Planet Earth stories
Animals we domesticated long ago pose disease risk
Animals we domesticated long ago, such as cats, dogs, pigs and cows, are those that have given us the most parasites, pathogens and other nasties, according to the latest study.
1 Jul 2014
Parasitic mite spreads lethal virus to honeybees
A parasitic mite has helped spread a particularly nasty strain of a virus to countless honeybees, helping to wipe out hundreds of colonies, according to the latest study.
27 Jun 2014
Podcast: Could injured dinosaurs help modern medicine?
This week in the Planet Earth podcast, Victoria Egerton, Bill Sellers and Phil Manning of the University of Manchester describe how the bones of a 72-million-year-old, 2·2m-tall 7·4m-long predatory dinosaur reveals intimate clues about how it lived and how it survived massive trauma.
24 Jun 2014
Tags: Dinosaurs, Disease, Palaeontology, Podcasts
Heather could be UK energy source
Harvesting energy from heather could cut greenhouse gas emissions and help the UK meet its bioenergy targets, according to new research.
24 Jun 2014
Tags: Climate, Farming, Mapping, Natural resources, Plants, Sustainability, UK
Getting ready for the next big one
Is one of the world's great cities due to be struck by a serious earthquake? Ekbal Hussain describes how scientists are working to make sure Istanbul is prepared for the dangers that may be on the way.
23 Jun 2014
High-CO2 world threatens seabed life
Environmental change is transforming many parts of the north-east Atlantic seabed, and according to a newly-published paper this will almost certainly get worse in the coming decades.
20 Jun 2014
New water bear found in Antarctica
Scientists have announced the discovery of a tiny new animal in Antarctica's Victoria Land.
17 Jun 2014
Tags: Animals, Antarctic, Biodiversity, Biology, Genetics
Podcast: Storm surges and their effect on coastal sand dunes
This week in the Planet Earth podcast, Joanna Bullard and Jonathan Millett of Loughborough University describe the work they're doing to find out how quickly sand dunes along the east coast of England recover from the erosion caused by massive storm surges - like the one that struck the UK coastline on 5 December 2013.
10 Jun 2014
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