Thousands of coal fires burn around the world; in the U.S., more than 100 underground fires are burning in at least nine states. Some have been burning for decades, but although they present a health and environmental hazard, they have been difficult to extinguish.

Tired of waiting for a chance to fly to the moon? The Open Space Movement, a platform for anyone interested in developing and funding aerospace technology to share ideas, is here — and its founders hope to jet us ahead toward the future of aerospace engineering.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the city is better prepared for another storm, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

Debate continues over how much oil remains in the Gulf from last April's spill — but one thing we do know, thanks to a new study, is that in addition to the oil visible at the surface, the leaking well produced a subsurface plume of oil 1,100 meters deep.

When disaster struck Haiti in January, scientists thought they knew the culprit. But new research shows an unknown fault may have been behind the deadly earthquake.

Archaeologists have discovered a 67,000-year-old foot bone in the Philippines that may be the earliest evidence of modern humans in Southeast Asia. But the bone's small size and unusual features make it difficult to determine which species of hominin it really was.

After a hiatus of decades, geoengineering and weather modification are once again hot topics. But is the federal government ready to invest in this research?

Can the carbon dioxide emitted by volcanoes really be considered "missing science" in the climate change debate, as a 2009 bestselling book claimed? No — the real missing science, geologist Terry Gerlach says, is when popular books don't include the most recent or accurate data to support their claims.

Researchers have now mapped the world's forest canopies, which not only shows where the tallest trees are, but also may reveal how much carbon the forests hold.

Millions of years ago, a large asteroid slammed into what is today northeastern Russia and formed a giant lake. In 2009, scientists traveled to this remote region to drill into the sediments at the bottom of the lake — which could provide an unparalleled record of high-latitude climate change over the last 3.6 million years.

Now that the oil spill may at last be capped, what will happen to the oil already in the Gulf? With so many variables, much of its fate is uncertain. But a team of scientists at the University of Hawaii is giving it a try, with a simulation of the likely path of the floating part of the spill through next April.

An independent review has cleared the climatologists involved in "Climategate" of any wrongdoing. But it does have some strong advice for all scientists regarding the scientific method and openness.

What should scientists say if the truth is they are quite uncertain about what might happen in the future, as is usually the case? It is a real dilemma, but there is a need for plain talk — admitting what scientists don't know and simultaneously telling people how to prepare for natural hazards.

Government research and development is limited by time, money and bureaucracy. Those limits are prompting federal agencies like NASA to reach out to private companies to drive new innovation and keep costs down.

In a Peruvian desert, scientists discovered the fossils of an extinct whale with a big bite. The whale's teeth and jaws were so powerful that it feasted on other whales.