MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan on Thursday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From French poodles to German shepherds, domestic dogs likely trace most of their ancestry to the Middle East, as opposed to East Asian origins suggested by previous research, a genetic study reported on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA Administrator Charles Bolden defended the U.S. space agency's budget on Tuesday and said its focus on commercial space transportation would provide "incredible opportunities" for U.S. companies.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Ancestors of a hobbit-like species of humans may have colonized the Indonesian island of Flores as far back as a million years ago, much earlier than thought, according to a new study published Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People leave more than fingerprints when they touch stuff -- they also deposit a tell-tale trail of germs that could help investigators solve crimes, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Use of genetic screening on heart patients helped cut hospitalizations related to the widely used blood thinner warfarin by nearly a third, according to a large study that marks a step forward in the fledgling field of personalized medicine.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rudolf Jaenisch, whose stem cell lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has consistently broken new barriers in the field, is the world's "hottest" researcher, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies successfully test fired its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, clearing a milestone toward the inaugural flight of a privately developed spaceship to fly cargo, and possibly astronauts, into orbit, the company said.

LONDON (Reuters) - An international team of scientists has managed to transfer disease resistance from one plant family to another, offering broader protection from potentially costly and destructive pests.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Archbishop Desmond Tutu has done it. So has genome pioneer Craig Venter.