Fossilised bones unearthed by a British palaeontologist in colonial Tanzania in the 1930s may be those of the oldest dinosaur ever found, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The Mars rover Curiosity has offered a tantalizing taste of evidence that there was once life on the Red Planet, but scientists said Monday it is too soon to make much of the first soil analyses.

The US Supreme Court said Friday it would examine whether companies should be able to patent human genes they have isolated and identified, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for genetic research.

Genome mapping could prove key in preventing superbugs in hospitals, an Australian researcher said Friday, urging its use to prevent countless deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections.

Scientists Thursday announced new evidence that Mercury, the planet orbiting nearest the Sun, hosts massive caches of ice and revealed new information on how water reached our solar system's inner planets.

A consortium of scientists said Wednesday they had made major progress in deciphering the genome of bread wheat, a vital crop whose DNA is notoriously complex.

Researchers have found bacteria thriving beneath ice, in the dark and without oxygen in a lake in Antarctica, pushing the boundaries of what was thought necessary to sustain life on Earth.

When Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island giant tortoise, died in June in the Galapagos, the world mourned the demise of a species. It appears, however, that George was not that lonely after all.

Argentine experts have discovered the fossils of a two-meter (6.5 foot) tall penguin that lived in Antarctica 34 million years ago.

President Obama, the mayor of London, China's top dissident artist and Madonna -- every time someone signals the death of "Gangnam Style" up pops another high-profile figure to keep the phenomenon alive.

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.

Scientists have found a rare genetic mutation that appears to triple the risk for developing Alzheimer's disease and provides important clues into how the so-far incurable disease operates.

Scientists said Wednesday they had laid bare the genetic code of the pig, revealing that besides providing ham, bacon and sausages, the domestic swine may also be useful in fighting human diseases.

Scientists in China said on Tuesday they had sequenced the DNA of the wild bactrian camel, a threatened species with an extraordinary ability to survive in extreme conditions.

Charles Darwin, the 19th century father of the theory of evolution, earned more than 4,000 votes in a US congressional race from voters protesting the unopposed candidacy of an ardent creationist, a local newspaper reported Friday.

Researchers said Thursday they had discovered a genetic mutation in people with autism that cuts communication between brain cells to about one-tenth of normal levels.

The world's rarest whale -- previously known only through bones -- has been spotted in New Zealand where a mother and her male calf were examined, Current Biology reports.

Researchers said Tuesday they had seen the earliest-ever warning signs of Alzheimer's Disease -- among a high-risk group of 20-somethings -- in the ongoing quest for early detection and prevention.

Dutch biotech company uniQure said Monday it would start selling the first human gene therapy to be approved in the West by mid-2013 and predicted an explosion of similar therapies to come.

Sharon Osbourne has had a double mastectomy after finding out she carries a gene which increases the risk of getting breast cancer, the British television personality said in an interview published on Monday.