"Climate scientists, used to dealing with sceptics, are under siege like never before, targeted by hate emails brimming with abuse and accusations of fabricating global warming data. Some emails contain thinly veiled death threats."

"One of the world's leading climate scientists has launched a libel lawsuit against a Canadian newspaper for publishing articles that he says 'poison' the debate on global warming." The newspaper is the conservative National Post, owned by CanWest.

"President Barack Obama will outline a revamped space policy on Thursday that will use $6 billion in new funding over five years to create 2,500 new jobs in Florida with the ultimate goal of going to Mars." "NASA's earth science team would receive an extra $2.4 billion -- a 62 percent increase -- through 2015 to study changing temperatures, ice coverage, ozone depletion, and atmospheric carbon dioxide."

"NASA, the agency known for exploring space, will be spending a lot more time studying Earth in the next few years. The Obama administration has proposed a budget for NASA that includes billions of dollars for satellites and other tools to help scientists investigate Earth-bound problems, especially climate change."

"A federal judge on Monday struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property."

"Canada's climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 non-governmental organisations."

"Do researchers have an obligation to help the general public understand the relevance of their work? One academic thinks so – despite sporting scars from his effort."

"The United States is poised to launch Thursday the latest in its family of high-tech meteorological satellites that watch storm development and weather conditions on Earth from high in space."

Climate scientists are the target of an organized campaign of hate mail and threats that they say seem calculated to silence them. And some say the bullying campaign seems to be inspired by media superstars.

"Penn State University announced Wednesday it had dismissed three of the most serious charges against one of its top climate researchers, Michael E. Mann, but would continue to probe if he violated academic standards of conduct in connection with Climate-gate, a series of e-mail exchanges that came to light after hackers pirated the University of East Anglia's server."

"The nation's top scientists and spies are collaborating on an effort to use the federal government's intelligence assets -- including spy satellites and other classified sensors -- as sensitive instruments that can assess the hidden complexities of environmental change. They seek insights from natural phenomena like clouds and glaciers, deserts and tropical forests."

"In 2004, CDC scientists published a reassuring report about lead contamination in Washington’s water even though they knew that thousands of blood lead measurements had been lost. Now Congress wants to know why."

As governments tighten their belts, it's getting harder for them to pay scientists to monitor the health of the nation's ecosystems. So increasingly, they're turning to citizens who do that kind of work for free. The Environment Report's Ann Dornfeld reports on the growing influence of these "citizen scientists".

One key chemical tool used to control mosquito-spread malaria in the developing world -- DDT -- has harmful environmental consequences. Now a new article in the journal Nature tells of research on chemicals that may promise to be effective mosquito repellants by blocking the insects' ability to detect carbon dioxide.

"An online encyclopedia aiming to describe every type of animal and plant on the planet has reached 170,000 entries and is helping research into aging, climate change and even the spread of insect pests."