Zebras have stripes to deter the tsetse and other blood-sucking flies, according to a fresh bid to settle a debate that has raged among biologists for over 140 years.

Since the 1870s, in a dispute sparked by the founders of evolutionary theory Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, scientists have squabbled over how the zebra got its trademark look.

Almost a quarter of European bumblebee species are threatened with extinction, largely because of climate change and intensive farming, the International Union for Conservation of Nature warned on Wednesday.

In a European Union-funded study of all 68 bumblebee species found in Europe, the environmental group found that 24 percent were on the verge of disappearing.

The finding that a lead researcher falsified data in a widely heralded stem-cell research paper is a setback for Japan's efforts to promote its advanced research, but also a symptom of the pressure for breakthroughs in the field, experts say.

The government-funded Riken Center for Development Biology in Kobe, western Japan said Tuesday it had found malpractice by scientist Haruko Obokata in the work on using a simple lab procedure to grow tissue for treating illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

Volcanoes and asteroids are sometimes blamed for wiping out nearly all life on Earth 252 million years ago, but U.S. research Monday suggested a more small-time criminal: microbes.

These microbes, known as Methanosarcina, bloomed in the ocean on a massive and sudden scale, spewing methane into the atmosphere and causing dramatic changes in the chemistry of the oceans and the Earth's climate, according to the new theory put forth by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues in China.

Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday hailed a landmark court decision that Japan must halt an annual Antarctic whale hunt, despite fears it may try to sidestep the order.

The United Nations' Hague-based International Court of Justice on Monday ruled that Japan's whaling program was a commercial activity disguised as science and said it must revoke existing whaling licences.

Beyond a clear-cut in Quebec's far north -- marked by a sign that reads "the road of destruction ends here" -- aboriginal Canadians are fighting for an ancient forest and their traditional hunting rights.

Canada's boreal forest is the largest intact forest in the world, comprising one-third of the forest circling the North Pole above the 50th parallel.

You can learn a lot from a tooth.

Molars taken from skeletons unearthed by work on a new London railway line are revealing secrets of the medieval Black Death — and of its victims.

Soaring carbon emissions will amplify the risk of conflict, hunger, floods and migration this century, the U.N.'s expert panel said Monday in a landmark report on the impact of climate change.

Left unchecked, greenhouse gas emissions may cost trillions of dollars in damage to property and ecosystems, and in bills for shoring up climate defenses, it said, adding the impact would increase with every additional degree that temperatures rise.

Lights went off in thousands of cities and towns across the world on Saturday for the annual Earth Hour campaign, which is aiming to raise money via the Internet for local environmental projects.

The Singapore-based campaign by conservation group WWF was boosted by Hollywood star power, with "The Amazing Spiderman-2" stars Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx leading ceremonies at the city-state's Marina Bay district.

Astronauts' hearts grow rounder while they are in space, suggesting that spending lots of time in microgravity could lead to heart problems, according to U.S. research on Saturday.

That could mean trouble for people who want to embark on long-term missions to Mars.