Locked behind the Iron Curtain for nearly half a century, the pristine Baltic Sea peninsula of Fischland-Darss-Zingst has since re-emerged as one of Germany's prime tourist destinations - but not without a price.

Far northern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern can be as equally confounding as enchanting. Pastures of golden rapeseed meander beyond the horizon, the bucolic undulation only interrupted by the battalion of wind turbines churning indefatigably, in what is the region's most potent symbol of modern economic progress.

One of the world's most important solar power conferences is currently underway in Munich, at a crucial time for the solar industry. The industry's growth in Europe is slowing while other markets are booming.

Until Friday of this week (21.06.2013) over 50,000 guests and experts will visit Intersolar Europe at the Messe München exhibition center in Munich. The expo, which is one of the most important for the solar industry worldwide, will see some 1300 companies demonstrate their products.

In focus at the expo this year are technologies for the world's new solar markets, in Asia and Africa. As well, displays on how to make solar power more affordable and more accessible for households line the exhibition halls.

Scientists have adopted basic rules of management, such as: "You can't manage what you can't measure." This is a truism in climate science. In order to understand where our climate is headed, we need to know where it has been in the past, and where it is now.

Understanding the state of the climate is an immense engineering challenge. Think of trying to measure the energy of the oceans, or the chemistry of the Earth's waters. How about temperatures or chemistry of the atmosphere? What about the extent of ice (including both area and thickness)? How about sea level?

Members of the public are being urged to photograph bees and send the data to scientists via a new smartphone app as part of a national drive to help protect pollinating insects.

The citizen science project is backed by supermarket chain Waitrose, which has worked with environment charity Earthwatch to develop the free app, through which smartphone users can help collect data about the bees, beetles, hoverflies and other pollinating insects in their gardens and which plants they prefer to visit the most.

If the world is to grow enough food for the projected global population in 2050, agricultural productivity will have to rise by at least 60%, and may need to more than double, according to researchers who have studied global crop yields.

They say that productivity is not rising fast enough at present to meet the likely demands on agriculture.

The researchers studied yields of four key staple crops - maize, rice, wheat and soybeans - and found they were increasing by only about 0.9% to 1.6% a year.