BBC News

Are Nasa's robotic spacecraft plans in trouble?

Researchers have developed a robot that can build "baby" robots that get progressively better at moving without any human intervention.

Engineers develop a robotic system that evolves and improves its performance.

IAAF retests from the 2005 and 2007 World Championships return "adverse findings" for 28 athletes tested for doping.

How does Australia's pledge on carbon emissions compare in the run-up to the Paris climate summit?

A second attempt to reintroduce an extinct bumblebee to the UK is proving successful, conservationists say.

Skywatchers are in for a dazzling display as the annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak on Wednesday.

Why is Japan restarting the Sendai reactor?

A survey examining 200,000 galaxies in multiple wavelengths offers the best estimate yet of how fast the Universe is fading.

Astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) sample some space-grown lettuce.

A toxic leak of wastewater that has turned a Colorado river mustard yellow is three times larger than US officials had originally estimated.

Drought sensitive butterfly species could be driven to extinction across the UK by 2050 according to new research.

Technology being developed at the nuclear spent fuel facility at Sellafield, Cumbria, could prove highly lucrative in the growing business of industrial clear up.

Bee-killing Asian hornets spreading across Europe are fatally attracted to a carnivorous plant, French experts say.

A group of divers in Cornwall are engaged in an underwater clean-up, in a bid to stop plastic rubbish damaging marine life.

Six suspected tiger poachers are shot dead in a gunfight with Bangladeshi police in the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

At least 170 people have been killed in Pakistan in this year's monsoon rains.

How far are they going in the battle to save India's strays?

Cuban people are getting round a lack of internet access by having a weekly delivery of content by hand.

Scotland is to ban the growing of genetically modified crops, the country's rural affairs secretary announces.

The data scrambling systems used by millions of web servers could be much weaker than they ought to be, say researchers.

The Panama Canal says it will temporarily cut the draft - or depth in the water - of ships allowed through because drought has lowered water levels.

There is now Pyongyang Time to add to Greenwich Mean Time, Eastern Standard Time and Lord Howe Standard Time. Time zones are as much about politics, diplomacy and rebellion as they are about... the time.

Physicists unveil a raft of new findings about neutrinos bombarding the Earth from above, below - and within.

Australian flights to and from the holiday island of Bali are halted due to a persistent volcanic ash cloud.

The BBC's Richard Westcott speaks to Prof Graham Braithwaite at The Accident Lab at Cranfield University, where air accident investigators are trained.

Would a hunting ban cost more lives than it saves?

Scientists warn that Nepal's devastating April earthquake failed to release all of the stress built up underground, increasing the chance of a quake further west.

A study of global fish populations suggests fast-growth fish species are more vulnerable to population collapses than previously thought.

Ocean experts have said a video modelling of ocean currents predicted that the wreckage of MH370 would be discovered near the remote French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.

Fishermen's leaders warn the creation of Marine Protected Areas around Scotland's coast could result in a modern-day "clearance" that would devastate small fishing communities.

Nasa's Deep Space Observatory satellite has captured composite images of the moon from a million miles away.

The long-running mystery of flight MH370

A giant offshore wind farm that could provide power for up to two million homes is given the go-ahead by the government.

Lab-based experiments produce the first evidence of the characteristics of individual fish that leave them at greater risk of getting caught.

Allegations of widespread doping in athletics are "a declaration of war" on the sport, says IAAF vice-president Lord Coe.

Israeli archaeologists say they are trying to decode ancient inscriptions written in Hebrew discovered at a dig in Jerusalem.

The decline of the Hainan gibbon - the world's rarest primate - has been revealed by a trawl through historical Chinese documents.

Dr Hugh Lewis examines the threat posed by growing amounts of space junk, and outlines some possible solutions.

Sir James Dyson offers the business advice he wishes he'd had when he started out, as part of the BBC News series, CEO Secrets.

Scientists solve the riddle of why precariously balanced rocks near the San Andreas fault have never been toppled by earthquakes - revealing crucial interactions between faultlines.

A study finds that wild bonobos use a single high-pitched call in a variety of contexts, showing a linguistic flexibility that was thought to be uniquely human.

In a world first, the US Food and Drug Administration has given go-ahead for a 3D printed pill to go into production.

The UK government welcomes President Obama's plan to cut greenhouse gases and boost clean power.

Milton Nkosi takes a helicopter ride to witness the latest volcanic eruption by the Piton de la Fournaise, or 'Peak of the Furnace' on Reunion Island.

US President Barack Obama unveils what he calls "the biggest, most important step we have ever taken" in tackling climate change.

One of the oldest-known complex organisms had a surprising complicated sex life, scientists report.

Zimbabwe says it is seeking a second American over the illegal killing of a lion, as the outcry over the death of famed animal Cecil continues.