Japan has made "significant progress" in cleaning up the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, a U.N. review mission said Tuesday as it again advised the country to consider discharging treated water into the sea.

"Japan has made significant progress since our previous missions" in 2013, said Juan Carlos Lentijo, who led a review mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The acceleration climate change and its impact on agricultural production means that profound societal changes will be needed in coming decades to feed the world's growing population, researchers at an annual science conference said.

According to scientists, food production will have to be doubled over the next 35 years to feed a global population of nine billion people in 2050, compared with seven billion today.

Amateur astronomers have spotted two strange, cloud-like plumes high over Mars, deepening the mystery of what constitutes the Red Planet's atmosphere, a study said Monday.

The phenomenon was observed on March 12, 2012 over the "terminator", the boundary between day and night on Mars.

On a typical February day in west Africa, Cape Verdeans are taking time to cool down as the island nation is buffeted by a rare unseasonal downpour.

For the scientists gathered in the archipelago's capital Praia, however, the rain is a worrying portent of the changing climate to which underdeveloped Africa is becoming increasingly vulnerable.

Clad in a gray hooded wetsuit, Eric Billips straps on his scuba tank, grabs a pole spear and nods at his dive buddy as they step feet-first off the boat and disappear with a splash into sparkling blue waters off the Florida Keys.

The lionfish hunt is on.

The European Space Agency (ESA) on Sunday said it had destroyed its last supply ship to the International Space Station, bringing a seven-year venture to a successful close.

The last of five robot delivery vessels that ESA pledged for the U.S.-led ISS project, the Georges Lemaitre, burned up in a suicide plunge into Earth's atmosphere, the agency said.

The vast majority of scientists -- 87 percent -- think they should play an active role in debates on public policy, according to a poll of U.S. scientists released Sunday.

Forty-three percent of those queried by the Pew Research poll also felt it was important to engage with the media.

Satellites can help scientists follow parasites and viruses, and in some cases predict months ahead of time an outbreak of dengue fever or malaria, researchers said Sunday.

"Some diseases are highly sensitive to their environment, especially parasitic diseases," said Archie Clements, director of the school of population health at the Australian National University in Canberra.

The master of a Taiwanese ship has been charged with failing to take on a pilot to navigate Australia's Great Barrier Reef, police said Monday.

Environmentalists said the incident  highlights the risks from shipping to the World Heritage site off the northeast coast.

U.S. astrophysicists from the SETI Institute want to send signals to star systems that are relatively close and made up of planets that could potentially be inhabitable

For decades, U.S. astrophysicists seeking to make contact with extraterrestrials have basically just been listening for signals from space.