BBC News

Freddie Mercury is honoured with an asteroid named after him to mark what would have been his 70th birthday.

The fossilised skeleton of a 170 million-year-old Jurassic predator discovered on the Isle of Skye is unveiled in Edinburgh.

Human skulls and other artefacts found aboard the Tudor shipwreck, the Mary Rose, are being exhibited online for the first time.

Researchers have captured images of an extremely rare white southern right whale calf off swimming with its mother off the coast of Western Australia.

Pressure is growing on the UK government to ratify the Paris climate change deal immediately.

For the first time, skulls and other artefacts from the 1545 wreck of the Mary Rose warship are being exhibited online, as part of a project testing the limits of digital archaeology.

Grace Livingstone talks to members of Mapuche indigenous communities living near a fracking site in Argentina about their concerns for their health and their environment.

Decades of conservation efforts by China lead to a rise in the number of giant pandas, as they are taken off the endangered species list.

Millions of honeybees have been killed in South Carolina after pesticide was sprayed to kill off mosquitoes that could be harbouring the Zika virus.

Lun Lun, a 19-year-old giant panda, has given birth to twins - she also had twins in 2013.

The US and China - together responsible for 40% of the world's carbon emissions - formally join the Paris global climate agreement.

Plastic microbeads used in cosmetics and cleaning products are to be banned by the end of next year, the UK government pledges.

NASA has released spectacular images of Jupiter that have never been seen before.

The US space agency releases pictures and other data from the Juno probe, which has just made its first close approach to Jupiter since going into orbit in July.

Scientists working on the largest study of ticks in dogs have found that almost one third of dogs checked at random across the UK were carrying a tick.

Thousands of people have watched the Moon pass in front of the Sun, to make a so-called "ring of fire".

A rocket operated by the aerospace company SpaceX explodes on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral where it was being test-fired ahead of a launch.

Europe's biggest biomedical laboratory, the Francis Crick Institute, has opened in London.

SpaceX was fuelling the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket for a test engine firing when the blast happened.

Scientists in China find that a dog vaccine can also protect large livestock against rabies infection.

An annular eclipse delivered a memorable spectacle across several African countries, as the moon's movement creates a "ring of fire" in the sky.

One of the world's rarest stick insects successfully breeds at Bristol Zoo - the first time the species has done so outside Australia.

Free movement between the US and Mexico - the hottest of topics in the 2016 US presidential campaign - is not just a human issue.

A look at Kenya's fast-growing crocodile farm industry, which is enjoying a big rise in demand for the animal's meat, led by China.

A drug that destroys the characteristic protein plaques that build up in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's is showing "tantalising" promise, scientists say.

Some of the world’s earliest life forms may have been captured in squiggles found in ancient rocks from Greenland.

A "smart energy" revolution could help ensure that the UK does not suffer blackouts, according to National Grid's new UK chief.

A pink cockatoo, thought to be the oldest bird of its kind in captivity, has died at a US zoo.

African forest elephants have an extremely slow birth rate, putting them under greater pressure from poaching, a study suggests.

Astronomers in the US have uncovered previously unknown objects in the outer reaches of the Solar System.

A genetic study uncovers signs that wild Tasmanian devils are rapidly evolving to fight back against the infectious face cancer threatening them with extinction.

DNA has been successfully sequenced in space for the first time.

Luxembourg-based SES says it is going to be the first satellite operator to launch a spacecraft on a "second-hand" rocket - a Falcon 9 that previously sent supplies to the space station.

One of Australia's best-known landmarks, Uluru, has been filmed from a new perspective.

Badger culling is rolled out to more parts of England, in a bid to tackle bovine TB.

Scientists investigating whether we have entered a new geological age are seeking a suitable "spike" in the environmental record that betrays significant human influence.

Monsoon floods in the Ganges river have broken previous records in four locations in northern India, officials tell the BBC

Thirty years ago, India discovered the dreaded HIV virus had reached its shores when blood samples from six sex workers tested positive.

Can an algorithm turn you into an efficient sock-sorting machine?

Air pollution in UK cities has failed to improve because politicians prioritise road safety and economic growth instead, research suggests.

New evidence suggests that the famous fossilised human ancestor dubbed 'Lucy' by scientists may have died falling from a great height - probably from a tree.

More than 300 reindeer have been killed in a lightning storm on a mountain plateau in Norway.

Researchers at Stanford University have designed a unique bird tunnel to observe how tiny birds fly.

Turbines installed off the coast of Shetland could herald a "new era" in tidal energy, according to the company running the project.

A Nasa team has emerged from a Mars simulation in Hawaii, where they lived in near isolation for a year.

A team of six people complete a Nasa-funded Mars simulation in Hawaii, after living in a dome in near isolation for a year.

Proponents say new, greener jet fuels made from waste wood could significantly reduce airline CO2 emissions but environmentalists say it's a "pipe dream".

Europe’s Sentinel radar satellites map Italy's Apennine mountains, revealing the scale of ground movement in Wednesday's big earthquake.

The US space agency’s Juno probe makes its first close approach to Jupiter since going into orbit in July.

US President Barack Obama expands a national monument off Hawaii, creating the world's largest marine reserve.