The machines that gave scientists their first-ever glimpse at gravitational waves are the most advanced detectors ever built for sensing tiny vibrations in the universe.

The two U.S.-based underground detectors are known as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, or LIGO for short.

In a landmark discovery for physics and astronomy, international scientists said Thursday they have glimpsed the first direct evidence of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, which Albert Einstein predicted a century ago.

When two black holes collided some 1.3 billion years ago, the joining of those two great masses sent forth a wobble that hurtled through space and arrived at Earth on September 14, 2015, when it was picked up by sophisticated instruments, researchers announced.

Scientists are analyzing a small blue object that plummeted from the sky and killed a man in southern India, after authorities said it was a meteorite.

The object slammed into the ground at an engineering college over the weekend, shattering a water cooler and sending splinters and shards flying. Police say a bus driver standing nearby was hit by the debris and died while being taken to a hospital.

Australian researchers have created a "bionic spinal cord" they said Tuesday could give paralyzed people hope of walking again through the power of thought, without resorting to open brain surgery.

The system would use a device the size of a paperclip implanted in a blood vessel next to the brain.

Indian authorities say a falling object that killed a bus driver and injured three others was a meteorite. If proven, it would be the first such death in recorded history.

Experts said other explanations were possible for the incident Saturday in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Dog owners who think their beloved pets are just smarter than the others might be right, according to a report published in Britain on Monday based on intelligence tests on 68 border collies.

Researchers from the London School of Economics (LSE) and University of Edinburgh said they used a "purpose-built barn" to measure navigation ability, speed and skills in following a pointed arm.

Discoveries in an Israeli cave dating back 200,000 years show that early humans ate turtles alongside plants and large game animals, the Tel Aviv university said on Tuesday.

Turtle specimens found around the Qesem cave, some 12 kilometers (seven miles) east of Tel Aviv, also indicated the methods used to prepare them.

Ravens can imagine being spied upon by a hidden competitor, showing a capacity for abstraction once thought to be exclusively human, according to a study released Tuesday.

In a clever set of experiments, scientists showed that the famously intelligent birds take extra care to hide food if they suspect their movements are being monitored by another raven, even when the second bird is not really there.

Conservationists announced Monday the "amazing discovery" of a previously unknown lion population in a remote northwestern region of Ethiopia, confirming local reports with camera trap photographs for the first time.

Lions were spotted in the Alatash National Park on Ethiopia's border with Sudan, lion conservation group Born Free said.

Britain on Monday granted its first licence to genetically modify human embryos for research into infertility and why miscarriages happen, in a move likely to raise ethical concerns.

"Our licence committee has approved an application from Dr Kathy Niakan of the Francis Crick Institute to renew her laboratory's research licence to include gene editing of embryos," the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) said in a statement.