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Long-dormant microbes are found inside giant crystals of the Naica mountain caves - and revived.

Slufters Inclosure, New Forest This hardy specimen of butterfly has found an ideal basking site among still damp grasses in a bed of fern

On a bright, cold morning, sandwiched between days of rain and nights of frost, we explore Slufters Inclosure, an area first separated in 1862, when it was planted with Scots pine. It is 6C (43F) when we leave home but the southerly slopes here are harvesting the heat of the sun, and the temperature gradually lifts (just) into double figures. It’s enough to bring liveliness to a dormant scene and makes us wonder from a distance what we will find.

Hardly are we in when a dark shape shoots into the sky, does a looping circle around some upper branches and drops to the bankside. This battered red admiral is taking the opportunity offered by a brief change in the weather to soak up some warmth, and transfer it into energy that powers these airborne whorls, and may help to carry the butterfly through the chill days yet to come. A little further down the ride, we spot another, almost immaculate, Vanessa atalanta that has found its ideal basking site among still damp grasses in a bed of hard fern, Blechnum spicant.

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Gliding over a glacier in the Himalayas is a metre long squirrel with a smallish head, silky fur as long as your little finger and a fluffy tail like a fox. The wooly flying squirrel has hardly ever been seen alive.

The Minerals Council seems mostly intent on using its submission to electoral donations committee to kneecap environmental groups opposed to new mines

In 2010 the mining industry’s $22m campaign against Kevin Rudd’s resources tax helped bring down a prime minister. For years it has spent huge sums on donations and advertising and lobbying to exert enormous political influence. But the deep-pocketed miners really don’t like it when those with different views find the cash and the smarts to wield some clout.

The latest squeal came this week in an appearance by the Minerals Council of Australia before the joint standing committee on electoral donations, which seems likely to reach a bipartisan consensus on banning foreign donations to political parties and other organisations that might influence the outcome of elections – including associated entities (like unions or fundraising foundations) and activist groups like GetUp.

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A very large, and potentially very lucrative, shale gas field has been identified in the Northern Territory, 500 kilometres southeast of Darwin. But the NT Government has a moratorium on fracking. We hear about this latest development in the territory at a time when the nation is debating our energy security and some are saying the gas option has to be revived.

What are governments doing around the world to try to beat one of the most costly diseases in wheat; and a leading global scientist warns 'anti-science' is leading to poor decisions.

• Senate approves former Oklahoma attorney general 52-46
• Court ordered new environmental head to release emails to fossil fuel industry

Oklahoma’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt, has won Senate confirmation to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a federal agency he repeatedly sued to rein in its reach during the Obama administration.

The vote on Friday was 52-46 as Republican leaders used their party’s narrow Senate majority to push Pruitt’s confirmation despite calls from Democrats to delay the vote until requested emails are released next week.

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Genetically-modified hens that can lay eggs from different poultry breeds are helping scientists set up a "frozen aviary" to conserve rare birds.

Sea turtles laying eggs, buffalo and a swan lake are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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Rodrick Ngulube was shot by poachers in West Petauke game management area, after rangers discovered carcasses of a warthog and zebra

At 7am on 12 February, 37-year-old wildlife ranger Rodrick Ngulube was gunned down by poachers in Zambia’s West Petauke game management area. Ngulube and fellow rangers had been tracking seven poachers since the night before when the incident occurred. The slain ranger is survived by his wife and seven children.

The sound of a gunshot the day before had set off the team of six rangers, including Ngulube, to track down its source. Forced to give up the search when it got dark, the team picked up the poachers’ trail again the next morning until they discovered the carcasses of a warthog and zebra.

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Scientists have discovered the river reef is far bigger, and more important, than first thought – a biodiversity hotspot on a par with the Great Barrier Reef. Now they face a race to protect it from big oil

There is a flickering, bright glimmer of sky as the two-person submarine descends beneath the muddy equatorial waters to a place no human has ever seen – a vast, complex coral reef at the mouth of the world’s greatest river.

Thirty metres under the murky plume of the sediment-heavy Amazon, the sub enters a darker, richer world. A school of curious remora fish approaches the two-tonne machine. Crabs and starfish loom in its eerie lights. A metre-long amberjack swims past, then a two-metre ray.

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The international competition to drive innovation in seafloor mapping announces the teams that will take part in its semi-final stage.

Billions of tiny plastic lentil-sized pellets can be spotted on UK shores - but how do 'nurdles' get there?

Owners of more polluting cars will have to pay extra levy from October to drive within congestion charge zone

Older, more polluting cars will have to pay a £10 charge to drive in central London from 23 Octoberthe city’s mayor, has said.

Confirming he would press ahead with the fee, known as the T-charge, Sadiq Khan said: “It’s staggering that we live in a city where the air is so toxic that many of our children are growing up with lung problems. If we don’t make drastic changes now we won’t be protecting the health of our families in the future.

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Scientists are calling for more people to donate their brains to research to help find cures for mental and psychological disorders.

Researchers in Cardiff develop a new "highly-efficient" method of extracting disease-fighting compounds.

Almost entirely submerged, Zealandia meets all the criteria to be considered a continent, say researchers.

Mexborough, South Yorkshire No longer ‘more or less solid chemicals’, the gunmetal waters of the Don are clean enough for salmon

There were wisps of snow in the liverish sky over Main Street, Mexborough. I passed a shop offering cash for clothes, 40p a kilo, across the road from a tattoo parlour, and then stopped outside its shuttered neighbour. This was, from 1938, the family home of Ted Hughes. The poet’s parents ran it as a newsagent’s.

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They say they are lacking the brains of people with disorders such as depression and PTSD.

The designers of the scheme Labor has embraced to meet climate targets admit it is designed to promote gas, not wind or solar – even with a 50% emission reduction target.