Winter's tell-tales: If you see a pig gathering sticks, load in that firewood - if you like your predictions folksy

If you could predict the severity of the winter, you'd know how much heating oil or wood you'll need. You could tell how many days schools will be closed, how much road salt highway crews will scatter and how many sleds and shovels stores will sell. So it's not surprising that lots of people try to foretell winter weather, particularly in New England, where snow affects daily life so much in January and February. One of the joys of living in this region of sharp seasonal contrasts is that no one really knows for sure. But it's fun to speculate.

Big dinosaur footprints found in Jurassic park in France

PARIS - Now that's one big foot.

Paleontologists in eastern France have reported the discovery of some of the largest dinosaur footprints ever documented, measuring about 4.6 to 4.9 feet in diameter.

Americans, Israeli win Nobel chemistry prize

NEW YORK - Two Americans and an Israeli won a Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for creating detailed blueprints of the protein-making machinery within cells, research that's being used to develop new antibiotics.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas Steitz and Israeli Ada Yonath will split the $1.4 million award for their atom-by-atom description of ribosomes.

Study: 4-H boosts children in science

BOSTON - American universities have an ally in their efforts to educate more students in science, technology and engineering and keep the nation competitive in the global economy, a Tufts University study released Wednesday shows.

Earth to dodge a bullet in 2036

Doomsday in 2036 just got a lot less likely.

After recalculating the trajectory of the asteroid Apophis, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, Calif., have determined that the odds of it hitting the Earth that year are only 4 in 1 million.

Media players' (mal)functions makes term 'MP3 player' obsolete

We need to retire the term "MP3 player." Not only do the newest media gadgets from Apple and Microsoft play more music formats than MP3 - in addition to showing photos and videos - they also fill some roles once reserved for high-end smartphones. They can even replace an old transistor radio.

User Friendly: Toys R Me

I don't suppose you can call it road food unless you can actually get there by driving, and in this case you can't because it's 450 miles beyond the end of the last road. And assuming you actually could make the drive, you'd better be prepared to pay top dollar because it's pricey. A pizza with everything costs 53 bucks. And you need to eat it in less than a minute, because it cools off very, very quickly at 20 below zero.