COLD SHOULDER FOR SHELL: Shell Oil announced that it will stop drilling for oil off of the Alaskan coast for the foreseeable future due to high drilling costs and lower than expected yields. The company will seal and desert its one exploratory well in the area.

WATER WHERE?: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found more proof that water sometime flows on Mars, leaving Californians to wonder what that's like. 

NOT THE BEE’S KNEES: In a new study, scientists found that the tongues of a particular species of bee in the Rocky Mountains have shortened by 25 percent since 1966. As the long-fluted flowers that the bees adapted to eat became less common, their specialized tongues started to shrink.

CAP’N TRADE RIDES AGAIN: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced plans for a nationwide cap-and-trade program in the world’s largest greenhouse gas producing country. 

PORTABLE-A BATTERIES:  Engineers at the University of California, Riverside released research that shows that biomass from portabella mushrooms could be used as a replacement for graphite in rechargeable batteries. Between the smartphone boom and the growing popularity of electric cars, scientists are scrambling to make batteries more efficient, cheap, and environmentally friendly.