Environment

Ingesting them can damage lungs, poison kidneys, interfere with hormones - and even travel across a mother's placenta, research has shown.

It was the first ever recorded in Devon

Blackpool has been hit by four earthquakes just days after fracking got underway in the area. The controversial drilling technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock has been met with vehement opposition in the North West after previous attempts to drill caused similar earth tremors. But extraction companies were given the go-ahead to “proceed with caution” two years after the last attempt, despite protests led by Vivienne Westwood and other anti-fracking campaigners. Gas firm Cuadrilla started drilling...

The Arctic is turning green as areas that have been frozen for tens of thousands of years are now thawing, warns new research. The study shows that shrubs are flourishing in the tundra and increasing the rate that layers of frozen ground - known as permafrost - are melting. Researchers found that the greenery traps snow and aids the thawing process. The team from Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of Alaska Fairbanks and Oak Ridge National Laboratory dug snow pits...

The organisers behind Lovebox Festival wants to hold two new events at Wanstead Flats in east London next year, but could be thwarted by the local population of skylarks.

Rising sea levels could flood cities including Venice, Rhodes and Pisa - destroying historic buildings and monuments, according to the study of the Mediterranean

Thrifty motorists are celebrating after hearing they can pay for parking with old plastic bottles.

Humans are exterminating animal and plant species so fast that nature's built-in defence mechanism evolution can't keep up

Brewing could slump and price of pint double in as heatwaves become more common