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When NASA’s redesigned spaceship of the future returns from the moon, Mars or beyond, it will need a heat shield tough enough to withstand an atmosphere hot enough to melt iron.

That where NASA Ames scientists come in. By fall, they hope to select two materials for their design that can stand up [...]

Faced with a rising tide of concern over food contamination, the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday halted a controversial plan to close seven regional laboratories, including a Bay Area facility that helped investigate last year’s nationwide outbreak of illness from tainted spinach.

Consumer groups and congressional critics welcomed the news, saying [...]

Theories abound on what caused dangerously high levels of E. coli to multiply on the beaches within Pillar Point Harbor north of Half Moon Bay.

Some blame seagulls, leaky sewer lines, urban runoff or “liveaboard” vessels anchored in the outer harbor, which dispose of [...]

WASHINGTON - After weeks of uncertainty, House Democrats have decided against a confrontation over automobile fuel economy when they take up energy legislation later this week.

Two proposals to boost the required mileage for new automobiles were submitted Wednesday for consideration as amendments to the energy legislation, [...]

SANTA CRUZ - So is he a hero or a villain?

After watching a young gray whale spend most of the day feeding on anchovies in the channel of the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor, Leo Morelli, who owns a sport fishing business in the harbor, jumped on his jet ski and shepherded [...]

Despite his quick recovery from the seizure he suffered on Monday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. faces a complex diagnosis and a difficult decision.

Because the seizure was his second - he had a similar one in 1993 - he meets the criteria for epilepsy, and he and [...]

Portions of San Jose, Campbell and Los Gatos with high levels of West Nile virus activity are scheduled to be treated overnight with pesticide beginning at 11 p.m. today. Last week, the Santa Clara County Vector Control District announced that adult mosquitoes collected from Jack Fischer Park in Campbell [...]

The widely used diabetes drug Avandia should remain on the market because its benefits outweigh the risks, but it should carry a strong warning about an increased risk of heart disease, a federal advisory panel said Monday.

The committee concluded that the evidence is suggestive of an increased heart disease risk associated [...]

LOS ANGELES - A surgeon was charged Monday with prescribing excessive drugs to a comatose disabled patient to hasten his death and harvest his organs for transplantation.

Prosecutors in San Luis Obispo County said Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, of San Francisco gave a harmful drug and prescribed excessive doses of morphine and [...]

WASHINGTON - The widely used diabetes drug Avandia should remain on the market, government health advisers recommended today, saying evidence of an increased risk of heart attack doesn’t merit removal.

The nonbinding recommendation to the Food and Drug Administration came on a majority vote by the panel. The tally wasn’t immediately available.

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