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A remarkable new fossil find shows a record of events in the minutes and the hours that followed the impact of a 10km wide asteroid. The fossils show how plants and animals were thrown up into the atmosphere before crashing down again.

Early whales came from India and Pakistan and migrated from Asia to the Americas – but at the time they looked more like dogs or giant otters. A legged fossil find from Peru shows an intermediate stage before they evolved into fully marine mammals.

Wood is used extensively as a building material, but new research has developed a transparent form of wood which can also act as an insulator. The researchers behind the new material say it will provide an energy efficient alternative to glass and also plastic foam building materials.

There are very good reasons to sleep: to regulate the body’s metabolism, blood pressure and other aspects of health. But do we actually need to dream - is there an evolutionary reason for it? Can we really interpret them meaningfully or are they merely random signals from the brain? The latest research says talking about them could be more important than we realise. And what about controlling our dreams?

(Image: Artwork of Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur fleeing a hail of meteorites. Credit: Copyright: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library)