It's hard to imagine, but the California electricity crisis has gotten even uglier of late. "They are the biggest snakes on the planet Earth," Governor Gray Davis recently said of the state's power

In Latin America, fake drugs are as lucrative as cocaine. In Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America, counterfeiting of over-the counter and prescription medicines is big business.

Japan is the most smoke friendly of all developed nations; 53% of Japanese men smoke, compared with 27% in the US. Among Japanese women, however, only 13% smoke, compared with 22% in the US. In 1993,

While world population has doubled during the past several decades to more than 6 billion persons, birthrates in many countries have fallen to unprecedented low levels. The result is a demographic

After fire destroyed the buildings housing the Sarah-Lil used machinery dealership in the early 1990s, it seemed the land might never be redeveloped. Today, the old Sarah-Lil site is home to a

Economist Matthew E. Kahn of Tufts University in Regulation magazine report that local air quality regulations in the Los Angeles area appear to have had little if any effect on employment, and home

A discovery by Iowa State University scientists can allow biologists to engineer plants that produce far more oil than today's crops. To force plants to pump out more oil per bushel of seed,

A tropical grass called miscanthus, similar in appearance to bamboo, may soon be lending its strength to biodegradable plastics used in car parts, says University of Warwick materials professor Nick

The clamshell containers that hold burgers and other fast-food sandwitches continue to evolve. Now, scientists at the US Agriculture Dept. are designing biodegradable clamshells made from wheat.

A tropical grass called miscanthus, similar in appearance to bamboo, may soon be lending its strength to biodegradable plastics used in car parts, says University of Warwick materials professor Nick