Land is made up of different types of terrain largely by the situation of the soil, boulders and the timber. It could be as woodland, as mountains or mountainous, as desert or rolling flat-lands.

Yet land without trees, like the Nullabor (no timber) plains in Australia, is bare except for salt shrubbery, some local flora and animals. Furthermore, being waterless, these plains are very hot, unproductive and unwanted.

Land with lots of timber is fruitful, cool, humid, appealing and also substantially alive. Whenever we remove the trees from this type of territory what exactly are we all doing to the earth?

The French health ministry released an alert on Tuesday just after eight individuals died and seven became ill in two European countries through using heroin contaminated with anthrax.

Living in France, you get used to the idea that toilet facilities are not always what you might expect.  As many seasoned motorists will know, a trip down the autoroute will expose you to some of the extremes.

One day France may be not the only place where you see people driving around with chickens in the back of their vehicles.

Scientists in Delaware, USA, have discovered a remarkable, unexpected and inexpensive way to store hydrogen fuel– using carbonized chicken feather fibres.

The question of storing hydrogen as fuel has traditionally been a enigmatic and expensive dilema. For example, a car with a 75 litre hydrogen storage tank made from carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides– currently two of the best ideas – would add $5.5 million or $30k respectively to the cost of that vehicle.

A storage tank made from carbonized chicken feathers, however, would only increase the cost by a mere $200. The green bio-material would also help to resolve the problem on how to dispose the 2.7 billion kilograms of chicken feathers generated each year by commercial poultry production.