BBC News

Biotechnology start-up companies are increasingly turning to crowdfunding in order to find investors for their business.

A record number of rhinos were slaughtered for their horns in South Africa last year, and fears are growing for the survival of the species in the wild.

Astronomers witness a key stage in the birth of a very heavy star, using two radio telescope views of the process taken 18 years apart.

Biologists are calling on the public to report sightings of rabbits and hares as part of a conservation effort.

An outline agreement on the future shape of the Iranian nuclear programme is reached after marathon talks between Iran and six major powers.

Pictures from California's record-breaking drought

The Bloodhound car will be bullet-proof as well as fast

The satellite Europe will be sending to Mars early next year enters its final test programme.

Large quantities of plastic debris are building up in the Mediterranean Sea, say scientists.

A camel, whose intact skeleton has been found in a 300-year-old Austrian cellar, was probably ridden by the invading Ottoman army in 1683.

A novel delivery system for perfume would ensure that a person smells better the more they sweat, scientists have said.

Engineers create unpowered exoskeleton "boots" that use a spring and a ratchet to make human walking 7% more efficient.

The Force - the mysterious energy field used by the Jedi in Star Wars - has been discovered by researchers at the Cern laboratory in an April Fools prank.

EU milk quotas are scrapped, bringing an end to more than 30 years of efforts to prevent overproduction.

The scale of China's land reclamation in the South China Sea is leading to "serious questions" on its intentions, a top US official says.

Has the media lost interest in climate change?

A one-year experiment asks if learning is more about hard work than natural ability

The RSPCA says it is looking after so many abandoned horses, donkeys and ponies that it cannot take in any more.

£135,000 was spent relocating water voles so work could begin dredging two Somerset rivers in 2014.

The short circuit delaying the restart of the Large Hadron Collider has been fixed, after a blast of high current melted the metal particle responsible.

The US has pledged to tackle climate change by cutting its carbon emissions 26-28% by 2025.

New renewable generating capacity broke the 100GW barrier in 2014, equivalent to the entire fleet of nuclear power plants in the US, a UN report shows.

A study finds that ants on board the International Space Station still use teamwork to search new areas, despite falling off the walls of their containers for up to eight seconds.

Fossils from the ocean floor are yielding clues to the Indian monsoon millions of years ago.

Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington say whale communication depends on jaw movements and the methods these mammals use to catch food.

Is fibre key to connecting Africa?

A new multimillion dollar project that uses solar power to treat underground saline water is offering a ray of hope in south east Pakistan.

Solar Impulse, the fuel-free aeroplane, lands in Chongqing, China, to complete leg five of its attempt to fly around the world.

The mystery of Mercury's dark surface can be explained by a steady dusting of carbon from passing comets, research suggests.

Researchers in Denmark have discovered that porpoises can adjust the beams of sound they use to hunt.

Porpoises finely adjust the size of the beams of sound they use to hunt - using sound like a searchlight to trap their prey, a study finds.

The Solar Impulse 2 plane has departed from Mandalay in Myanmar as part of its round-the-world flight, Kasia Madera reports

A light bulb made with graphene - said by its UK developers to be the first commercially viable consumer product using the super-strong carbon - is to go on sale later this year.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft has docked at the International Space Station carrying three astronauts, two of whom are due to spend a record 12 months there.

US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko arrive for a 12-month tour of duty on the International Space Station.

What are the justifications for the £4bn Large Hadron Collider?

What drives people to murder-suicide?

A pledge by the Greens to double science funding contrasts with the statements offered by five other party leaders, answering a call to set out their policies on science.

Millions of eels have been arriving in the south-west of England having travelled thousands of miles from the Sargasso Sea near Bermuda.

A team of experts says a mixture that included organic cat litter forced the closure of the only underground nuclear waste repository in the US.

Eighteen years of satellite data reveal an acceleration in the thinning of many of Antarctica's floating ice shelves.

China's endangered Ili Pika goes viral

A long-running study shows dark matter coasts unscathed through galactic collisions, betraying a ghostly lack of interaction with the known Universe.

Just 17% of England's rivers are judged to be in good health, according to "shocking" Environment Agency figures.

Europe and America are building two satellites to study the Sun that will venture closer to the solar inferno than any previous missions.

Researchers in the US copy bird and bat wings to build a drone that can rebound and recover from mid-air collisions.

Researchers in the US copy bird and bat wings to build a drone that can rebound and recover after mid-air collisions.

Weird and wonderful entries vie for Design of the Year

A million properties across England could in future be heated by water from rivers, canals and the sea, the government says.