~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~49~RS~)
Welcome to my perspective on science stories in the headlines and behind them
18:01 UK time, Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Scientists are warning that the level of the sea may rise by slightly more than previously forecast - but they also say that the very worst predictions look much less likely.
Confused? If so, you're not alone.
16:39 UK time, Friday, 10 May 2013
David added analysis to:
Near the summit of the Mauna Loa volcano, the carbon dioxide monitors stand amid one of the world's remotest huddles of scientific instruments. To reach them you have to leave the steamy Hawaii coast and climb through barren lava-fields.
At the top, above 11,000ft, the air is thin and the sun piercing. During my visit, I watched rain clouds boiling in the valleys below me. Charles David Keeling chose this otherworldly spot because the air up here is neither industrial nor pristine; it is "well-mixed" which means it can serve as a useful guide to changes in the atmosphere.
10:55 UK time, Friday, 3 May 2013
"It smells like a dead body," the customs officer told me, as we opened a crate of smuggled ivory in the cargo terminal at Bangkok airport earlier this year.
The pieces of tusk were so numerous that a total of 79 elephants had been slaughtered to yield this haul destined for the remorseless markets of China.
18:26 UK time, Tuesday, 30 April 2013
Twenty years ago when scientists at Cern created the first page for the World Wide Web no one could have imagined how easily it would transform the ability of humankind to have conversations around the globe.
Nor could they have predicted that a web-based debate would have explored the apparently outlandish idea of volunteers travelling on a one-way ticket to Mars and setting up a colony with no prospect of return - all on live television.
08:34 UK time, Sunday, 21 April 2013
As the days lengthen with the approach of spring, the northernmost reaches of Scandinavia are about to witness the annual migration of huge herds of reindeer.
After spending the winter inland in Finnmark, Europe's last great wilderness, the animals are moved to pastures near the coast for the summer.
01:09 UK time, Monday, 25 March 2013
What is wrong with extinction? I realise this question is the conservation equivalent of a landmine - or an elephant trap. And that it is likely to ruffle a lot of fur.
But I ask because I am merely wondering whether we sometimes forget a grim reality of the story of life on Earth - that extinction has always been with us.
17:57 UK time, Wednesday, 20 March 2013
David added analysis to:
No human artefact has ever reached so deep into the cosmos.
A measure of the distance travelled is that it takes a staggering 16 hours for Voyager 1's radio messages to arrive on Earth.
07:13 UK time, Thursday, 14 March 2013
A new and controversial frontier in mining is opening up as a British firm joins a growing rush to exploit minerals in the depths of the oceans.
UK Seabed Resources is a subsidiary of the British arm of Lockheed Martin.
14:59 UK time, Saturday, 23 February 2013
From being a totally unimaginable feature of the deep ocean throughout most of human history to being shown live on global television earlier this week, hydrothermal vents have never been so well understood.
Now back on dry land after broadcasting on the latest work on the research ship James Cook in the Cayman Trough, I'm still picking up messages from people amazed at getting such an extraordinary vision of the reality of the deep sea.
02:40 UK time, Thursday, 31 January 2013
A grim saga of ignorance and incompetence that allowed a vicious storm to kill more than 300 people is remembered in dozens of coastal communities today.
A huge surge of water swept down the North Sea on 31 January 1953, pulverising the east and south-east coasts of England in an onslaught with powerful echoes even now.
20:15 UK time, Thursday, 24 January 2013
David added analysis to:
For horsemeat containing bute to get into the food chain, several safety processes have to fail.
First the horse's passport tracking its drug history has to be misleading - an illegal act in itself.
16:48 UK time, Thursday, 24 January 2013
Britain could be the best place in the world to pioneer eight key areas of science - everything from robotic cars to synthetic organisms to strange new materials.
Or the country that fostered the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions could succumb to the all-too-familiar affliction of coming up with astonishing inventions only to see others walk off with the profits.
07:43 UK time, Tuesday, 15 January 2013
Graphene is a waste of money, a very senior British professor told me last year during a conversation about government funding for science.
It might be useful to a few applications, he complained, but graphene will never be revolutionary: the technology is too limited - it is interesting but not a game changer.
17:15 UK time, Friday, 4 January 2013
The question most people have about the threat of stormy weather and more flooding is the one the scientists find hardest to answer: how bad is it going to be?
The fact is that the science of understanding why rain falls, and where and when, and how it then soaks into the ground or spills into the streets, is extremely challenging.
16:12 UK time, Thursday, 27 December 2012
A few members of the team that attempted to search for life in Antarctica's Lake Ellsworth are already beginning a long, sad and disappointed journey home.
The rest will be gone, along with all the equipment, the stores and a union jack, in a few weeks' time, leaving no trace of this daring mission to reach beneath the ice.
10:08 UK time, Thursday, 27 December 2012
David added analysis to:
Searching for life in the hidden waters of Lake Ellsworth was one of the most ambitious British science projects of recent years, so this failure in the drilling programme will come as a huge blow.
The team knew that the risks were high, but the idea of exploring an ancient and mysterious body of water isolated for hundreds of thousands of years had inspired passion and determination.
15:39 UK time, Friday, 21 December 2012
A tiny electronic component the size of a thumbnail holds the key to the future of an £8m search for life beneath the ice of Antarctica.
The project to drill through the ice-sheet to reach the hidden waters of Lake Ellsworth has been on hold for the past week after a boiler broke down.
13:24 UK time, Monday, 17 December 2012
A British attempt to search for life in an ancient lake beneath the Antarctic ice-sheet has run into trouble.
The team has reported "a serious problem" with the main boiler used to heat the water that powers a drill.
13:43 UK time, Thursday, 13 December 2012
New pictures from Antarctica capture the moment that a search for life under the ice-sheet finally got under way.
The project to investigate Lake Ellsworth involves using a hot-water drill, aiming for waters isolated for up to half a million years.
02:39 UK time, Wednesday, 12 December 2012
A British research team in Antarctica has launched a long-awaited project to hunt for life in a lake hidden beneath the ice-sheet.
A team of 12 scientists and engineers has begun work at remote Lake Ellsworth.
Twenty years ago David visited the secret lab at Los Alamos that created the nuclear bomb and he's been fascinated by science and scientists ever since. His reports on research have taken him as far afield as the Antarctic ice-sheet, the Amazon rainforest and the depths of the Gulf of Mexico.
Since joining the BBC back in 1983, David has covered Northern Ireland, defence, Europe and world affairs. He is the author of three books.
His favourite memories include reporting from East Berlin during the fall of the Wall and exploring the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider on a bike.
Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
UK and European space and the latest major science stories
Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent
Updates on emerging environmental news
Fergus Walsh
Medical correspondent
A focus on the medical and health issues of the day
Tom Feilden
Science correspondent, Today
Analysis of the scientific issues making headlines
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
