Although new standards poised to take effect in a few years will reduce the lead-leaching risk from drinking water faucets, showerheads and many other water dispensers around will remain unregulated.

Featured blog: Users of brand-new buildings on a major university campus were surprised to discover high concentrations of lead in the water. Faucets were the culprit.

Engineers are homing in on germs and other surprises behind the development of tiny holes in home water pipes.

Soon, you might plug in your car instead of filling it with gas. Read about it in this feature story.

Researchers present findings at the annual New Horizons in Science meeting.

The Hubble Space Telescope has faced a series of malfunctions in the last few weeks.

Because plastic products can be mass-produced cheaply, they have long been considered the poster child of a throwaway culture. Plastics are versatile: Some are soft and flexible, but others are completely rigid. A few mimic natural substances; some are infused with colors rarely found in nature. Others are as clear as glass. And some polymer substances composing plastics can be molded into shapes impossible to reproduce with materials such as wood. Perhaps because they are so versatile, some objects made from plastics have become highly collectible. Some museum collections, in fa... (p. 34)

Turning down the thermostat on a home's water heater could foster the growth of toxic bacteria in home plumbing.

America's ailing water-delivery infrastructure is literally throwing clean water away -- and dirtying some of what it moves toward our taps.

New techniques may be shaving a century or two off the recovery of mined mountain tops.

Forested mountain peaks have been giving way to grassy planes in Appalachian coal country.

Scientists create new technologies that can make any surface -- from a desk to a wall -- sing.

NASA scientists are cleared to remotely switch equipment on the Hubble Space Telescope in the hopes of restoring the orbiting observatory’s function by October 16.

With gargantuan ears, gleaming brown eyes, a fuzzy white muzzle and a squat, furry body, Leonardo looks like a magical creature from a Harry Potter book. He’s actually a robot powered by an innovative set of silicon innards. Like a typical 6-year-old child, but unlike standard robots that come preprogrammed with inflexible rules for thinking, Leonardo adopts the perspectives of people he meets and then acts on that knowledge. Leonardo’s creators, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Personal Robots Group and special effects aces at the Stan Winston Stu... (p. 24)