The latest stories from the Science & Environment section of the BBC News web site.
Threshold broken for tiny lasers
Researchers build efficient lasers just 100 billionths of a metre across that may be used to make faster computer chips in the future.
VIDEO: Nepal national park breeds crocs
A breeding centre in Nepal's Chitwan National Park is preparing endangered Gharial crocodiles for release back into the wild.
America and Asia 'will join up'
Researchers say most of the world's continents will merge somewhere over the Pacific "ring of fire" in 50-200 million years.
Russians claim Antarctic success
Russian scientists are reporting success in their quest to drill into Lake Vostok, a huge body of liquid water buried under the Antarctic ice.
Rare Mars meteorite for science
A Martian meteorite, an incredibly rare object, is given to the Natural History Museum, London, to help unravel the secrets of the Red Planet.
Parkinson's cells 'made in lab'
Scientists in the US have successfully made human brain cells in the lab that are an exact replica of genetically caused Parkinson's disease.