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New Yorkers have witnessed the urban solar phenomenon of "Manhattanhenge". So what is it?

Pope Francis says "about 2%" of Catholic clergy are paedophiles and that he is determined to confront the problem, in an interview with an Italian paper.

As the UK government prepares to unveil its robotics strategy, experts debate whether the technology risks destroying more jobs than it creates.

Prominent Russian ultra-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin tells BBC News that war between Russia and Ukraine "is inevitable".

After superstorm Sandy, NY mayor Michael Bloomberg said cars with even number plates could only fill up on even dates. Zero was to count as even, he said. Is this right?

Facebook is criticised after it emerges it conducted a psychology experiment to test emotional reactions of nearly 700,000 users without their knowledge.

With the help of a microlight, researchers teach the critically endangered northern bald ibis how to migrate 1,300km across Europe.

A book bound in human skin was recently discovered at Harvard University. The grim tale is not as unusual as you'd think, writes Erin Dean.

Several human species have evolved on Earth so why did only ours survive?

The fossil remains of two human-like creatures found in South Africa could change the way we view our origins, claim scientists.

Mathematicians suggest that the reason bubbles in stout beers such as Guinness sink is simply down to shape of a standard pint glass.

Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems

A computer program called Eugene Goostman, which simulates a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy, is said to have passed the Turing test at an event organised by the University of Reading.

An octopus in Germany credited with psychic powers predicts that Spain will defeat the Netherlands in the World Cup final.

It may seem strange that humans have evolved from fish but the evidence can be found not just in fossils, but also within our own bodies.

Researchers propose a means to test the idea that we inhabit an infinity of universes, each encapsulated in "bubbles" of space-time.

A US deep-ocean exploration firm recovers gold worth $1.3m on a reconnaissance dive to a historic Atlantic Ocean shipwreck, company officials say.

The lawyer for a Pakistani doctor accused of helping the US find Osama Bin Laden has told the BBC that he has quit the case after death threats.

A new website that spots unexpected correlations teaches us to look carefully at statistics in headlines.

Link between spatially separated ions could form the basis of quantum communications

It might be a hundred years since the UK scientific establishment was conned by Piltdown Man, but the desire to unmask the fraudster remains as strong as ever.

As tensions increase between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem, the BBC's Erica Chernofsky explores what makes the city so holy.