Starting next year, the Rolls-Royce Group and British Airways hope to test up to four airplane fuel alternatives to kerosene.

Many people do not know that automobiles are one of today’s most recycled commodities. Steel and iron make up about 65 percent of the average vehicle, and are extremely valuable. Each year, the steel industry recycles more than 14 million tons of steel from end-of-life vehicles. Several other metals and materials from cars may also be recycled.

Canadian planemaker Bombardier announced here Sunday the launch of a series of environmentally friendly single-aisle jets, scheduled to enter service in 2013. German carrier Lufthansa had signed a letter saying it was interested in buying 30 of the CSeries jets and possibly as many as 60, Bombardier said in a statement.

Booming demand for food, fuel and wood as the world's population surges from six to nine billion will put unprecedented and unsustainable demand on the world's remaining forests, two new reports said on Monday.

Several measures must be put in place to ensure an adequate vaccine stockpile in the event of a H5N1 avian influenza pandemic, write Tadataka Yamada, Alice Dautry and Mark Walport in Nature. H5N1 could kill up to 80 million people, according to recent data models — with 95 per cent of deaths in the developing world.

One more unwanted consequence of global warming may be an increase in cases of kidney stones in areas with rising temperatures, U.S. researchers said on Monday.