Planet Earth stories
Spider venom offers pesticide hope for bees
A new pesticide, created using spider venom and natural chemicals from snowdrop plants, appears to be harmless to honeybees, a new study has concluded.
4 Jun 2014
Tags: Bees, Farming, Hazards, Insects, Pollinators, Sustainability, UK
Global warming to bring heavier summer downpours
Global warming could cause extreme summer downpours to become several times more frequent in the UK by 2100, a new study suggests.
1 Jun 2014
Mission to 'Mars'
Some scientists may dream of the chance to pursue their research on another planet. That opportunity isn't a reality just yet, but PhD student Michaela Musilova got the next best thing - a simulated mission to Mars.
30 May 2014
Tags: Microbes, Space, Sustainability
Podcast: Insects, sediment and climate change
This week in the Planet Earth podcast, Frazer Bird and William Gosling of The Open University explain why tiny midges are a powerful tool for telling us about past climate change, and how they can help us predict the future.
27 May 2014
Tags: Climate, Insects, Podcasts, Rivers and lakes
Mosquitoes gathering in UK gardens
Two species of mosquito, responsible for spreading malaria and West Nile virus elsewhere, are gathering in Britain's gardens, say scientists.
21 May 2014
Antarctic ice loss has doubled
The Antarctic ice sheet has lost ice twice as quickly in the past three years as when it was last surveyed between 2005 and 2010, say scientists.
19 May 2014
Tags: Antarctic, Climate, Earth observation, Ice, Sea level change, Technology
Pumice models could help protect shipping
Scientists have used a computer model of ocean circulation to predict the movement of the rafts of floating pumice given off by an erupting underwater volcano.
19 May 2014
El Niño threatens food crop yields
Major disruption to global weather patterns triggered by El Niño events can reduce global yields of important food crops, say scientists.
16 May 2014
Burying carbon for good - Is the Southern Ocean up to it?
Adding iron to the Southern Ocean may not have the climate benefits that advocates of geoengineering have hoped for, a new study suggests.
15 May 2014
Tags: Climate, Environmental change, Geoengineering, Oceans
Podcast: The storms that hit southwest England
This week in the Planet Earth podcast, Gerd Masselink and Paul Russell of Plymouth University talk about the work they're doing to assess the impacts of some of the worst winter storms on record on the communities and coastlines of southwest England.
13 May 2014