Scientists have pieced together part of the genetic recipe of the extinct woolly mammoth. The 5,000 DNA letters spell out the genetic code of its mitochondria, the structures in the cell that generate energy

In a video that is as painful as it is apparently scientific, a man points a gun at his own stomach, in order to test the efficacy of his body armor.

Britons waste the equivalent of around two power stations' worth of electricity each year by leaving TV sets and other gadgets on standby.

In an attempt to defuse internet hysteria regarding the purported end of the world next year as the Mayan calendar long-count completes, NASA has stated that next year's solar maximum will see solar flares which are "a problem the same way hurricanes are a problem".

A string of a dozen volcanoes, at least several of them active, has been found beneath the frigid seas near Antarctica, the first such discovery in that region. Some of the peaks tower nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above the ocean floor — nearly tall enough to break the water's surface.

A cosmic jet 2 billion light years away is carrying the highest electric current ever seen: 10^18 amps, equivalent to a trillion bolts of lightning.

For the first time researchers have monitored the brain as it slips into unconsciousness. The new imaging method detects the waxing and waning of electrical activity in the brain moments after an anaesthetic injection is administered.

A single living cell has been coaxed into producing laser light, researchers report in Nature Photonics. The technique starts by engineering a cell that can produce a light-emitting protein that was first obtained from glowing jellyfish.

Scientists have succeeded in trapping atoms of anti-hydrogen for more than 15 minutes. The feat is a big improvement on efforts reported last year that could corral this mirror of normal hydrogen for just fractions of a second at best.

Dr Sarah Parcak thinks that "excavating a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist" but that Indiana Jones is "old school". Well, she must know. After all, she has discovered two pyramids and 1000 tombs. From space.

One of the biggest questions in science - does 'the God particle' exist? - is likely to be answered by the end of next year, it was claimed yesterday. The Higgs boson, nicknamed the God particle, is theoretically responsible for mass, without which there would be no gravity and no universe.

It's a momentous occasion for cephalopods everywhere as the first ever squid in space is now, uh, in space. The celebration will be short lived, however, as NASA plans to have the astronauts about Endeavour kill the squid in just a matter of hours, before it can break out of its tube of seawater and turn the battle lasers of the ISS on us. Or something.

Relics of an epic battle between the waves have been found on the jawbone of a 120 million-year-old sea monster. The bite wounds inflicted on the ichthyosaur were probably made by a member of the same species, scientists believe.

Four superconducting ping-pong balls floating in space have just confirmed two key predictions of Einstein’s general relativity, physicists announced in a press conference.

Normally, a glass window doesn’t care where a ray of light came from. But special kinds of glass or plastic could be a bit pickier. Nonlinear materials could distinguish between two rays of light coming from opposite directions, say two Italian physicists. Blocking a ray from one direction and allowing in a ray from the other could be useful for making a one-way street for light.

Sitting on a bench at the University of Maryland is the first-ever desktop model of the Big Bang. Don’t worry, the 20-micrometer wide device simulates how light behaved and time flowed at the universe’s spark, not the explosion itself. It could someday help explain why time marches in only one direction.

Astronomers are puzzling over an extraordinary cosmic blast in a distant galaxy. The gamma-ray explosion was observed on March 28 by NASA’s Swift satellite. Flaring from such an event usually lasts a couple of hours.

Could firefighters one day use an electric wand to zap flames away? In a new study, Harvard University scientists say they used an electric field to extinguish an open flame more than 1 foot tall -- a development they say could yield fire-suppression alternatives to water and chemical retardants.

Nasa has released the first-ever photo of Mercury taken from a spacecraft in orbit around the innermost planet of the solar system.

For decades they lay beneath the sea, undisturbed by time or tide. But after 70 years, almost 100 Second World War bombs finally fulfilled their explosive destiny yesterday, thanks to the power of the 'Supermoon'. A Navy bomb disposal team detonated them after abnormal tides thought to be caused by the unusual proximity of the moon washed them up on a Southampton beach.