how often have you felt irritated, even tense, while trying to make your way through car-clogged roads? New research shows that sniffing diesel fumes could well be the reason for your discomfiture.

Dutch ecologist Roxina Soler and her colleagues have discovered that subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects can communicate with each other by using plants as telephones. Subterranean insects issue chemical warning signals via the leaves of the plant. This way, aboveground insects are alerted that the plant is already '

It's not only our carbon footprint we should worry about.

it's believed that probiotics

As part of a series of research collaborative programmes in the Indian scientific community, the Indo-Dutch relationship is all set to get a fillip in agri-biotechnology research.

Polaroid, the company behind the instant camera, is to stop making the film used in its iconic technology. The firm will close its factories in Massachusetts in the us, Mexico and the Netherlands.

Bob Crebas still introduces himself as "an old hippy.' But these days it is not recycled washing machines and bric-a-brac that the Dutchman trades in. He has swapped all this for fashion collections made from stinging nettles, designed and produced by his fast-growing business Brennels.nl. Four years ago, Crebas and his business partner were selling second-hand wares through a trading website called Marktplaats.nl when they were approached by eBay, the hugely successful auction website, and made the kind of offer you can't refuse. The American firm bought out Marktplaats.nl for

Billed as a green fuel breakthrough in the aviation sector, the world's first flight by a commercial airline partly powered by biofuel touched down in Amsterdam today after a three-hour journey from the Heathrow airport here. Virgin Atlantic's Boeing 747 had one of its four engines connected to an independent biofuel tank that would provide 20 per cent of the engine's power. The flight did not carry passengers. According to Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, using technology to develop greener fuel options will not only lower emissions, but also allow for other global warming issues to be tackled. "It's not necessarily going to be the silver bullet for the long-term future but will prove that a fuel like this can fly at 30,000 feet,' he was quoted as saying by the BBC. "The demonstration flight will give us crucial knowledge that we can use to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint,' he said. The biofuel was derived from a mixture of babassu nuts and coconuts. The three other engines were capable of powering the plane on conventional fuel had there been a problem. Earlier this month, Airbus used the world's largest passenger jet, the A380, to test another alternative fuel