French Greens reacted angrily on Monday after a government minister described nuclear power as the "energy of the future," casting doubt on a commitment to slash the country's number of reactors.

The Greens, minority partners in France's Socialist-led administration, lashed out at Industrial Recovery Minister Arnaud Montebourg for comments in which he lauded France's nuclear industry as a "tremendous asset."

A jolt of support from a popular Web cartoonist has re-energized a decades-long effort to restore a decrepit, 110-year-old laboratory once used by Nikola Tesla, a visionary scientist who was a rival of Thomas Edison and imagined a world of free electricity.

In little more than a week, tens of thousands of donors from more than 100 countries have kicked in more than $1 million through a social media fundraising website to pay for the restoration of Tesla's Wardenclyffe laboratory, located about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of New York City. A small band of followers who have struggled to establish a science and research museum and learning center in Tesla's honor are giddy with delight about the lightning-quick response they have received.

More than 40 years after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, humans continue to push the frontiers of space exploration but missions are being tempered by costs, a trend that concerned the astronaut.

The blank check from government that financed adventures in the Cold War-era is no longer available, with today's missions depending more on the private sector and international cooperation -- often because of budget considerations.

Do humans really wear their hearts on their sleeve? An ambitious Australian neuroscience project aiming to translate emotional impulses directly into music is hoping to find out.

Canadian artist Erin Gee describes it as "human voices in electronic bodies", and there is a definite futuristic feel to her collaboration with the University of Western Sydney's medical school.

U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, has died, U.S. media reported Saturday. He was 82.

Armstrong underwent cardiac bypass surgery, earlier this month after doctors found blockages in his coronary arteries. He and fellow Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, before the eyes of hundreds of millions of awed television viewers worldwide.

Thunderstorms have ruined NASA's second attempt to launch a pair of science satellites.

For the second day in a row, NASA had to halt the countdown for its Radiation Belt Storm Probes.

NASA has delayed the launch of its newest science satellites.

The countdown proceeded all the way down to the four-minute mark early Friday morning at Cape Canaveral in Florida. But a problem cropped up with the rocket's tracking beacon, a mandatory safety item.

Viewers can now relive the drama of the Curiosity rover's landing on Mars with a new NASA video detailing the final moments of touchdown.

The space agency Thursday posted the video on its website embedded with audio from mission control. It starts with the heat shield falling away. The ground grows larger in view as Curiosity is lowered by cables inside an ancient Martian crater. "Touchdown confirmed" is heard followed by cheers.

A unique species of near-toothless rat that lives off earthworms and doesn't chew or gnaw has been seen in Indonesia.

The shrew-like animal with a long, pointed snout was described online in this week's British journal Biology Letters. Paucidentomys vermidax, which translates loosely to "few-toothed rat" and "worm eater," is the only rodent out of more than 2,200 known species that does not have molars and instead has bicuspid upper incisors, it said.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday made its first test drive, leaving wheel tracks near its landing spot -- now dubbed "Bradbury Landing" in honor of late science fiction author Ray Bradbury.

"Curiosity today had its first successful drive on Mars. We have a fully functioning mobility system on our rover," said Matt Haverly, the lead rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.