Leonard Nimoy's funeral held in LA

Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy has been buried in Los Angeles in a small, private funeral. Nimoy, 83, died on Friday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is often caused by smoking.

It is Jewish tradition for the dead to be buried within 24 hours but, as the practice is forbidden on a Saturday, the actor was laid to rest at 09:00 PST (17:00 GMT) on Sunday.

However, his Star Trek co-star William Shatner was unable to attend. "I feel really awful," tweeted the actor, who was committed to attend a Red Cross ball in Florida on Saturday night and could not fly back in time for the service. "Here I am doing charity work and one of my dearest friends is being buried."

Daniel Craig films Bond sketch for Comic Relief

James Bond star Daniel Craig will appear in a "special one-off sketch" for Comic Relief, to be broadcast as part of Red Nose Day on 13 March.

The top secret 007 skit will feature in Face the Funny, the charity's first show to be broadcast live from the London Palladium.

Professor Stephen Hawking will appear in a new Little Britain sketch, featuring David Walliams as carer Lou. The physicist will take Matt Lucas's role as the fake wheelchair-bound Andy.

It is the second Comic Relief sketch for Craig, who is currently filming new Bond movie Spectre. He appeared in a sketch with Catherine Tate in 2009, which saw her character Elaine Figgis dating a spy played by the actor.

Regular coffee drinkers have 'cleaner' arteries

Drinking a few cups of coffee a day may help people avoid clogged arteries - a known risk factor for heart disease - Korean researchers believe.

They studied more than 25,000 male and female employees who underwent routine health checks at their workplace. Employees who drank a moderate amount of coffee - three to five cups a day - were less likely to have early signs of heart disease on their medical scans.

The findings reopen the debate about whether coffee is good for the heart.

There is a lot of confusion when it comes to the effect of coffee on heart health. Some studies have linked consumption to heart risk factors, such as raised cholesterol or blood pressure, while others suggest the beverage may offer some heart protection.

But there is no conclusive evidence either way, and the latest research from South Korea, which is published in the journal Heart, only adds to the discussion.

New Higgs detection 'closes circle’

Physicists who detected a version of the Higgs Boson in a superconductor say their discovery closes a "historical circuit". They also stressed that the low-energy work was “completely separate" from the famous evidence gathered by the Large Hadron Collider.

Superconductivity was the field of study where the idea for the Higgs originated in the 1960s. But the particle proved impossible to witness because it decays so fast. This new signature was glimpsed as very thin, chilled layers of metal compounds were pushed very close to the boundary of their superconducting state.

This process creates a "mode" in the material that is analogous to the Higgs Boson but lasts much longer. Rather than the study of particles, it belongs in the field known condensed matter physics; it also uses much less energy than experiments at the LHC, where protons are smashed together at just under the speed of light.

It was at the LHC in 2012 that the Higgs Boson, believed to give all the other subatomic particles their mass, was detected for the very first time.

Scientists produce TB-resistant cows

Scientists in China have produced a herd of genetically engineered cows that are better able to ward off bovine TB infection.

The long-term goal of the research is to avoid the need to cull livestock by breeding disease resistant cattle. Bovine TB is a risk in many areas, including New Zealand, England and Wales, and parts of Africa and Asia. In the UK over 26,000 cattle were slaughtered in 2013 at a cost to taxpayers of £100m.

However, whether this approach protects cows against TB infection when exposed to high doses of the pathogen remains to be determined, says Prof Heiner Niemann, of  Institute of Farm Animal Genetics .

Researchers at the Ministry of Agriculture in Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China, used hi-tech genetic technology to insert a mouse gene into Holstein-Friesian cattle. The gene protected the animals against low levels of TB infection.

Secret power of Peacock tails

Peacock tails are one of the most beautiful sights in the animal kingdom. But they're not just pretty to look at. The birds also use their huge tails to make a loud noise – which humans are utterly incapable of hearing.

When a peacock shakes his tail, it produces a sound that is so low-pitched, humans can't hear it. That's despite the noise being about as loud as a car going past a few metres away.

Angela Freeman and James Hare of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada have shown that peacocks can make these "infrasound" noises with their tails. The birds can also sense and respond to the noise.

"Humans don't often think about infrasound as a potential signal, because we don't perceive it," says Freeman. "I think it's more common than we think."

The pair's results are published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

Weasel riding a Woodpecker

This photo of a weasel riding on the back of a woodpecker has gone viral after it was posted on social media. It has been picked up by media outlets worldwide.

The photographer Martin Le-May said he was "taken aback" by how many people were sharing the photo. The weasel was not using the woodpecker for transport, but was actually after a tasty meal.