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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Physicist Kenneth Wilson, who earned a Nobel prize for pioneering work that changed the way physicists think about phase transitions, has died in Maine, where he retired to enjoy kayaking with his wife. He was 77. Wilson, who died from complications of lymphoma, was in the physics department at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., when he won the Nobel Prize in 1982 for applying his research in quantum physics to phase transitions, the transformation that occurs when a substance goes from, say, liquid to gas. Wilson created a mathematical tool called the renormalization group that is still widely used in physics. The son of a Harvard University chemist, the Waltham, Mass.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Nearly 120 scientists and engineers from around the world are meeting in South Dakota this week to discuss operational and technical issues with collecting images from the Landsat 8 satellite. The U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Center north of Sioux Falls collects, archives and makes available for download more than 400 data-filled images of the Earth each day. The center also partners with a network of ground stations across the globe that help download and distribute the data.

FAIRPORT, Mich. (AP) — A wooden beam embedded at the bottom of northern Lake Michigan appears to have been there for centuries, underwater archaeologists announced Tuesday, a crucial finding as crews dig toward what they hope is the carcass of a French ship that disappeared while exploring the Great Lakes in the 17th Century. Expedition leaders still weren't ready to declare they had found a shipwreck or the long-lost Griffin. The ship, commanded by the French explorer La Salle, was never seen again after setting sail in September 1679 from an island near the entrance of Green Bay, in what is now northern Wisconsin, with a crew of a six and a cargo of furs.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Times, Munster. June 17, 2013. Rehabilitated criminals need second chance Getting and keeping a job can help keep reformed criminals out of prison. The honest income makes a difference. But a criminal record can be a barrier to employment. Some employers are naturally skittish about hiring ex-convicts. So beginning July 1 Indiana will offer thousands of Hoosiers the opportunity to have their criminal records expunged. Employers doing background checks wouldn't be able to see crimes like drunken driving and drug dealing once the records have been scrubbed. More serious crimes might be marked as expunged but remain public record. Most of the crimes eligible for expungement are nonviol

HAVRE, Mont. (AP) — The chancellor at Montana State University-Northern is recommending that 25 of its programs be ended or placed under moratorium due to declining enrollment. Faculty and staff started in September reviewing all 74 programs offered at Northern to "make sure that our programs are relevant to what the community and students need," said Chancellor James Limbaugh. Limbaugh last week recommended growing 19 programs, maintaining 25, reducing or integrating four into other programs and placing a moratorium on or ending 25 programs. "This is part of an overarching program to turn this institution into what you want it to be," Limbaugh said at a community forum in Havre on Friday.

SACO, Maine (AP) — A physics professor who earned a Nobel prize for pioneering work that changed the way physicists think about phase transitions has died in Maine at age 77. Kenneth Wilson was in the physics department at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., when he won the Nobel Prize in 1982 for applying his research in quantum physics to phase transitions, the transformation that occurs when a substance goes from, say, liquid to gas. He created a mathematical tool that is still used in physics. The son of a Harvard chemist, the Waltham, Mass., later retired from Ohio State University. Wilson had been living in Gray, Maine. Friends and family say he died Saturday at a nursing home in Saco from complications of lymph

LONDON (AP) — The best advice for visitors to Britain — pack an umbrella — is more vital than ever. Weather scientists said Tuesday that a country that has been unusually soggy in recent years is not likely to dry out soon, and a warm Atlantic Ocean may be to blame. Meteorologists and climate scientists from around Britain met to discuss why this traditionally temperate country has recently experienced icy winters, the coldest spring in half a century and a string of washed-out summers.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — In a June 16 analysis of the debate in Kansas over public school standards, The Associated Press misidentified a State Board of Education member's hometown. Sally Cauble is from Liberal, not Independence. A corrected version of the story is below: Analysis: Kan. standards debate exposes tensions Analysis: Debate in Kan. over standards for schools exposes longstanding political tensions By JOHN HANNA AP Political Writer TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An intense debate in Kansas over adopting multistate academic standards for public schools has exposed longstanding tensions between the Legislature and the State Board of Education over control of what happens in classrooms.

The Wichita Eagle, June 16 Failure to deliver at DMV Renewing a driver's license shouldn't take multiple attempts and a wait of three, four or five hours. That it does for many people in the Wichita area these days is a failure to deliver one of the most basic of government services. And the time- and productivity-wasting lines don't bode well for "Phase Two" implementation of the state's new $40 million motor-vehicle computer system, to incorporate driver's licensing. Continuing to withhold $2 million of the state's $25 million contract with 3M because of the computer woes is a good step, to hold 3M accountable, but there has to be more the state can do.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Three state biologists are being honored for their work rescuing threatened and endangered species. Department of Game and Fish herpetologist Charlie Painter, fisheries manager Kirk Patten and recently retired Gila Trout Recovery Coordinator David Propst received the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Recovery Champions awards for their work rescuing threatened and endangered species. Patten and Propst were part of a team that responded to last year's Whitewater-Baldy wildfire, the worst in New Mexico history.

BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese university has built the world's fastest supercomputer, almost doubling the speed of the U.S. machine that previously claimed the top spot and underlining China's rise as a science and technology powerhouse. The semiannual TOP500 listing of the world's fastest supercomputers released Monday says the Tianhe-2 developed by the National University of Defense Technology in central China's Changsha city is capable of sustained computing of 33.86 petaflops per second. That's the equivalent of 33,860 trillion calculations per second. The Tianhe-2, which means Milky Way-2, knocks the U.S. Energy Department's Titan machine off the No. 1 spot. It achieved 17.59 petaflops per second.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii fishermen on Monday asked policymakers to address how runoff caused by land development harms reefs, fisheries and oceans when they consider how to cope with the effects of climate change. Ocean health can't be looked at in segments, Oahu fisherman Roy Morioka told a committee of the federal body responsible for managing fisheries around Hawaii and other parts of the western Pacific region. Government officials need to take a comprehensive approach, Morioka told a Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council committee on ecosystem management in Hawaii. "You need to pull it all together. Because not one thing is the issue, it's a collective thing that is the issue," Morioka said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles port officials on Monday unveiled plans to create a $500 million marine research center called AltaSea. The project, developed through a public-private partnership between the port and universities, will be built on a 100-year-old wharf on the San Pedro waterfront. Officials cited Los Angeles' urban environment as a reason to invest in research at the port, which had been looking to diversify its uses — in addition to cargo — for years. The facility will have direct harbor and ocean access. AltaSea, previously dubbed "City Dock No. 1," will take 15 to 20 years to complete, using 28 acres to house labs with circulating seawater, classrooms and support facilities.

FAIRPORT, Mich. (AP) — Commercial fisherman Larry Barbeau's comings and goings usually don't create much of a stir in this wind-swept Lake Michigan outpost, but in the past few days, his phone jangles the minute he arrives home. Barbeau's 46-foot boat is the offshore nerve center for an expedition seeking the underwater grave of the Griffin, the first ship of European design to traverse the upper Great Lakes. Built on orders of legendary French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle, it ventured from Niagara Falls to Lake Michigan's Green Bay but disappeared during its return in 1679.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has eight new astronauts — its first new batch in four years. Among the lucky candidates: the first female fighter pilot to become an astronaut in nearly two decades. A female helicopter pilot also is in the group. In fact, four of the eight are women, the highest percentage of female astronaut candidates ever selected by NASA. Monday's announcement came on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the launch of the first American woman in space, Sally Ride. She died last summer. The eight — all in their 30s — were chosen from more than 6,000 applications received early last year, the second largest number ever received. They will report for duty in August at Johnson Space Center in Hou

CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — The plane parked outside the airport looks more like a giant exotic insect or maybe an outsized balsa wood toy airplane. When it's in flight, there's no roar of jet engines. It's strangely quiet. And as it crisscrosses America, the spindly plane doesn't use a drop of fuel. Day, and even night, it flies on the power of the sun. And it's that fact that has the U.S. energy secretary, and the plane's two pilots and fans around the world, so excited. The one-man craft called Solar Impulse has been flying cross-country in short hops as part of a 13-year privately funded European project that is expected to cost $150 million. Ernest Moniz, who heads the U.S.

Green Bay Press-Gazette, June 15 Obama's 2nd term stumbles out of gate The Affordable Care Act could make or break President Barack Obama's second term and ultimately put a stamp on his legacy. Beset by a Congress that cannot agree on anything and a dizzying supply of scandals and controversies, the success or failure of the so-called Obamacare could sink his presidency within the first year of his second term. Second terms are always difficult, but for Obama, "even absent scandals he has a real tough hill to climb," said Charley Jacobs, associate professor of political science at St. Norbert College. Since Jan.

Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 17 Supreme Court's gene patent ruling was overdue It seems obvious that a company shouldn't hold a patent on something that the human body produces. Proprietary patents, after all, protect the exclusive rights to make, use or sell a creation or invention — not something that occurs in nature. Yet some 30 years ago, the U.S. government started issuing human gene patents to companies that do biomedical research. But last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on what should have been apparent all these years. Justices rightly said that human genes cannot be "owned" or patented. That's a victory for health care consumers. They will have more access to genetic and other tests a

NEW YORK (AP) — By the time 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan finally got a lung transplant last week, she'd been waiting for months, and her parents had sued to give her a better shot at surgery. Her cystic fibrosis was threatening her life, and her case spurred a debate on how to allocate donor organs. Lungs and other organs for transplant are scarce. But what if there were another way? What if you could grow a custom-made organ in a lab? It sounds incredible. But just a three-hour drive from the Philadelphia hospital where Sarah got her transplant, another little girl is benefiting from just that sort of technology. Two years ago, Angela Irizarry of Lewisburg, Pa., needed a crucial blood vessel.

ATLANTA (AP) — The 50 students haven't even started ninth grade yet, but they're gathered this summer at a high school for a special program on statistics, language and social awareness taught by teachers who specialize in Advanced Placement classes. The "Come West 9" program at Westlake High School is part of a broad effort within the Fulton County Schools system, one of six urban school districts recently recognized by a national education group for boosting participation and performance among black students on AP exams, which students can take for college credit while still in high school. The goal at the metro Atlanta program is to reach not just gifted students but those who think of college as a destination, not a dre