We could blame our accents and different dialects on self-imposed borders but that doesn't explain why animals like whales from different regions speak in dialects. Using underwater microphones, scientists eavesdropped on some whale talk and found that the blue whales off the Pacific Northwest sound different than those living in the western Pacific Ocean or near Chile. The reason for the different whale tongues is still unknown.

Writer H.G. Wells imagined it in his writing in the late 1800's, and this year scientists inched closer to creating an invisible man. Duke University researchers created a cloaking device that can make objects invisible to microwave light. The device works by rerouting microwaves beam around it the way boulders in a stream divert flowing water.

Chinese doctors reported this year why they removed the transplanted penis of a 44-year-old man who had lost his own in an accident. The organ was removed two weeks after the transplant in 2005 because of psychological problems encountered by the man and his wife. Some researchers believe that if proper counseling had accompanied the procedure, the couple might have avoided amputating the organ.

In a tragic and unusual accident, the much loved and popular Australian television personality and conservationist, Steve Irwin, was killed by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef. Stingrays sport a tail with an 8-inch spear that stiffens when faced with a threat. Although the spear packs venom that alters heart rate and respiration, it rarely kills humans. The Crocodile Hunter was probably killed because the stingray's spear pierced his heart.

Scientists produced healthy offspring from the cells of another species for the first time by taking rat stem cells involved in sperm production and implanting them in mice testicles. In the future, researchers hope to grow sperm of livestock or endangered species in mice or other lab animals.

It parted once. It parted twice. And this time scientists are watching the whole thing. Satellite images show the Arabian tectonic plate and the African Plate are moving away from each other and parting the southern end of the Red Sea. This growing rift, which is tearing the northeast of Ethiopia and Eritrea from the rest of Africa, could eventually create a whole new sea.

Editor: Yan