Chinese researchers have cracked open the genetic code of the Pacific oyster, shedding light on an ancient creature that plays a key role in the ecosystem, a study published on Wednesday showed.

A peek into the genome of Crassostrea gigas points to a treasure trove of genes to help the mollusc cope with environmental stress, from varying salinity and desiccation to exposure to bacteria and toxic metals.

Scientists in the United States on Wednesday reported making a souped-up material that beats the record for converting waste heat into power, an exploit they hope will be incorporated into clean energy investment.

Described by an independent comentator as "a giant leap", the material achieves the highest efficiency ever for scavenging heat from a source and transforming it into power, its inventors said.

Space shuttle Endeavour has lifted off on its final journey.

The youngest U.S. shuttle departed Kennedy Space Center in Florida at sunrise Wednesday on the first leg of its flight to California. It's bolted to the top of a jumbo jet.

China has added two more satellites to a global navigation network that will eventually compete with America's Global Positioning System.

State media say the 14th and 15th satellites in the Beidou system were launched aboard a single Long March 3B rocket early Wednesday. The system, whose name means compass in English, is due to have 35 satellites in total by its 2020 completion date.

In the far north of Siberia, Russian scientists have stepped up research on a once-secret deposit of diamonds whose scale dwarfs anything ever discovered and could turn world markets "upside down".

Soviet scientists had in the 1970s uncovered the 100-kilometer (60-mile) Popigai Crater left by a huge asteroid in Siberia 35 million years ago.

Scientists in California have shed light on a marine mystery: how diving mammals can hunt for food at great depths without getting the "bends," according to a study published on Tuesday.

Formally known as depression sickness, the bends occur when nitrogen gas, compressed in the bloodstream at depth, expands during ascent, causing pain and sometimes death.

Gerard Liger-Belair lives in a bubble, and he doesn't care who knows it.

Bubbles are his passion. And they have given the 41-year-old French scientist arguably the best job in all of physics.

An international three-man crew onboard a Russian-made Soyuz capsule touched down successfully on the cloudless central Kazakhstan steppe Monday morning after 123 days at the International Space Station.

A fleet of Russian Mi-8 helicopters deployed from towns near the landing site ahead of the capsule's arrival early Monday morning to ensure swift interception.

Bad weather is delaying the transfer of the shuttle Endeavour from Florida to California where it will be put on show, the U.S. space agency said Sunday.

Endeavour, which completed its final mission last year, was scheduled to leave the Kennedy Space Center on the back of a modified Boeing 747 on Monday but inclement conditions along the flight path pushed the departure to Tuesday, NASA said in a statement.

A woman took command of the International Space Station for only the second time Monday as three U.S. and Russian colleagues made a safe return from the orbiting space lab to the Kazakh steppe.

The Soyuz TMA-04M capsule touched down with U.S. astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin aboard, after deploying a huge white parachute and making a pin-point descent with helicopters tracking its progress.