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.

A proposal to create a whale sanctuary in the southern Atlantic lacked "scientific backing", Japan said Tuesday after leading the charge to scupper the plan at an international meeting.

"Japan carries out whaling on scientific grounds," said Shigehito Numata of the Japanese Fisheries Agency's whaling section. "The proposal lacked scientific backing."

An experimental solar-powered aircraft that had been scheduled to depart Morocco for Spain on Tuesday for its return journey to Switzerland has been grounded by strong winds, organizers said.

The Swiss-made Solar Impulse had been set to take off at 0800 GMT from the Rabat-Sale airport and due to land in Madrid's Barajas airport after midnight on Wednesday on its way home, organisers said Monday.

German researchers said Monday they have discovered a fossil of a feathered hatchling that may be the earliest evidence of a plumed, meat-eating dinosaur that was not closely related to birds.

The fossil is believed to belong to a young land-based dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period, some 170 million years ago, said the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Japan opened several solar energy parks on Sunday as a new law came into force requiring companies to purchase renewable energy at a fixed price in a push for alternatives to nuclear power.

The openings come on the same day engineers began refiring an atomic reactor, despite growing public protests in the aftermath of meltdowns at Fukushima, ending nearly two months in which Japan was nuclear-free.

Engineers in Japan on Sunday began refiring an atomic reactor, despite growing public protests in the aftermath of meltdowns at Fukushima, ending nearly two months in which the country was nuclear-free.

Local media reported that the process to restart Unit No. 3 at Oi in western Japan began around 9:00 pm (1200 GMT).

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a three-man multinational crew touched down safely Sunday on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station.

More clues are expected next week in the worldwide hunt for an elusive sub-atomic particle, the Higgs boson, that is the missing piece in the standard model of physics.

Sometimes referred to as the "God particle" because it seems to be everywhere, the Higgs boson is believed to give objects mass, but physicists armed with the world's most potent atom-smashers have yet to identify it.