AUSTRALIA: Food At Risk From Bee Pest

Australia’s food security is under threat from a tiny parasite with the potential to devastate the nation’s bee and pollination industries.

DEVELOPMENT-GHANA: Lethal Yellow Disease Has Scientists Stumped

Older Ghanaians remember when the country's coast was lined with coconut trees. Fishermen would mend their nets in the shade the trees provided, as well as drink the water and eat the fruit. Thousands of women made a living extracting oil from copra - the dried meat of the coconut. But today, the beaches have been stripped bare by Lethal Yellow Disease (LYD).

ISRAEL: Silicon Wadi Shows the Way

Alex Argov is now onto his fifth high-tech company. A serial entrepreneur, Argov's latest product is an Internet-based telephone that scrambles messages, making it almost impossible to eavesdrop on a conversation.

ENVIRONMENT-EUROPE: Mobile Phones Change Birds’ Tune

Many wild birds are able to imitate the simple ringtones of mobile telephones, German ornithologists report, underscoring the influence of humans on the evolution of birds.

HEALTH-CUBA: Lung Cancer Vaccine Available

Cuba’s biotech industry plans to launch on the international market, in the short or medium term, a vaccine for treating lung cancer, which causes the deaths of over one million people a year worldwide.

BIODIVERSITY: O Sponge, Your Names Are Many

The Breadcrumb sponge found on floats and rocks in most oceans has been "discovered" 56 times, the first dating to 1766. And 56 different scientists over the span of 250 years have had the satisfaction and pleasure of giving the lowly sponge 56 different names.

DEVELOPMENT: Gulf Eyes ‘Oil-For-Food’ Deal With Neighbours

Recent attempts by Gulf countries to invest in farmlands abroad to counter soaring inflation and guarantee long-term food security could prove to be a win-win situation in the short-term for both the oil-rich region and its investment-hungry neighbours, but continued high oil prices may neutralise the gains in the long-run, feel experts.

SCIENCE: Paint that Purifies the Air

Rooms with foul odours? Cigarette smoke? A new paint for interior walls is capable of breaking down toxic substances in the air.

Q&A: "We're Running the Risk of Unstoppable Climate Change"

Warming seawater, melting sea ice and glaciers, sea level rise, storm intensification, changes in ocean currents, growing "dead zones", and ocean acidification are just some of the signs that the oceans that cover 71 percent of our watery planet are changing.

BIODIVERSITY: Biological Patents Yield Unequal Benefits

The medicinal or nutritional properties of many plants can give rise to enormous economic benefits, which put patents for naturally existing plants at the centre of an ethical, commercial and legal debate.

Q&A: "Climate Change Is Like Tossing a Pebble in a Calm Pond"

In his new book "The Great Warming, Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilisations", author and archaeologist Dr. Brian Fagan peers into the past to offer a prologue to the growing climate crisis.

ENVIRONMENT: Climate Change Casts Marine Science Adrift

Climate change is altering the world's oceans in so many ways scientists cannot keep pace, and as a result there is no comprehensive vision of its present and future impacts, say experts.

BIODIVERSITY: The Twilight Age of Coral Reefs

Coral reefs will be the first global ecosystem to collapse in our lifetimes. The one-two punch of climate change that is warming ocean temperatures and increasing acidification is making the oceans uninhabitable for corals and other marine species, researchers said at a scientific symposium in Spain.

MEXICO-US: The Perverse Patent of the Yellow Bean

Patenting an invention in the United States and benefiting from the patent rights is, in theory, an incentive for innovation and scientific discovery. But in practice it can spur theft, as occurred with a variety of Mexican bean.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Split Over Carbon Capture Technology

Australia’s plan to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology - whereby greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions from fossil-fuel fired power stations are trapped and stored rather than released into the atmosphere - is pitting green groups against one another.

ARGENTINA: Multimedia Youngsters not Isolated

Many parents in Argentina, like their counterparts in developed countries, worry that their teenage children spend too much time on their computers and cell-phones, with little real-life interaction with others, and devoting hardly any time to reading. But a new study shows that such beliefs are partly based on preconceived notions that do not stand up to scrutiny.

BRAZIL: Leading Agroscience Has Few Links to Small Farmers

Brazil has the most advanced agricultural science and technology system of the world's tropical countries, with an array of environmental and high-production solutions, but which rarely reach their intended target: the small farmer.

TECHNOLOGY-CUBA: University Opens Doors to Free Software

After years of deliberation, the University of Havana has finally decided to switch over to free software on its network of computers, virtually all of which are running the Windows operating system, produced by United States software giant Microsoft.

ENERGY-AFRICA: From Kerosene to the LED, O-HUB and O-BOX

In many of Africa's towns and villages, smoky kerosene lamps are all that keeps the darkness at bay after sunset. However, kerosene is a dangerous and increasingly expensive source of light for Africans who do not have access to electricity - about three-quarters of those living on the continent, according to the World Bank.

SCIENCE-US: Evolution Under Siege in Classrooms

Darwinian evolution - the 19th century geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin's acclaimed theory of natural selection of species and the origins of humanity - is apparently still a source of controversy, most recently here in the state of Florida.

ENVIRONMENT: “Doctor” Nature in Danger

"When we harm nature, we are harming ourselves," says Aaron Bernstein, a doctor at Harvard Medical School and one of the authors of the upcoming book "Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity".