Satellite imagery reveals that Papua New Guinea's rainforests – renowned for their amazing biodiversity – are being logged faster than thought (full text available to subscribers)

Advertising anti-depressants directly to consumers can make those drugs seem attractive, rather than merely providing health information

A device like a silicon wafer can direct and focus streams of biological material with the precision of an optical lens (full text available to subscribers)

European zoos are employing Mexican kissing bugs to help tailor the bluetongue vaccine for animals that have problems with needles (full text available to subscribers)

The lander is poised to dump soil into one of its scientific instruments for the first time – it will look for signs of water

Using the same plant material found in conventional paper, researchers have created paper that almost matches steel for strength

A small antenna can connect medical implants and other gadgets around the body by producing wireless signals that travel along the skin

Decades-old soil bacteria surprise researchers with resistance to antibiotics that didn't exist when they were freeze stored

We think of mountains as slow-growing features, but a controversial theory says that processes deep in the crust can cause them to pop up in bursts

Primordial black holes may have radiated gamma rays that lit up the universe long before the first stars were born (full text available to subscribers)

The US government has begun posting large rebate cheques to millions of households, but the plan is unlikely to have much impact, say economists (full text available to subscribers)

The lander may have been coated with dozens of bacteria species when it left Earth – and some may be hardy enough to scrape by on Mars

As the lander begins its first science dig, NASA releases the first microscope image of soil that was probably kicked up when Phoenix landed

A new light microscope can see details half the size of what was previously possible, in colour and in 3D, and could distinguish between active and inactive genes

The World Food Programme says paying developing world farmers to be more productive is a much better solution than sending in sacks of flour

Why do some societies perform risky genital mutilations on their men? The answer may lie in the sexual threat posed by young men to their elders

Wireless networks of parked cars that constantly check up on their neighbours can quickly detect thefts and raise the alarm

The Sichuan earthquake is over but the danger isn't, as water from monsoon rain builds up behind damaged landslides and dams (full text available to subscribers)

The quake is over but the danger isn't, as water from monsoon rain builds up behind damaged landslides and dams (full text available to subscribers)

As people in countries with oppressive regimes get connected, security and privacy are more crucial than ever (full text available to subscribers)