BBC News

Cutting down trees in rainforest regions facilitates the spread of invasive black rats, a study suggests.

Indigenous tribes, timber firms and environmental groups in western Canada hail a deal to protect one of the world's largest temperate rainforests.

Insulating buildings should be a key infrastructure priority alongside roads, rail, flood defences and energy, ministers have been told.

Is human activity driving evolution in animals?

Scientists replicate how the human brain folds using a 3D model made out of gel, and computer simulations.

A new study says that man-made climate change increased the chances of a once in century wet January in southern England in 2014 by 43%.

A previously unknown population of at least 100 lions is discovered by a wildlife charity in a remote park in north-western Ethiopia.

A reptile believed to pre-date most species of dinosaur hatches at Chester Zoo after a 38-year wait by conservationists.

How the misunderstanding of risk destroyed a shuttle

A bid is launched to uncover the secret life of clingy sea creatures.

The challenge of setting a mini land speed record

Proton beam cancer therapy - at the centre of an NHS controversy in 2014 - causes fewer side effects in children than conventional radiotherapy, research suggests.

More than half a million people are expected to take part in an annual birdwatch this weekend and record species spotted in gardens and parks.

Europe begins the roll out of a space data superhighway, which will allow faster delivery of satellite images of unfolding natural disasters.

British astronaut Tim Peake asks schoolchildren to help him with one of his scientific experiments.

Increasing crop yields could help meet the rising global demand for more food while sparing land to protect biodiversity, a study suggests.

A female sand tiger shark has slowly eaten a smaller male shark in a Seoul aquarium, bite by bite

Sophisticated geometry - the branch of mathematics that deals with shapes - was being used at least 1,400 years earlier than previously thought, a study suggests.

The past 30 years in Europe have been the warmest in more than two millennia, according to new research.

Octopuses that stand tall, darken and spread their web in a "Nosferatu pose" are likely displaying complex social interactions, according to new research.

The design for Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket has been settled and development will now move on apace to an anticipated first launch in 2020, say officials.

The World Health Organisation has convened an emergency committee to discuss the spread of the Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Latin America.

Polecats, which were almost wiped out in Britain 100 years ago, are now spreading across Britain, a survey shows.

Polecats, which were almost wiped out in Britain in the last century, have made a remarkable recovery. Naturalist Chris Packham explains.

A study shows for the first time that bed bugs in the US have developed resistance to neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used insecticides.

Health officials battling the Zika virus in Brazil say as many as 100,000 people could have been infected in one city alone.

Russia's troubled space port nears launch

Work is nearing completion on building Russia's new Vostochny space port, designed to replace the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan.

Are fitbands the future of genetic research?

Commercial satellite giant Intelsat launches the first of its new Epic spacecraft - a next-generation high-throughput telecommunications system - that will be critical to the future fortune of the company.

An artificial intelligence program developed by Google beats Europe's top player at the ancient Chinese game of Go, about a decade earlier than expected.

The planned introduction of 30 Marine Protected Areas off Scotland has sparked a "passionate debate", says the environment secretary.

The Devils Hole pupfish, one of the rarest species in world, may not have existed as a distinct population for as long as once thought.

Astronomers discover the largest known solar system, consisting of a large planet that takes a million years to orbit its star.

Facebook says its is "getting close" to having artificial intelligence software capable of beating the top players of the board game Go.

Remote communities are not receiving the compensation they are entitled to from schemes designed to conserve tropical forests, a study suggests.

The woman who could have been on ill-fated shuttle flight

It's difficult to keep a conspiracy under wraps, scientists say, because sooner or later, one of the conspirators will blow its cover.

One of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence has died, aged 88.

A transcript of Stephen Hawking's first Reith Lecture, annotated by BBC science editor David Shukman

James Webb, the space telescope that will take over from Hubble, is reaching some key milestones in its preparation for launch in 2018.

Explorer Henry Worsley dies during a solo attempt to cross Antarctica and complete the unfinished journey of his hero Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Five sperm whales have washed up on beaches in Lincolnshire and Norfolk.

The secretary bird kicks snakes to death with a strike that packs five times the bird's own weight in a fraction of a second, scientists say.

UK researchers measure the power in the strike of the secretary bird, which hunts by kicking.

The Zika virus is likely to spread across nearly all of the Americas, the World Health Organization has warned.

How Israel is embracing veganism

Why do sperm whales die in the North Sea?

Big Boy, a funnel-web spider with a leg span of 10cm, is the largest specimen ever handed in to Australia's only venom-milking programme.