BBC News

The reward for 'whale watching' on Mars

Astronaut Chris Hadfield talks about his new album of songs recorded while onboard the International Space Station

Coal was once considered king, but it is now seen as a dirty fuel and the government wants to eliminate coal-fired power stations within the next 15 years.

Footage of spectacular waterspouts filmed off the coast of Dalian, has been broadcast on Chinese TV.

Researchers puff air through a box of sand to examine how lizards, crabs and robots cope with 'fluid' ground.

From Giant's Causeway to Lulworth Cove - the Geological Society of London announces the winners of its photo competition celebrating the 100 Great Geosites of the UK and Ireland.

A bamboozling question about a crocodile stalking its prey was one reason the pass mark for Higher maths had to be lowered, a report finds.

Does this creature hold the key to immortality?

A 4,500-year-old African genome reveals how our ancient ancestors moved back and forth between continents.

A number of medals awarded to Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton raise £585,000 at a London auction.

The New Horizons mission returns its first colour image of Pluto's atmospheric hazes and shows them to have a blue tinge.

The European Food Safety Authority publishes its initial risk assessment of using insects as a source of protein for human consumption and animal feed.

The 48-million-year-old fossilised remains of a horse foetus have been described by scientists.

Europe's fundamental physics space mission, Lisa Pathfinder, arrives in French Guiana to prepare for its December Launch.

New images from the European Southern Observatory have revealed mysterious ripples around a star close to Earth.

A reassessment of ancient rocks leads scientists to estimate that Earth's inner core started to form earlier than was previously thought, around 1.3 billion years ago.

Corals worldwide are at risk from a major episode of bleaching caused by natural currents and man-made climate change, scientists warm.

Scientists in the United States say the world's coral reefs are being attacked by a phenomenon that's only occurred twice before in recorded history.

Nepal's world-renowned community forests are threatened by a sudden rise in demand for firewood following a fuel crisis, officials say.

A new plant has been launched in the UK which its developers say could offer farmers a reliable and profitable crop.

The rebirth of Mozambique's natural treasure

Israeli Google Lunar X Prize team, SpaceIL, signs a contract to send a lander to the Moon - the first competition group to formally lodge a launch contract.

The Russian space agency releases footage of cosmonauts juggling fruit in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station.

A project to help one of Europe's most endangered bat species is awarded £707,000 of National Lottery funding.

Fergus Walsh examines the threat of air pollution to public health.

Engineers are hoping to use drones to plant in areas that have been deforested

Hoesung Lee of South Korea is elected as the new chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Why neutrinos won the Nobel Prize

Scientists publish a second batch of papers on Homo naledi, the creature whose remains were sensationally found deep inside a South African cave.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in physics goes to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald, who discovered that neutrinos switch between different "flavours".

1,000mph car makes its public debut

A team of international scientists have discovered a new species of rat in Indonesia.

A diesel engine run in a lab shows just how far manufacturers' emissions tests fall short, scientists say.

A carnivorous plant uses raindrops as a power source to bounce ants into a trap, researchers find.

See how a carnivorous pitcher plant uses raindrops as a power source to fling ants to their death.

A global assessment concludes that almost one-third of cactus species face extinction due to unsustainable harvesting and illegal trade.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone now has more wildlife than before the 1986 nuclear accident, researchers say.

Chile announces the creation of two new marine reserves off its coast which together will cover more than a million sq km.

One man's mission to upload 13,000 photographs that Nasa said it didn't have the resources to publish.

Many shoppers in England will have to pay 5p for plastic carrier bags from Monday in a bid to slash the 7.6 billion handed out every year.

Scientists have discovered a species of ancient mammal that survived the event that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The island hoping to become the greenest in the world

Biologist Dr Pennie Lindeque from Plymouth Marine Laboratory explains how plastics in the marine environment get into the food chain.

Photos shortlisted for Royal Society of Biology prize

Farmers in Michigan uncover a woolly mammoth skeleton in a soybean field.

A global collaboration will aim to unravel the mysteries of neutrinos - also known as "ghost particles".

Ponies on Dartmoor are to have reflective paint put on them in a scheme that aims to cut the number being killed by vehicles.

Chemical engineers develop an additive for jet fuel that could prevent explosions without compromising engine function.

Divisions between rich and poor countries re-emerge as nations submit their plans for tackling climate change to the UN.

The British Geological Survey says a large sinkhole which opened in St Albans, Herts, may be linked to an old brickworks which used to be on the site.