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Huge, expensive and difficult to build, Hinkley is a throwback to the last century, just as the world is embracing the smart energy systems of the future

The new nuclear reactors now given the go-ahead at Hinkley Point have failed every test bar the one that finally mattered - political expediency.

The plant, to be paid for by UK energy customers, could cost them £37bn and is a leading contender for the most expensive object ever built on the face of the Earth. A former Conservative energy secretary calls it “one of the worst deals ever” for Britain.

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Businesses and education providers on the Somerset coast see opportunities but residents remain concerned over safety and waste

The EDF Energy visitor centre at the Angel Place shopping centre in Bridgwater was doing brisk business.

A group of pensioners waited for a coach to take them for a tour of Hinkley Point B nuclear power station 10 miles away on the Somerset coast while children played with displays explaining how electricity is created. Teenagers dropped in to jump on to a static bike and power up their mobile phones.

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Official figures show low-carbon sources accounted for almost half of national electricity supply last year - outstripping coal for the first time

Almost half the UK’s electricity came from clean energy sources such as wind and nuclear power last year, official figures have revealed.

Renewables accounted for a quarter of the country’s power supplies in 2015, outstripping coal power for the first time, the data published by the government revealed.

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UK government would need to increase funding to match common agricultural policy levels, Holyrood committee hears

Scottish farmers face losing hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidy after Brexit unless the UK government increases funding for Holyrood, a Scottish parliament committee has been told.

A senior economist and the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) said the EU referendum vote raised significant doubts over the future of £452m in common agriculture programme spending in Scotland, because of the current Treasury deal to fund Holyrood.

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The earliest evidence of cancer in the human fossil record has been discovered in South Africa, say researchers.

The hi-tech illuminated costumes worn by media artist Kasia Molga reveal changes in urban air pollution and bring together art and science

Heads turn when media artist Kasia Molga and her performers walk the streets of Manchester. When they near buses belching diesel fumes, their futuristic capes and masks turn a bright red. Near a park they go green. Depending on the traffic pollution levels in the northern industrial city, their clothing pulses, flashes and changes colour from purple through to white.

Molga calls herself a “human sensor”. She has linked with atmospheric scientists at King’s College London to develop clothing that reacts to the minute particles (PM2.5s) emitted mainly by diesel engines.

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The Prime Minister has said that she wants to ensure a positive outcome for science in negotiations to leave the European Union.

Amateur video shot on Tuesday shows floods in Butwal, a village in the the Rupandehi district of Nepal, after flash floods and landslides swept through villages, killing at least 58 people over two days. In Butwal, local residents run away as torrential floodwaters overflow the riverbank and break a flood defence wall

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The rapid growth in the illegal killing of African elephants seen since 2006 seems to have stabilised and may be decreasing.

Scientists show for the first time that there are 15% more individual plants and animals and 11% more species inside terrestrial conservation zones

Biodiversity is greater inside the world’s protected areas, scientists have been able to show for the first time.

There are 15% more individual plants and animals and 11% more species inside than outside protected areas, according to the largest analysis of biodiversity in terrestrial globally protected areas to date.

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Warren, a rhinoceros calf, responds to being called while on a walk with his carers at the Meyersdal Nature Estate in South Africa on Monday. Warren comes running back after being called by name and also accompanies some dogs on a trip around the sanctuary. The Meyersdal Nature Estate is run by Working with Rhinos, a charity dedicated to rescuing and rehabilitating rhinoceros and indigenous wildlife from the area

• Watch the full video on Working with Rhinos’ YouTube channel
  

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Sandy, Bedfordshire What are they tasting, and what makes them dab their egg on one particular leaf above all others?

Day by day, summer has been eating its way through the nasturtium at the back door. Over the past fortnight, I have conducted my own leafwatch. Victorian naturalists used systematic, meticulous, studies to gain insights: I’m looking in my lunch break. Even so, during these half-hour snatches, I’ve discovered a tiny something that contradicts an authoritative textbook.

We call them cabbage whites, the butterflies with a taste for brassicas, but these insects have a fondness for nasturtiums too. One flits over the fence and breaks its zigzag course through the garden to home in. It circles and lands on leaf after leaf, wings whipped into a frenzy at the point of exact touchdown.

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ABC Science journalist Bernie Hobbs takes us through the latest stories - in this case how fire that brought warmth and comfort to early humans may also have triggered the emergence of deadly tuberculosis and how Jupiter's Great Red 'Hot Spot' may explain atmospheric mystery.

National eNews - Do we need emergency action on climate?

Queensland authorities say they have identified the vessel that spilled up to 15 tonnes of oil off Cape Upstart in July 2015

An unnamed foreign ship faces prosecution over an oil spill on the Great Barrier Reef after a 12-month investigation by Queensland government agencies.

Maritime investigators claim they have identified the vessel that spilled up to 15 tonnes of oil in reef waters off Cape Upstart in July 2015, which washed up on mainland beaches and islands north of Townsville and triggered a response costing $1.5m.

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As NSW’s relatively generous solar rates come to a close, 150,000-odd solar homes are looking to make the transition as painless as possible. So what are your options? We break them down for you.

ACT govt-funded installation of 500kW solar array is underway at Canberra Hospital, part of project that will save it $490,000 by 2017-18.

The overall tone of Clean Energy Summit is much more upbeat than last year, and it appears that the political resistance to renewables is fading.

BNEF and Clean Energy Regulator warn renewables market headed for shortfall, RET policy has "fundamental holes in it.”

After 12 years of planning and testing, Solar Impulse has finally completed its epic voyage around the world – all without using a single drop of fuel.