The hunt for a cancer cure should be treated with as much urgency as the Ebola outbreak, says US Vice-President Joe Biden.

Australian scientists have used genetic material to pinpoint the origin of the deep-sea mushroom, an unusual gelatinous creature first dredged up near Tasmania in 1986.

The Lisa Pathfinder mission, which was designed to demonstrate the technologies needed to detect gravitational waves in space, has been a stunning success, say officials.

Up to 85% of the corals in the Chagos Marine Reserve of the British Indian Ocean Territory are estimated to have been damaged or killed in the current global bleaching event.