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Researchers behind study, which may have helped cement case for banning microbeads, found guilty of scientific misconduct

A landmark paper claiming to show the devastating impact of microplastics on fish has been retracted after an investigation found the authors guilty of scientific misconduct.

The study, published in the prestigious journal Science, claimed that fish became “smaller, slower and more stupid” when exposed to tiny plastic fragments in the marine environment. It also suggested that perch larvae favour eating plastic over their natural prey “like teenagers eating junk food”.

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Arrival of a female wolf, that trekked 500km from Germany, means the pack could have cubs by spring

A wolf pack is roaming wild in Denmark for the first time in more than 200 years after a young female wolf journeyed 500km from Germany.

Male wolves have been seen in Denmark since 2012 and the new female could produce cubs this spring in farmland in west Jutland after two wolves were filmed together last autumn.

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Exclusive: Legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers pay out compensation for failure to clean up illegal levels of pollution

Lawyers are preparing to mount an unprecedented class action against the government over its repeated failures to clean up illegal levels of air pollution from diesel traffic.

The legal challenge on behalf of asthma sufferers could see ministers paying out significant compensation for allowing the nation’s air to exceed legal limits for so long.

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Ecologist and conservationist who helped save the threatened grey partridge

Dick Potts, who has died aged 77, did more to bridge the gap between conservationists, farmers and the game shooting fraternity than any other figure. He combined his training as a scientist, his background as a farmer’s son and his passion for birds to help save the threatened grey partridge.

From small beginnings in a Portakabin on a farm in West Sussex in 1968, Dick developed a long-term study into the ecology of the partridge, one of Britain’s most distinctive farmland birds. Even then, numbers of this attractive gamebird were beginning to fall and Dick was charged with finding out why.

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A fossil found on Skye of the early mammal suggests it had a set of milk teeth, say palaeontologists.

Two coders will share a $55,000 prize for what a Nasa official calls the "ultimate 'geek' dream assignment.

After Trump’s revival of the Keystone XL pipeline project, some communities along its route are getting ready to fight back. Others see the US president keeping his promise to ‘make America great again’. The Guardian drove along the proposed route of the pipeline, through three red states – Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska – to hear what those who will be affected have to say about it

• Keystone defiance triggers assault on a constitutional right
• Life on the Keystone XL route: where opponents fear the ‘black snake’

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The Jali Ardhi, or ‘care for the land’ project, studies the impact of soil erosion on Maasai communities and their grazing lands. Photojournalist Carey Marks captures the changing landscape, its people – and the challenges they face

• The exhibition is at Plymouth University from 22 May to 2 June
  

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An electricity market "about as bad as you can get" has helped put household solar – and storage – back in the spotlight of Australia's renewables shift, prompting forecasts of "massive growth."

Scientists are counting albatrosses on remote islands from satellite images.

Greens challenge Labor to get new modelling to justify its support for an emissions intensity scheme, as attention turns to what's next for energy policy now that the renewable critics have egg on their face over predictions the RET could never be met.

Tesla shares fall after a bigger than expected Q1 loss. But revenue was up, and Elon Musk has his mind on other things...

Wolsingham, Weardale We were about to give up when we spotted the first morel, its convoluted, toffee-coloured, cap not much larger than a golf ball

Every winter this gently sloping bank on the outside of a bend in the Wear is swept clean by flood water. When spring arrives buried plant life reasserts itself through layers of sandy silt deposited when the river has swirled through the alders.

First the snowdrops spear through the surface. Last time we passed this way yellow star of Bethlehem flowers had appeared among emerging wild garlic leaves. On this day, less than a month later, the vegetation was a waist-high mosaic of butterbur, sweet cicely, ground elder and cranesbill leaves.

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Super-sharp images from a US satellite are keeping track of remote bird-breeding sites.

Energy Action today announced the launch of the Energy Action mobile app.

At the free to attend exhibition and workshops, more than 50 exhibitors and sponsors will showcase the latest energy storage products and emerging technologies that are shaking up the energy market.

New study finds there never was an unexpected lull in climate change but says the science community needs to communicate better

People don’t talk about how global warming has stopped, paused or slowed down all that much any more – three consecutive hottest years on record will tend to do that to a flaky meme.

But there was a time a few years ago when you couldn’t open your news feed without being told global warming had stopped by some conservative columnist, climate science denier or one of those people who spend their waking hours writing comments on stories like this.

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Germany reaches record level of 85% renewable energy over long weekend, but days like this expected to be common by 2030.

Pioneering work that extracts information from audio of gunshots could help solve criminal cases.

Australian scientists are using recycled denim to create more environmentally friendly jeans.