Documentary filmmaker Robert Lundahl’s latest work, "Who Are My People?," explores the effects of large-scale solar energy developments on Native American spiritual and cultural connections to Southern California’s scorched outback of creosote and alkaline lake beds.

At the heart of the dispute is a contest between Native American traditions and developers and government officials who contend benefits from the projects such as greenhouse gas reductions and renewable energy production outweigh their disturbance of cultural resources in the bleak desert terrain.

Some of those...

“Get off your butts,” the nation’s doctors said Tuesday, as the American Medical Assn. adopted a new policy on sitting in the workplace.

Citing mounting evidence that sitting for extended periods of time is really bad for you, the physicians group is now urging employers and others to make alternatives to sitting available to workers — standing work stations, isometric balls that allow the core to remain engaged while a person sits, and so on.

“Prolonged sitting, particularly in work settings, can cause health problems, and encouraging work places to offer...

Cool things are found in caves: stalagmites, Christian Bale, Goonies and now a new species of assassin bug that snipes spiders, according to a new study.

The labyrinth bug, named for its cave habitat (and not the David Bowie movie), was formally described last week in the journal Zootaxa. These spindly killers use their spiny front legs to seize small insects and other prey, and then pierce their catch with a sword-like snout in order to suck up its juices.  

The new species (Phasmatocoris labyrinthicus), part of the assassin bug family Reduviidae, was discovered in Kartchner Caverns State...

Daniel Sperling, a UC Davis civil engineering professor and international transportation expert, has won the Blue Planet Prize.

The prize, given annually by the Asahi Glass Foundation of Tokyo, comes with an award of about $500,000. It recognizes outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application to solving global environmental problems.

The foundation said Sperling, the founding director of UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies, “has devoted his career to mitigating climate change and accelerating the global transition to cleaner, more efficient...

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover got its own official Lego avatar. The Mars Science Laboratory robot was picked by thousands of fans to be designed in toy brick form, and it joins a pantheon of other Red Planet spacecraft that have become popular playthings over the years.

The rover was picked after thousands of people voted to have it turned into a Lego set at a company websitethat lets layfolk submit their own ideas for Lego sets. Concepts with more than 10,000 votes are forwarded for consideration. The deadline was in September, just a month...

NASA is getting serious about protecting the Earth from asteroids, and the space agency wants your help.

If you have thoughts on how NASA can efficiently identify potentially hazardous asteroids, or ideas for improving the agency's preliminary plans for capturing an asteroid and dragging it into lunar orbit in 2017, NASA officials want to hear from you.

"Too often, by the time we present a mission to the public, it has already been baked, and there's not much we can change" said Robert Lightfoot, associate directorof NASA, at an event outlining the agency's Asteroid Initiative on Tuesday....

The development of art, culture, and advanced cognitive ability that define modern humans may not have evolved until 50,000 years ago, according to a new study published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Richard Klein of Stanford University, the senior author of the study, believes that modern humans evolved at the same time that they left Africa to populate Eurasia and the rest of the world.

According to his theory, the cultural innovations led to an increase in fitness for the fledgling human species, spurring a major population expansion.

A competing...

The Food and Drug Administration says it is investigating the unexplained deaths of two patients in the wake of receiving intramuscular injections of the antipsychotic medication Zyprexa (generic name olanzapine). The patients died three to four days after receiving appropriate doses of Zyprexa Relprevv, which is designed to release slowly into the blood over two to four weeks and provide regular dosing for adults with schizophrenia.

The FDA says the deaths occurred well after the three-to-four-hour window following injection during which patients should be monitored in a physician's office...

Seriously, the smaller feline version of the robot was much more practical, Swiss researchers say, plus there's much to be learned from cats, small or large.

PHOTOS: Weird sea creatures

Video shows the robot kitty's legs spinning madly. According to Alexander Sproewitz, biomechanical roboticist and lead author of the new research, the headless robot, also referred to as a "cheetah-cub" robot, can run up to 1.4 meters per second. As the L.A. Times' Amina Khan reported Monday, that's...

Imagine yourself blindfolded and placed in a strange room; you snap your fingers or click your tongue, and listen closely to the echoes. Can you hear the shape of the room? Does the sound tell you if a door is open?

While it's commonly known that bats and dolphins and some birds are able to determine their surroundings by echolocation, some human beings are also able to map their environment through reflected sound. Daniel Kish, a Southern Californian who lost his vision due to cancer, has been studied for his ability to navigate the world by making clicking noises with his tongue. (Click here...

Environmental groups expressed concern Monday about the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plan to open up an additional 50,000 acres of Imperial County’s Algodones Dunes – including habitats for several rare species – to unlimited off-road vehicle use.

"This plan is outrageous and we will challenge it," said Ileene Anderson, a spokesperson for the Center for Biological Diversity. "I’m shocked that the BLM decided to adopt such a destructive, damaging plan – right when it should be carefully protecting these wild creatures and places to make up for vast energy...