An explosion at a German chemical plant killed one person Saturday and left another injured, rescuers and industrial park administrators said.

The explosion of a tank at the Evonik Degussa plant in the western town of Marl sent black smoke billowing over the town, and residents were warned to stay indoors, with their windows and doors closed.

Millions of people are expected to switch off their lights for Earth Hour Saturday in a global effort to raise awareness about climate change that will even be monitored from space.

From Egypt's Tahrir Square to New York's Empire State Building, thousands of cities will turn off lights for 60 minutes from 8:30 p.m. local time, with switches flicked in around 150 countries and territories.

An Italian physicist at the head of a team that made a cautious but hugely controversial claim that neutrinos may travel faster than the speed of light resigned on Friday following calls for his dismissal.

Antonio Ereditato submitted his resignation before a vote on a motion by some members of his OPERA team that he be removed after tests this month contradicted the claim that the universe's speed limit had been broken.

Scientists are facing an uphill battle to warn the public about pressing issues due to dissenters in their ranks who intentionally sow uncertainty, says a U.S. historian.

These naysayers -- some of whom are paid by interest groups -- have helped undermine action on vital problems despite evidence of the need to respond, said Naomi Oreskes, a professor of history and science studies at the University of California at San Diego.

A commonly used type of pesticide may be wielding hefty damage to honey bees and bumble bees, said a pair of European studies published Thursday, urging a hunt for safer alternatives.

Both teams of researchers focused on neonicotinoid insecticides, which have become the most widely used in the world on crops since their introduction in the 1990s.

The titan behind online retail powerhouse Amazon.com on Wednesday revealed a quest to retrieve Apollo 11 moon mission engines that plunged into the ocean decades ago.

Engines that rocketed astronaut Neil Armstrong and his crew toward the moon in 1969 were located deep in the Atlantic Ocean using sophisticated sonar equipment, Jeff Bezos wrote in his blog at BezosExpeditions.com.

They have their own lights, teeth, and weird names like vampire squid, stoplight loosejaws, and bristlemouth -- meet the weird denizens of the deep surfacing for an exhibition in New York starting this week.

The American Museum of Natural History's "Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence," which opens Saturday, takes a look at the phenomenon of wildlife that produces light, especially inhabitants of the furthest reaches of the oceans.

North Korea says it aims to estimate crop production and analyze natural resources when it launches a satellite on a long-range rocket next month.

The United States and South Korea view the launch as a cover for testing long-range missile technology.

A village in northwestern France has come up with an innovative way to cut back on local rubbish production -- offering each home two free chickens to consume organic waste.

The village of Pince, population 200, in the Sarthe region came up with the idea in a bid to cut waste-collection costs and help local families dealing with the economic crisis, mayor Lydie Pasteau told Agence France Presse.

Critically-endangered orangutans in a protected area of Indonesia will be wiped out by the end of the year if land clearing is not stopped, a coalition of environmental groups warned Wednesday.

The government must immediately halt the clearance of forest in the 13,000-hectare (32,000 acres) peat swamps in Tripa, Aceh province, the groups, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth said.