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Climate change is already affecting the nation's public health, according to a new multi-agency report released by the Obama administration. It urges federal agencies to adapt their research and policies to limit future suffering.

"Climate change endangers human health, affecting all sectors of society, both domestically and globally," the report says.

Dreams might be helping your brain do more than express Freudian fixations or practice escapes from prehistoric predators. They are there, in part, to help you learn, according to a new study from Harvard University. [More]

Twin studies have shown that genetic factors can account for as much as 82 percent of the variability in children's reading skills. But while genes might set the bar for reading potential, a new study published April 23 in Science shows that teachers play a leading role in helping kids reach it. [More]

Writer and activist Bill McKibben talks to Scientific American 's Mark Fischetti about his new book Eaarth: Making A Life On A Tough New Planet . [More]

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported Thursday.

With Europe's airport staffers scrambling to send tens of thousands of flights into the air to make up for a week's worth of halted traffic and stranded travelers thanks to Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, researchers at the U.K.'s University of Reading are taking the first direct measurements of the ash plume parked over Scotland. [More]

By Katharine Sanderson

It was an instrument that much of the astronomical community didn't want, but times change: to get time now on the Hubble Space Telescope, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week, an astronomer usually faces competition from at least 11 other eager scientists.

Hubble, named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble, has been orbiting Earth for 20 years, sending back images in the visible, near-infrared and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. [More]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - They may all look similar, but killer whales, also known as orcas, include several distinct species, according to genetic evidence published on Thursday.