Zookeepers in Washington DC are optimistic about the survival chances of twin cubs born to giant panda Mei Xiang.

The National Air and Space Museum, in Washington, is launching a crowd-funding campaign to conserve the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on the moon.

In the run-up to celebrating 100 years as an independent country, there will be many debates about how to mark the progress achieved by our Republic, writes Joe Gill.

People are changing Earth so much, warming and polluting it, that many scientists are turning to a new way to describe the time we live in.

A first-ever walking, talking bionic man built entirely out of synthetic body parts has made his debut in Washington.

One of the world’s rarest whales was photographed from the deck of the Celtic Mist on Sep 4.

Imagine a racoon with a teddy-bear face so cute it’s hard to resist, let alone overlook. But somehow science did — until now.

Imagine a raccoon with a teddy bear face that is so cute it’s hard to resist, let alone overlook. But somehow science did – until now.

Oprah Winfrey is donating €14m in support of African American history.

Forrest Fenn, a real-life Indiana Jones, has spent his life digging for artifacts and treasure all around the world. Somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe, the 82-year-old has buried a small antique chest. Inside is €1m of his treasure — and he wants you to find it. Are you up for an adventure? Tony Dokoupil joins the hunt

Bill Moggridge, a British industrial designer who designed an early portable computer with the flip-open shape that is common today, has died in New York. He was 69.

One of the best-kept secrets in television history has been revealed, with The Simpsons creator Matt Groening pointing to Springfield, Oregon, as the inspiration for the animated home town of Homer and family.

The Simpsons' hometown is based on Springfield, Oregon.

The Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC is removing a video that forms an exhibit after complaints from a Catholic group that the images were sacrilegious.

AMERICANS are largely hopeful that cancer will be cured and that computers will be able to chat with them by 2050, but they are also braced for a major energy crisis and a warming planet, according to a survey.

Two of the astronauts who 40 years ago today first landed on the moon have urged mankind to take a giant leap to Mars.

FOR nearly 150 years, a story has circulated about a hidden Civil War message engraved inside Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch.

A huge emerald weighing almost half a tonne is at the centre of a legal battle between six people who each claim they own it.

America’s influential Smithsonian Institute has included the Hill of Tara in a list of must-see endangered sites, it was revealed today.

Sarah Jessica Parker had to beg curators of Washington D.C. museum The Smithsonian to return her 'Sex And The City' character's desk and laptop, so she could use them in the forthcoming movie.

MARGARET TRUMAN, the only child of President Harry S Truman and wife Bess, who became a concert singer, actress, radio and TV personality and mystery writer, died yesterday.

Armed police ordered villagers off the slopes of one of Indonesia’s deadliest volcanos fearing an imminent eruption today, but thousands refused to leave over concern for crops and livestock.

After 3.2 million years in East Africa, one of the world’s most famous sets of fossils was quietly flown out of Ethiopia overnight for a tour of the United States that some experts say is a dangerous gamble with an irreplaceable relic.

Alexander the Great founded Alexandria to immortalise his name amid his quest to conquer the world – but it was apparently not the first city on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.

A former assistant to legendary US artist Andy Warhol will preview his first Irish exhibition to a select guest list of art collectors tonight.

The “new” Northern Ireland was showcased in the United States today by Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness and one of his one-time leading critics, Democratic Unionist Party deputy leader Peter Robinson.

Scientists say there may be as many as 5,000 new fish species, following an unprecedented survey of the world’s oceans.

A RARE Michelangelo drawing worth more than $10m has been discovered in a back room of a New York City design museum.

A rare Michelangelo drawing worth more than €10.92m has been discovered in a back room of a New York City design museum.

A rare Michelangelo drawing worth more than £6 million was discovered in a back room of a New York City design museum, museum officials said today.