With increasing consumer pressure on both farmers and supermarkets to minimize the use of chemical pesticides in fruit and vegetables, a new study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, looks at why there is currently little use of biological alternatives in the UK.

LONDON (Reuters) - Police could one day predict the surname of male suspects or victims of crime from DNA alone, British researchers said on Wednesday.

Bird flu, cholera, Ebola, plague and tuberculosis are just a few of the diseases likely to spread and get worse as a result of climate change, according to a report released yesterday by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). To prevent such ailments from becoming as destructive as the "black death" (which wiped out a third of Europe's population in the 14th century) or the flu pandemic of 1918 (which killed an estimated 20 million to 40 million people worldwide, including between 500,000 and 675,000 people in the U.S.), WCS suggests monitoring wildlife to detect signs of these pathogens before a major outbreak. [More]

The following charts and images provide a glimpse into the current state of trash and gas in the U.S.Click here for charts [More]

Turbines along British canals and rivers could power 45,000 homes within five years under new plans.

Editor's note: This story was originally posted in the April 2008 issue, and has been reposted to highlight the long intertwined history of the Nobel Prizes in Scientific American.In the blink of an eye, a wave of visible light completes a quadrillion (1015) oscillations, or cycles. That very large number presents both opportunities and a challenge. The opportunities promise numerous applications both inside and outside of laboratories. They go to the heart of our ability to measure frequencies and times with extremely high precision, a skill that scientists rely on for some of the best tests of laws of nature--and one that GPS systems, for instance, depend on. The challenge has centered on the impossibility of manipulating light with the techniques that work so well for electromagnetic waves of much lower frequencies, such as microwaves. [More]

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Two Americans scientists and a Japanese researcher won the 2008 Nobel prize for chemistry for their discovery of a green fluorescent protein that has become a key tool in bioscience, the prize committee said on Wednesday.

Will NASA's flagship mission to Mars fly next year? The space agency could decide this week whether to cancel, delay or proceed with plans to launch a nuclear-powered, SUV-size rover to the red planet.

Two American scientists and a Japanese researcher have won the 2008 Nobel prize for chemistry for their discovery of a green fluorescent protein that has become a key tool in bioscience.

Don't give over-the-counter cold remedies to children under four. That's the message to parents from the drug manufacturers. Doctors say plenty of fluids and keeping children as comfortable as possible are the best remedies for the sniffles.