Robert King sat, slept and ate every meal alone in a cramped cell at Louisiana's notorious Angola prison for 29 long and lonely years.

His eyesight failed from lack of stimulation, but King insists his resolve to fight the injustice of solitary confinement never did.

Dogs may bark to music and chimps may bang on drums, but creatures that can truly keep a beat are rare, raising intriguing questions about the evolution of the human brain.

A bonobo named Kanzi first surprised researcher Patricia Gray more than a decade ago, when Gray was absent-mindedly tapping on a glass window and the great ape on the other side tapped back.

NASA scientists were finally able to explain the origin of the mysterious rock shaped like a jelly doughnut that appeared near the rover Opportunity in early January.

The small, round object suddenly popped up in pictures taken 12 days apart by the US space agency's decade-old Opportunity rover.

Scientists on Friday partially encased a mammoth tusk in plaster as they prepared to extract it from the 30-foot-deep pit where it was found this week at a downtown Seattle construction site.

The tusk, believed to be of a Columbian mammoth, was measured at 8.5 feet long after researchers cleared enough dirt overnight to fully expose it.

One hundred people are about to share their live bodies for science as part of an unprecedented new study that will examine how to improve personal health, researchers said.

The Hundred Person Wellness Project, which begins next month, will require round-the-clock monitoring of its subjects, who are presumed healthy at the time of enrollment.

Advances in genetic sequencing are giving rise to a new era of scientific racism, despite decades of efforts to reverse attitudes used to justify the slave trade and Nazi theology, experts said Friday.

New forms of discrimination, known as neoracism, are taking hold in scientific research, spreading the belief that races exist and are different in terms of biology, behavior and culture, according to anthropologists who spoke at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Chicago.

The United States and China promised Saturday to cooperate more closely in combatting climate change following a visit to Beijing by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

In a joint statement, the two governments said they have agreed on steps to carry out commitments to curb output of greenhouse gases that trap solar heat in the atmosphere. Those include reducing vehicle emissions, improving energy efficiency of buildings and other measures.

Two incredibly rare albino alligators have arrived at their new French home — a Paris aquarium — after being bought from a reptile collector in Florida.

Thursday's snappy new reptiles, who are just over one year old, are part of an elite group of no more than 30 such alligators in the world.

What hue of red was really in that Renoir masterpiece? How did Van Gogh envision his yellow flowers? And did Picasso really use housepaint?

Advanced science techniques are helping shed new light on the original beauty that has faded with time on some of the world's greatest masterpieces, experts said Thursday.

U.S. scientists showed off tiny robots Thursday that can tackle tasks much like real-life termites, working collectively to build structures without following orders from a boss.

The mechanical creatures can tote bricks, build staircases or construct a pyramid, scientists from Harvard University said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting.