* What triggers the birthing process? Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center isolate a protein in mice that launches labor.
* Animal pollution: Midwest scientists find that up to 90 percent of antibiotics used on livestock are excreted back into the environment unchanged.
* Stanford scientists discredit DNA evidence identifying nine bodies in a mass grave as Romanovs, members of Russia’s last royal rulers.
* With millions of AIDS deaths, average African life expectancy could drop below 30 years by 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau says.
* He lived well and he died well. King Tut was entombed with jars of red wine, an Egyptian funerary tradition, Spanish scientists find.
* Earth lies within a stream of dark-matter particles pulled from a nearby galaxy, says a Rensselaer Polytechnic astrophysicist.
* After 21 years and $400 million, the Environmental Protection Agency declares notorious Love Canal free and clear of pollution.
* Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen donates $13.5 million for a radio telescope array that will search for signals from alien civilizations.
