Bioprospecting-the age old search for medicines from nature-is taking on a new vitality as the tools of modern biotechnology are brought to bear : a

Far less reported than Brazil's earlier Amazon fires, those in Central America have done far more damage. And the fault is not El Nino's, but

The sun has been absent from Texas of late. Temperatures have dropped to an unreasonable low. On May 15th, the air was declared unhealthy over the whole state. Smoke from Mexico is to blame. It is

Overfishing is one part human nature, and two parts poor management : a

Evidence is accumulating that the immune system works like an ecosystem, in that its component cells compete with one another for survival. This could have important implications for the treatment

The ocean used to seem infinite in its bounty. But now it is suffering from overfishing and pollution. Wherever humanity meets the sea, the sea comes off worse. Two-thirds of the worlds's 5.5 billion

The second stage of green revolution is running into resistance from farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The first stage, promoting high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, left Africa's poorer farmers

The World Health Organisation is about to be given a much-needed kick in the backside : a

At last, the El Nino of 1997-98 is returning to its cradle, after scarring Latin America with drought and fire, storm and flood. But it is not over yet, and the fall-out, economic, social and

Once, vaccines were the poor relations of therapeutic drugs. Traditional vaccines, the sort used to combat childhood diseases such as measles, polio are a low-tech, low-cost boon to public health