Astronomers detect two of the most complex carbon-rich molecules ever found in interstellar space.

Why the sun is showing little activity

EU fishing fleets need major cuts if stocks are to be managed sustainably, the European Commission says.

The number of people hit by climate-related disasters worldwide could rise 50% within six years, Oxfam says.

Supermarkets are arranging wine tasting sessions around "good" and "bad" days as dictated by the lunar calendar. So does the moon really change the taste of wine?

Professor Stephen Hawking, one of the world's leading scientists, is "very ill" in hospital, Cambridge University says.

The Great Wall of China is even longer than once thought, after the first detailed government study to establish its length.

A survey of dead stars finds that many are probably surrounded by the rocky remains of asteroids and planets.

Researchers hope to use DNA to prove Mediterranean workers came to find copper in north Wales in the Bronze Age.

Why local activists are showing us the way forward

Bad management by the Palestinian Authority and restrictions by Israel have led to severe water shortages, says a World Bank report.

How to grow trees in one of the driest places on Earth?

Nicaraguan 'madness virus' baffles science

One of the world's most powerful telescope arrays, which will provide a new view of the Universe, gets under way.

Getting back to the slim, trim days of the 1970s would help to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change, researchers say.

Genetic "brakes" which could slow down or stop diseases like MS and cancer are found by scientists in Edinburgh.

In Pictures

A campaigner who fought a mining deal in the Gabonese rainforest receives a international environmental prize.

Paper made out of wombat droppings is helping a local industry in Tasmania to buck the economic trend, the BBC's Phil Mercer reports.

A leading physicist says aid to Africa needs to be focused on higher education, especially sciences.

Forests' role as massive carbon sinks is "at risk of being lost entirely", a global assessment warns.

Parties to the Antarctic Treaty adopt limits to tourism in the region, in a bid to protect the fragile ecosystem.

The US government is to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, having decided they pose a danger to human health and well-being.

MI5 is to appoint a chief scientific adviser, whose brief will include work on combating the terror threat, BBC News has learned.