|  Snorkeling Paradise Inside a Volcano Named Best US Beach  | Hanauma Bay's new title represents the third in a streak of winners from the island of Oahu in the annual "Best Beaches" rankings, which are put together annually by Stephen Leatherman, a coastal researcher at Florida International University also known as "Dr. Beach." Leatherman ranks the top 10 public beaches around the United States based on factors ranging from sand softness and wind speeds to wave height and pollution. "Frankly, the United States is blessed with hundreds of wonderful beaches," Leatherman told Live Science.
| Read More » Study: Scientists document world's largest known sponge HONOLULU (AP) — Researchers in Hawaii have been absorbed by a sea creature they discovered last summer, and their findings are pretty big. Read More » NASA to make second attempt at inflating space station test module  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will try again on Saturday to inflate a novel experimental habitat after the fabric module failed to unfurl as planned earlier this week, NASA officials said on Friday. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, was unpacked 10 months later than expected due to launch delays, manufacturer Bigelow Aerospace told reporters on a conference call. The impact was likely most serious on the outer layers, said Lisa Kauke, BEAM deputy program manager at Bigelow.
| Read More » Scientists disagree over Zika risk at Brazil's Olympics  | One day after a top U.S. health official declared there was no public health reason to cancel or delay this summer's Olympics in Brazil, more than 150 scientists on Friday called for just that, saying the risk of infection from the Zika virus is too high. The scientists, many of them bioethicists, who signed an open letter published online to Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization. The letter urged that the Games, due to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August, be moved to another location or delayed.
| Read More » Neanderthals Likely Built These 176,000-Year-Old Underground Ring Structures  | About 40,000 years before the appearance of modern man in Europe, Neanderthals in southwestern France were venturing deep into the earth, building some of the earliest complex structures and using fire. That's according to new research that more precisely dated bizarre cave structures built from stalagmites, or mineral formations that grow upward from the floor of a cave. Scientists discovered about 400 stalagmites and stalagmite sections that were collected and stacked into nearly circular formations about 1,100 feet (336 meters) from the entrance of Bruniquel Cave, which was discovered in 1990.
| Read More » Prototype space station module begins inflating on NASA's second try  | By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Saturday slowly inflated an experimental fabric module that may provide a less expensive and safer option for housing crews during long stays in space, a NASA TV broadcast showed. An initial attempt to unfurl the module on Thursday failed, most likely because of friction within the module's layers of fabric, foam and reinforced outer covering, NASA said. "It's a learning process," said NASA mission commentator Dan Huot.
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