You couldn’t call it subtle. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is adding a skull and crossbones and the figure of a person running away to its warning symbol for dangerous ionising radiation. “Too many people get injured each year when they find a large source of radiation, don’t understand the symbol and take off [...]

A draft UN treaty to determine what would be have to be done if a giant asteroid was on a collision course with Earth is to be drawn up this year. The document would set out global policies including who should be in charge of plans to deflect any object. It is the brainchild of [...]

The final design for a “doomsday” vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world’s agriculture from future catastrophes, [...]

An international panel of climate scientists said yesterday that there is an overwhelming probability that human activities are warming the planet at a dangerous rate, with consequences that could soon take decades or centuries to reverse. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of hundreds of scientists from 113 countries, said that based on [...]

2,600 turkeys on a farm in Suffolk, UK have been killed by the H5N1 form of avian flu. The European Commission says tests have confirmed that the avian flu which killed 2,600 turkeys at a Suffolk farm is the H5N1 virus. That virus can be fatal if it is passed on to humans. According to [...]