(3 February 2012) — In a sense, the Mongol horde that swept through Central Asia in the 13th and 14th centuries to create history’s second-largest dominion did not cease their campaign even after their empire’s collapse. Genghis Khan continued to stamp his footprint across swathes of the region’s population in the centuries after his death — in genetic form.

(3 February 2012) — Unpredictable. That is how one United Nations organisation describes the risk posed to human health by the H5N1 pathogen, more commonly known as the bird flu virus. Since its global outbreak in 2003, the disease has taken the lives of close to 350 people.

(16 December 2011) — Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, 47, was carried out of his Russian-made Soyuz space capsule on the plains of Kazakhstan last week with a big grin on his face.