star, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) said.