A period of intense, natural changes in climate caused coral reefs in the eastern Pacific to shut down thousands of years ago, and human-induced pollution could worsen the trend in the future, scientists said Thursday.

The study in the U.S. journal Science points to sea temperature fluctuations -- brought on by the same phenomenon that causes El Nino and La Nina events every several years -- as the main cause for the coral die-off near the Panama coast.

Scientists in the United States say they have made the world's most advanced pair of biomechanical legs, bringing the goal of human-friendly household robots a bit closer.

About half the size of their human counterparts, the legs are the first to mimic walking in a biologically accurate, energy-efficient manner, say the researchers.

A scientific body on Thursday urged Mexico and New Zealand to take immediate action to prevent the extinction of small marine mammals that are being killed by gillnets set by the fishing industry.

The International Whaling Commission voiced fears for Maui's dolphins -- some of the world's smallest dolphins found only on New Zealand's North Island -- and the vaquita, a 1.5-meter (five-foot) porpoise in the Gulf of California.

A baby giant panda was born at a Tokyo zoo on Thursday, in a rare success for Japan's captive breeding program, a zoo official said.

The as-yet unnamed infant is Ueno Zoo's first baby panda for 24 years, and its first ever from natural sexual intercourse, she told Agence France Presse.

Physicists said Thursday the potential discovery of the "God particle" was a gateway to a new era that could see humanity unlock some of the universe's great mysteries including dark matter.

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) unveiled data from the Large Hadron Collider on Wednesday "consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson", an elusive particle thought to help explain why matter has mass.

Scientists have observed a cross-dressing cuttlefish take sexual trickery to new depths.

On one side of its body, it adopts female markings to deter potential rivals, while on the other, it displays brilliant masculine colors, enabling it to flirt furiously with partners-to-be.

A new app has been designed by Lebanese Mira Kaddura to calculate the biological clock of women down to the second when they will become infertile.

Kaddura, a U.S. resident and the advertising creative director behind the app, designed the WonderClock that is available for iPhones and a website TheWonderClock.com that takes your date of birth and calculates when your fertility ends.

Taiwan opened a space research control center Tuesday, as part of an ambitious international project aimed at exploring the origins of the universe.

Facilities at the Payload Operations and Control Centre in the northern Lungtan township started monitoring signals transmitted from the International Space Station immediately after the inauguration.

After a quest spanning nearly half a century, physicists on Wednesday said they had found a new sub-atomic particle consistent with the elusive Higgs boson which is believed to confer mass.

Rousing cheers and a standing ovation erupted at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) after scientists presented astonishing new data in their search for the mysterious particle.

If you want a glimpse of some of the worst of global warming, scientists suggest taking a look at U.S. weather in recent weeks.

Horrendous wildfires. Oppressive heat waves. Devastating droughts. Flooding from giant deluges. And a powerful freak wind storm called a derecho.