From the safety of a computer screen in the control room, I can see a robot scoop up a chunk of asbestos from the reactor floor. I am at Sellafield, the nuclear complex on the coast of Cumbria in north-west England, watching remotely controlled machinery crawl through the defunct Windscale Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor, gradually stripping out the last of its guts. The mammoth task of dismantling the reactor started in the early 1990s but is only now finally nearing completion.

The decommissioning of nuclear power plants will become a huge global business in the 21st century.

The farmers in the evacuation zone around Fukushima who refused to leave are trying to reduce radiation levels.

One of the less-noted consequences of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima is the effect on carbon dioxide emissions. Two of the world's six largest emitters are switching off their nuclear power stations, leaving them needing to source energy from elsewhere.

The terrifying meltdowns and hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in the days following 11 March 2011 made the importance of backup electricity generators painfully clear.

The crisis that unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after Japan's megaquake and tsunami is rewriting the nuclear safety guide. There are some positives. Despite being shaken by an earthquake that exceeded the worst case assumed in their design, the reactors along Japan's Pacific coast suffered no serious damage from the ground movement.

A new crop of weight-loss drugs is expected to reach the clinics this year and the next, but will their side effects be hard to swallow?.

It's chemistry's greatest challenge – inventing systems that turn water and sunshine efficiently into cheap, clean energy for all.

It's time for evolution to take centre stage in the practice of medicine, says the world's first "Darwinian paediatrician" Paul Turke.

Controlling smog and soot is the classic win-win situation, so it's great that the world is finally waking up to the idea, says Drew Shindell.