Last weekend, thousands of Bay Area residents waited patiently in lines, for as long as five hours, to be among the first to catch a glimpse of the newly renovated California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park....

If the Spaceward Foundation is successful, Space Shuttles may become a thing of the past - Instead Astronauts and the rest of us will simply take an elevator to Space. Though initially the elevator will transport only cargo, the ultimate goal is for Space to become a tourist destination....

Miners at the Letseng Mine in Lesotho, South Africa found a 478-carat diamond earlier this week. While this is the 20th largest rough diamond ever to be found, once cut, it could be the largest single round diamond in history....

It looks like something one would expect to see at Hogwarts, Harry Potter's school of Withcraft and Wizardry. However, this unusual clock, which cost $2 million USD, is very real and was recently unveiled with much fanfare at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge by World famous professor, Steven Hawking....

46-year old Steve Colligan from Manchester, England who calls himself an 'Adventure Unicyclist' is about to embark on the most difficult and demanding ride of his life....

Earlier this week, the Zoological Society of London released photos of the Okapi, an animal that was last sighted in the wild 50 years ago, and had until now never been photographed in its natural environment. The rare photos were caught by trip-wire cameras set up in the Republic of Congo's, Virumga National Park, one of three areas these shy animals can be found....

Eleven-year twins Gunner and Hunter Greer, are two happy sixth graders this week. They have just been declared winners of the 2008 INC. Magazine's 'Best Lemonade Stand Contest'. In addition to the fame, they also received a $1,000 USD Savings Bond and a Nintendo DS Game....

At 2,296 feet (700 meters) the Burj Dubai has surpassed not only the tallest skyscraper in the World, but also the tallest antenna, and the tallest manmade structure - the Warsaw radio mast in Poland. And they are not done yet - The final height remains a secret, known only to to a handful of designers....

Did you know that when the game of Table Tennis was first invented, in the late 1800's it was called Whiff Whaff? While its exact origins are not known, it is believed that the first version of the game was played by British soldiers who were stationed in India and South Africa....

How do you modernize and add room to an old cruise ship? By sawing through the middle, adding a new module, and sealing it all back together. While it sounds almost impossible, this has already been done successfully on three cruise ships over the last four years....

Millions of gadgets and gizmos are invented daily - However, only a lucky few are fortunate to actually get manufactured and even fewer are successful. Over the last 35 years, British author, Maurice Collins has made it his hobby and business to collect as many of these weird and wacky, albeit unsuccessful inventions, as he possibly can....

The Sahara is the largest desert in the world spanning over 3.5 million square miles. While it has been a desert for millenniums (thousands of years), there have been two periods of time in the last 12,000 years that the region received rainfall and became habitable....

On July 29th, 2008, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agency, or NASA celebrated its fiftieth birthday. While everyone knows about the cool NASA Space missions, very few people realize that the Agency is also responsible for various services and gadgets that we take for granted in our day-to-day lives....

Most parents would be proud to have one child qualify to compete in the Olympics. So you can imagine how proud Julio and Ondino Lopez of Texas must be to see all four of their children heading to Beijing next week as part of the U.S Taekwondo team....

If you happen to be in Twinsburg Ohio, on the weekend of August 1st, don't be surprised if you see double, triple or even quadruple images of every person you meet. That's because you have just arrived at the world's largest Twin Days festival....

Third grade curriculum in most schools consists of sharpening Math, English and Computer skills and taking them up a notch. However, if you are lucky enough to be in Anne Siskin's third-grade at Edna Maguire Elementary School in Mill Valley, you may be in for a real treat!...

Leatherback Sea Turtles, the largest of all living sea turtles have been on our Planet for over 100 million years. They have survived the dinosaurs and watched the evolution of mankind. However, in the last 20 years, their population has declined by 90% and if something isn't done soon, they will disappear completely....

On August 1st a very narrow corridor of the Earth will be treated to a special treat - a total solar eclipse. The areas that will be touched include parts of Northern Canada, Siberia, Western Mongolia and China....

Like most high seniors, Brad Cullinan and Katheryn Maloney are trying to earn some money this summer. However, instead of taking up a summer job, they have decided to start up their own little business - making jewelry from dead cicadas....

What could be worse than living in the World's poorest country? - How about living in the poorest neighborhood in the poorest country. Welcome to Kroo Bay, a small community in Sierra Leone, Africa, that has been built on mounds of trash. This is the story of the children who call it home....

Harrison Hot Springs in British Columbia, Canada is world-renowned for its 'World Championship Sand Sculpting Competition', held annually for the last 19 years. Three years ago, they introduced a second competition, 'The Tournament of Champions', where only winners of the past World Championships can compete....

Most Americans celebrate July 4th by relaxing on their lawn chairs and eating hot dogs - not Kent Couch. For the last three years, he has spent the day preparing to 'take off' in his lawn chair, with the help of 150 helium-filled balloons, in his quest to fly 230 miles, from Central Oregon to Idaho....

While the rules may be similar, the terrain is not - no well-manicured field for these soccer players - they like to get down and dirty as they battle it out for the World Cup Championships. Welcome to Swamp Soccer!...

While a lot of you may not know who Bill Gates is, most of you have probably heard about Microsoft - the world's biggest software company he founded in 1975 at the tender age of twenty. Yesterday, this amazing man, who until last year, was also the world's richest, called it quits....