Call it the great ape escape. UN peacekeepers have flown four young gorillas from a conflict zone where they were at risk of being poached. The gorillas were taken to a rehabilitation centre 200 kilometres north of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and will eventually be released into a nature reserve.

Fluffy specks of carbon-rich dust found in Antarctica could help explain how the carbon needed for life wound up on Earth.

Autism has long been defined by its drawbacks

Excess dietary salt is a killer and you should take any evidence to the contrary with a large pinch of the stuff, say Franco Cappuccio and Simon Capewell.

The drug company paid experts disciplined for deficiencies in patient care to lecture other doctors on prescribing, finds an analysis by New Scientist.

Autism has long been defined in terms of its drawbacks. Now it's time to look at the benefits, argues David Wolman.

They are billed as "healthcare professionals who spend years building expertise in their fields". Using materials grounded in science, they educate their peers in the risks and benefits of drugs. This is how Pfizer, the pharmaceuticals giant, describes the experts it hires to lead forums in which doctors are lectured on the use of its products. Yet New Scientist has found that some of Pfizer's experts have been disciplined for deficiencies in patient care, while others have been reprimanded for how they conducted drug research trials.

A decades-long tug of war between environmental and indigenous groups on one hand and the Brazilian government on the other came to a close yesterday when a Brazilian energy consortium won the right to build what will become the world's third-largest dam.

Even before Europeans arrived, farmers were changing South American ecosystems with a landscaping method previously unrecognised in the region.

We live in a world that is more interconnected - and more vulnerable - than ever before. The fallout from the banking crisis was worldwide. Concerns about infectious diseases have risen and fallen in the public's consciousness, and while no catastrophic pandemic has yet hit us, it is clear that preventive measures require global monitoring and cooperation.