BBC News

Meet the man who shoots 30,000 wallabies a year

New rules governing how contractors deal with protected species could mean great crested newts remain in their current habitats.

The average English-speaker has about 50,000 words in their mind. But how do they find the right one in 600 milliseconds?

Computer science A-levels in the 1970s

As calls for African science investment get louder, the BBC meets some of the continent’s world-beating young researchers at a forum in Senegal.

Scientists create artificial skin, made from mouse stem cells, that integrates successfully and even sprouts hairs when transplanted into another mouse.

Scientists create artificial skin, made from mouse stem cells, that integrates successfully and even sprouts hairs when transplanted into another mouse.

Perfectly backlit by our star, Comet 67P was photographed in dramatic fashion this week by the Rosetta spacecraft - 260 million km from Earth.

A turtle in Seattle has undergone experimental therapy involving a hyperbaric chamber to try and treat its buoyancy disorder.

Hundreds of the most common bird species in Europe and the US are having their populations altered by climate change, according to scientists.

Wildlife officials express concern as white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of bats in eastern US, is detected on the country's west coast.

The world's two largest carbon emitters have issued a joint statement confirming that both countries will sign the Paris Climate Agreement next month.

We should shine lasers into space if we want to hide our presence from alien civilisations, two US-based astronomers suggest.

Zookeeper Lynsey Bugg, who has been caring for a baby gorilla until she can be reunited with her mother, has been talking about how she looks after her.

A rescue centre in Indonesia is trying to rescue Sumatran tigers and save the species from extinction.

The diminutive human species nicknamed "the Hobbit" probably went extinct at least 50,000 years ago - not the 12,000 years ago initially thought to be the case.

A new tadpole that burrows through sand is discovered in the Western Ghats of India, scientists report.

UK researchers build a device the size of a postage stamp that measures tiny fluctuations in gravity and could help monitor volcanoes or search for oil.

A 13-year-old girl from Lancashire with diabetes says she has taught her dog, Pip, to sniff out changes in her blood sugar levels.

Scientists and engineers in Japan are scrambling to save a satellite and more than a quarter of a billion dollars of investment tumbling out of control in space.

Scientists say a 305 million-year-old fossil is the closest ancient relative to "true spiders" ever discovered.

Laboratory tests show some varieties of olive trees appear to be resistant to an invasive pathogen that poses a serious risk to Europe's olive industry.

Evidence that Australia's Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst coral bleaching on record has renewed calls for the UN to list it as "in-danger".

Dozens of Japanese engineers and scientists are scrambling to save an X-ray satellite - and more than a quarter of a billion dollars of investment - tumbling out of control in space.

Although winter Arctic sea-ice extent has been the smallest on record this year, it is unclear yet whether its volume will also mark a new low.

Evidence that Australia's Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst coral bleaching on record has renewed calls for the UN to list it as "in-danger".

Hopes are growing that the UK may soon have its first polar bear cub in 25 years, after Victoria and Arktos, two bears at the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland, started mating.

A cat has survived eight days trapped in a box of DVDs which was posted from Cornwall to West Sussex.

Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo has released footage of its giant panda, Tian Tian, enjoying a bubble bath.

Scientists take another step in their quest to understand the bare genetic essentials of life, producing a laboratory bacterium that has only 473 genes - fewer than any independent bug in nature.

The Zika virus first appeared in South America in mid-2013, say Brazilian and British scientists, long before the World Cup in Brazil.

Does the future lie in smaller reactors?

The BBC's Roger Harrabin explains how small nuclear reactors might work - using bags of rice.

The US space agency's Dawn satellite continues to return remarkable images from the dwarf planet Ceres, in particular from its collection of bright spots in Occator Crater.

Foam made by miniature frogs to protect their eggs could offer a clever way to deliver healing drugs to burns patients, scientists believe.

The ash tree is likely to be wiped out in Europe, according to the largest-ever survey of the species.

Scientists have been watching paint dry in experiments they say could improve the performance of everyday items, from sun screen to mobile phones.

With 23,000 panels covering an area the size of eight football pitches, Europe's biggest floating solar farm has begun generating power for the very first time.

Metallic ink was used to write the Herculaneum scrolls, say scientists.

Humans are now putting carbon into the atmosphere at a rate unprecedented since at least the age of the dinosaurs, scientists say.

More needs to be done to ensure the genetic diversity of wild relatives of key food crops are conserved to ensure future food security, a study warns.

Five cheetah cubs are in critical care after being born in rare caesarean section procedure

A bear bone found in a cave may push back dates for the earliest human settlement of Ireland by 2,500 years.

Lord West, former First Sea Lord, says he hopes experts will not choose to call a new polar research ship Boaty McBoatface, after the name tops a public poll.

The Australian and Tasmanian authorities abandon their campaign to allow logging in the Tasmanian Wilderness, a World Heritage site.

In an Oregon laboratory, a two-metre spider web made of aluminium and rope is beginning to unlock how orb weavers pinpoint struggling prey.

A camera has captured the hatching of bald eagles in Washington DC.

High-tech GPS equipment means it is not just the height of Ben Nevis that is being reassessed.

A very hungry caterpillar that devours box plants - a staple of formal English gardens - is named "top pest" of 2015 by the UK's Royal Horticultural Society.