Slacker, a Web-based radio service, said on Friday it has started to take orders for its portable player which features free music channels personalized to the user’s tastes.

They don’t call the day after Thanksgiving "Black Friday" for nothing. It’s all about launching the megastores "into the black" – into profitability. They profit not by offering goods at a loss, but by using ultra-low prices to lure you into their stores, where they can employ dirty tricks to make money.

The
exploration of the human genome has long been relegated to elite scientists in
research laboratories. But that is about to change. An infant industry is
capitalizing on the plunging cost of genetic testing technology to offer any
individual unprecedented – and unmediated – entree to their own DNA.

We’ve seen some interesting nanotech power concepts in the past, but researchers at UCLA have gone back to basics and developed a printable nanotech version of a traditional battery they say could power other printed, flexible nanotech devices.

Here are a couple stunning high-definition images from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s lunar explorer Kaguya.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster will be discussed at the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting. The title: "Evolutionary Controversy and a Side of Pasta: The Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Subversive Function of Religious Parody."

Sporty, arty and business savvy. A ranking of the world’s top 20 most intriguing billionaire heiresses by Web site Forbes.com shows daughters of the rich aren’t all just socialites and can be hard workers.

To build a better robot, scientists increasingly are looking to nature, making robots that move and interact socially with cockroaches, slither like a salamander and even learn and make decisions like humans.

Collecting sunshine sounds like something a Bond villain might do on his day off, but it’s actually something the charming little Sun Jar does every day. That’s because this traditional-looking frosted glass container houses a solar cell, battery and LED lights.

GPS tracking devices installed on government-issue vehicles are helping communities around the country reduce waste and abuse, in part by catching employees shopping, working out at the gym or otherwise loafing while on the clock.

Civil War enthusiasts this weekend will get a rare glimpse at what a handful of scholars are calling the most significant find of its kind in generations: a pair of stereoscopic photos, purportedly of Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg before he delivered his famous address.