Jellyfish spread in world's oceans, devastating fisheries, stinging millions; warming blamed. A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.

Jellyfish spread in world's oceans, devastating fisheries, stinging millions; warming blamed. A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.

Jellyfish spread in world's oceans, devastating fisheries, stinging millions; warming blamed. A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.

Tenn. supercomputer running fastest in world for climate change, renewable energy. At least for the moment, the world's fastest supercomputer is devoted to solving scientific questions that may save the planet ? climate change, renewable energy, new medicines ? rather than advances in nuclear weapons that might blow it up.

A team of US scientists has uncovered the complete genetic code of corn, a discovery that promises to speed development of higher yielding varieties of one of the world's most important food crops.

There's $1.5 million to fix a remote lighthouse on uninhabited Monomoy Island, off Cape Cod. Security measures to protect the Spirit of Boston party cruise ship from terrorist attacks will cost about $123,000. And the University of Massachusetts at Boston received nearly $95,000 to study pollen samples from the Viking era in Iceland. Those are some of the Massachusetts projects being funded with taxpayer money under the federal stimulus law, according to a Globe review of recently filed reports. Congress approved stimulus funding to jump-start the economy, mostly by creating jobs, but also by paying for existing public services and cutting-edge research. In many cases, the $3.9 billion awarded in Massachusetts is financing precisely such ventures. But millions of dollars are going to investments that seem further afield from the stimulus plan's mission. Massachusetts school districts, for instance, bought window blinds, photocopiers, and a cafeteria dishwasher, and the Patrick administ

Jellyfish spread in world's oceans, devastating fisheries, stinging millions; warming blamed. A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.

After an extensive national search, Williams College has named a 44-year-old dean from Johns Hopkins University as its next president, tapping a theoretical physicist who has surged through the academic ranks. Adam F. Falk, dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins since 2005, will take over at the elite liberal arts college in April. He succeeds interim president William Wagner, who took over this summer after Morton Owen Schapiro left to become president of Northwestern University. Falk's selection as the 17th president of Williams follows a search that involved interviews with 40 candidates. In a message sent last evening to the Williams community, Gregory M. Avis, chairman of the college's board of trustees, hailed Falk's credentials and commitment. ``Adam captivated the board with his intelligence, passion, warmth, and outstanding record of leadership,'' Avis wrote. ``We marveled at the depth and range of his accomplishments as a top-flight teacher, scholar,

Porn viewing, other cases of employee misconduct rise at National Science Foundation. A watchdog responsible for stopping fraud involving taxpayer-funded science grants said it has been forced to divert its attention to government employee misconduct, much of it involving pornography.

Scientists eye novel way to monitor strength of earthquake faults. Scientists are releasing results of a study aimed at gauging the strength of earthquake faults, which could help them pinpoint weak ones at risk of breaking and unleashing temblors.

Oldest hominid skeleton pushes back history of humankind a million years. The story of humankind is reaching back another million years as scientists learn more about "Ardi," a hominid who lived 4.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia. The 110-pound, 4-foot female roamed forests a million years before the famous Lucy, long studied as the earliest skeleton of a human ancestor.

8-state Cyber Security Education Consortium awarded $2.7 million grant to train cyber warriors. The National Science Foundation has awarded a $2.7 million grant to an eight-state consortium of technology centers and community colleges that is working to block cyber attacks and stop the loss of high-tech jobs in the U.S., officials said Wednesday.

20 years after Calif. quake: Bay Bridge unfinished; schools, buildings unsafe, need retrofits. When an earthquake collapsed two 50-foot sections of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge during the 1989 World Series, the nightmares of hundreds of thousands of commuters who cross the Depression-era span each day were brought to life.

National Science Foundation authorizes $29M for initial plan for underground lab in western SD. The National Science Foundation has authorized about $29 million to develop a preliminary plan to turn a 1 1/2-mile-deep former gold mine in western South Dakota into the world's deepest laboratory.

Leonard Kleinrock never imagined Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube that day 40 years ago when his team gave birth to what is now taken for granted as the Internet.

Pentagon's mad scientists break ground on new DARPA headquarters in northern Va.. The secretive Pentagon agency that brought us the Internet and tried to bring us bomb-sniffing bees, warrior exoskeletons and terrorism futures trading took a small step out into the spotlight Wednesday to break ground on a new headquarters.

Technology stars, pundits, and entrepreneurs joined the Internet's father on Thursday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his culture-changing child.

WEST TISBURY - Ever since a vast tract of Martha's Vineyard forest died two years ago, visitors who stumbled upon the graveyard of gray stalks have called it eerie, bizarre, and sad. Now scientists are calling it something else: a possible climate change lesson. The 500 acres of dead oak trees were the epicenter of an islandwide infestation of caterpillars that munched their way through millions of leaves for three consecutive springs ending in 2007. Then a severe summer drought hit the island, finishing off tens of thousands of the weakened trees. ``I have never seen anything like what has happened on Martha's Vineyard in New England,'' said David Foster, a Harvard University ecologist. ``Usually you walk through forests and see some dead trees, but here, it's hundreds of acres and almost all of the trees in it are dead.'' Ordinarily, such catastrophic damage would be chalked up to bad luck. But Foster, who is also director of Harvard Forest, the university's experimental forest in Pe

WEST TISBURY - Ever since a vast tract of Martha's Vineyard forest died two years ago, visitors who stumbled upon the graveyard of gray stalks have called it eerie, bizarre, and sad. Now scientists are calling it something else: a possible climate change lesson. The 500 acres of dead oak trees were the epicenter of an islandwide infestation of caterpillars that munched their way through millions of leaves for three consecutive springs ending in 2007. Then a severe summer drought hit the island, finishing off tens of thousands of the weakened trees. ``I have never seen anything like what has happened on Martha's Vineyard in New England,'' said David Foster, a Harvard University ecologist. ``Usually you walk through forests and see some dead trees, but here, it's hundreds of acres and almost all of the trees in it are dead.'' Ordinarily, such catastrophic damage would be chalked up to bad luck. But Foster, who is also director of Harvard Forest, the university's experimental forest in Pe

Melting glaciers could soon eliminate white cap from Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro. The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain's white peak ? made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway ? is rapidly melting, researchers report.