'These represent the next generation of tools to understand complex conditions' says one researcher

Helicopters drop 200 tons of poison pellets in world’s biggest extermination project

A synthetic kidney made from a patient’s own skin cells might soon be ready for the first human transplant following the creation of a similar artificial organ in laboratory animals, scientists said today.

British-owned island takes drastic action to stop animals destroying native habitat

PX is a unique Spanish sweet wine that I discovered a while ago, so sweet in fact that it resulted in me having to make a trip to the dentist. PX, or Pedro, short for Pedro Ximénez, is one of the darkest, richest, stickiest wines in the world and by rights shouldn't exist as a wine at all. Oozing with viscous sucrosity, it's the perfect blending sweetener, in small doses, for cream sherry and sweet oloroso. Did someone dunk a finger in a cask of Pedro one day and think "I could get a pat on the back from the mouthwash industry for bottling this on its own"?

Student houses aren’t always in the best nick, but vermin aren’t the only things you need to worry about. Eleanor Doughty discovered the one thing worse than finding a mouse behind her dresser...

Direct, brain-to-brain communication? Digitally enhanced nervous systems? “Organic” computing? If Professor Miguel Nicolelis has his way, such hi-tech enhancements are not as far off as you might think.

The author of His Dark Materials is excited to see his new story, I Was a Rat!, performed on stage in Birmingham

Research into 'man-machine interface' could one day allow people to communicate directly with electronic devices by thought alone

We've only just wiped the sweat from our brow following the averted Mayan apocalypse, but already news is spreading of another impending doom; and this one even has actual science behind it.

According to a group of experts at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, a solar superstorm - caused by the Sun ejecting billions of tonnes of highly-energetic matter travelling at a million miles an hour - is not only inevitable - but coming soon. "The two challenges for government are the wide spectrum of technologies affected today and the emergence of unexpected vulnerabilities as technology evolves," says Professor Paul Cannon. So let's prepare...

I'm not ashamed to admit it; I do read prose books. However, being a writer and artist of graphic novels, I find myself obliged to choose one in order to champion the form in general.

This is a brave and ambitious choice for an RSC family Christmas show.

We know the company minimises its tax bill, so why do so many of us still shop online there? Laziness, mostly, says our writer