The world's first flight powered entirely by bio jet fuel will take off next month from Ottawa, the fuel makers announced Thursday.

Applied Research Associates and Agrisoma Biosciences partnered with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to develop a "sustainable source of renewable energy" for the commercial airline industry.

The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour arrived Thursday in California, where it will make a spectacular series of flypasts before finally heading into retirement near where it was built.

Riding piggyback on a specially fitted Boeing 747, the shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force base north of Los Angeles after stopping overnight in Texas, while en route from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

NASA's Curiosity Rover will study its first martial rock Friday, more than a month after landing on the Red Planet, mission officials said.

Mars Science Laboratory project scientist John Grotzinger said the rover drove for another 100 feet (30 meters) last night, for a total travel distance of 950 feet so far.

Arctic sea ice has shrunk to its smallest surface area since record-keeping began, taking the world into "uncharted territory" as climate change intensifies, U.S. scientists warned Wednesday.

Satellite images show the ice cap has melted to 1.32 million square miles (3.4 million square kilometers) as of September 16, the predicted lowest point for the year.

Chinese researchers have cracked open the genetic code of the Pacific oyster, shedding light on an ancient creature that plays a key role in the ecosystem, a study published on Wednesday showed.

A peek into the genome of Crassostrea gigas points to a treasure trove of genes to help the mollusc cope with environmental stress, from varying salinity and desiccation to exposure to bacteria and toxic metals.

Scientists in the United States on Wednesday reported making a souped-up material that beats the record for converting waste heat into power, an exploit they hope will be incorporated into clean energy investment.

Described by an independent comentator as "a giant leap", the material achieves the highest efficiency ever for scavenging heat from a source and transforming it into power, its inventors said.

Space shuttle Endeavour has lifted off on its final journey.

The youngest U.S. shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center in Florida at sunrise Wednesday on the first leg of its flight to California. It's bolted to the top of a jumbo jet.

China has added two more satellites to a global navigation network that will eventually compete with America's Global Positioning System.

State media say the 14th and 15th satellites in the Beidou system were launched aboard a single Long March 3B rocket early Wednesday. The system, whose name means compass in English, is due to have 35 satellites in total by its 2020 completion date.

In the far north of Siberia, Russian scientists have stepped up research on a once-secret deposit of diamonds whose scale dwarfs anything ever discovered and could turn world markets "upside down".

Soviet scientists had in the 1970s uncovered the 100-kilometer (60-mile) Popigai Crater left by a huge asteroid in Siberia 35 million years ago.

Scientists in California have shed light on a marine mystery: how diving mammals can hunt for food at great depths without getting the "bends," according to a study published on Tuesday.

Formally known as depression sickness, the bends occur when nitrogen gas, compressed in the bloodstream at depth, expands during ascent, causing pain and sometimes death.