· Scheme exploits parents' fears, fertility experts say · £8,500 procedure 'based on unproven technology'

· GM poplars break down pollutants 100 times faster · Scientists acknowledge environmental concerns

An influential inquiry into the future of Britain's abortion laws will begin today amid controversy over an apparent attempt by faith-based organisations to skew the balance of evidence presented to the committee of MPs.

New images of a giant planet's satellites taken by the 10-year Cassini probe have excited scientists.

Ben Goldacre: Danie Krugel is an ex-policeman in South Africa who believes he can pinpoint the location of missing people anywhere on the map. He does this by using his special magic box, which works through "quantum physics", but you aren't allowed to know any more than that.

Some of the the less likely participants at the Rubik's Cube World Championships in Hungary.

The former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN climate change panel will share the 2007 Nobel peace prize for raising awareness of the risks of climate change, the Nobel committee announced today.

• Study to look at 500,000 regions of human genome• £10 test could spot those needing early medication

Astronomers may be on the brink of discovering a second Earth-like planet, a find that would add fresh impetus to the search for extraterrestrial life, according to a leading science journal.

UK champion Dan Harris travels to the spiritual home of Rubik's Cube to take on the fastest cubers on the planet

· Standards body guideline permits glass of wine a day · Draft contradicts official policy of abstinence

A great storm like that of 1987 would not arrive without warning today, according to the Met Office.

Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, was yesterday criticised by a high court judge who highlighted what he said were "nine scientific errors" in the film.

A German scientist whose work led to a profound understanding of the vanishing ozone layer, clean car exhausts and rusting iron celebrates his 71st birthday today as the latest Nobel prize winner in the field of chemistry.

The first Malaysian man in space blasts off today with the approval of Islamic scholars.

Response, Dr Nick Gay: Great scientific advances - unlike these latest claims - open up whole new areas of knowledge.

Dinosaur hunters have uncovered what could be the oldest footprint of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex ever found.

A group of scientists will today challenge some of the claims made in the marketing of products ranging from sandwiches and yoghurt to health spas and healing crystals. In a report highlighting the use of loosely worded scientific-sounding language, they call for 11 companies to justify their selling techniques.

The Nobel prize for physics was awarded yesterday for a discovery that sparked a boom in the information age.

Plans to ban the creation of 'human-animal' embryos by mixing sperm and eggs from different species have been dropped by ministers in a rethink of fertility laws.

Leader: Sir Martin Evans's discovery of embryonic stem cells has given scientists the key to treating a range of genetic conditions. His research method may not be universally popular but winners should be hailed, and youngsters taught about the difference they make.

Swimming proved one of the few bright spots in genome pioneer Craig Venter's high school years. When he was drafted to serve in a frontline hospital, it was to offer him salvation, as he recounts in this second extract from his memoir.

A British scientist whose pioneering research led to the creation of legions of "knockout" mice that are genetically modified to develop human diseases was awarded a Nobel prize yesterday.

Scientists have made a breakthrough in the search for a cure for Huntington's disease. Hope for a future treatment has been raised by the discovery of a chemical that slows damage to the brain caused by the genetic disease.