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New research shows how vampire bats evolved to survive on a diet of blood alone.

While we debate whether the durian is the best or worst food on the planet, it turns out this wonderful oddity requires healthy populations of flying fox for survival

Durian. Depending on whom you talk to it’s either the most beloved or the most despised fruit on the planet. It suffers no moderation, no wishy-washiness. It is the king of fruits or the worst thing you’ve ever tasted. Due to its potent odour – delicate and sweet to its advocates and sewage-like to its detractors – durian has been banned from airplanes, subways, and hotels (though punishments appear light if non-existent). But a recent study in Ecology and Evolution finds there may be no durians at all without bats: big, threatened bats. The scientists found that flying foxes – bats in the Pteropus and Acerodon genus and the largest in the world – are likely vital pollinators for the polarising durian.

“We already knew that flying foxes feed on durian flowers, but there was this unsubstantiated belief, even among some researchers, that flying foxes just destroyed the flowers,” said Sheema Abdul Aziz, the lead researcher on the project that was done as part of her PhD at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in France. “It doesn’t help that a durian flower only blooms for one night, then falls off the tree naturally, regardless of whether it’s been pollinated or not. When people see all the flowers on the ground in the morning, they think it’s the bats.”

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From rising temperatures preventing take-off to rising seas flooding runways, aviation needs to adapt to changes already grounding flights around the world

Phoenix gets hot. But not usually as hot as last June, when the mercury at the airport one day soared above 48C. That exceeded the maximum operating temperature for several aircraft ready for take-off. They didn’t fly. More than 50 flights were cancelled or rerouted.

Thanks to climate change, soon 48C may not seem so unusual. Welcome to the precarious future of aviation in a changing climate. As the world warms and weather becomes more extreme, aircraft designers, airport planners and pilots must all respond, both in the air and on the ground. With about 100,000 flights worldwide carrying eight million passengers every day, this is a big deal.

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Director of Third Energy, which wants to frack in North Yorkshire, is Conservative donor

Campaigners have accused the Treasury of allowing the appearance of a conflict of interest over its examination of an energy company at the forefront of fracking in the UK.

Third Energy’s financial health is being looked at by a Treasury body, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), whose findings will inform whether the government gives the firm a green light.

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Current temperatures are hotter than at any time in the history of human civilization

In order to understand today’s global warming, we need to understand how Earth’s temperatures varied in the past. How does the rapid warming we see now compare with past natural climate changes? Also, how long have humans been having an impact on the climate? These are some questions that can be answered through paleoclimate studies. Paleoclimate research uses natural measurements of the Earth’s temperature. Clever scientists are able to estimate how warm or cold the Earth was far back in time, way before we had thermometers.

Readers of this column are probably familiar with some of these paleoclimate techniques that may use ice cores or tree rings to infer temperature variations. A different method that uses plant distribution was a technique used in a very recent study published in Nature. That technique used pollen distribution to get an understanding of where plant species thrived in the past. Those distributions gave them insights about the temperatures. On the surface, it’s pretty straightforward. Tropical plants differ in major ways from plants that live in, say, the tundra. In fact, plants that thrive where I live (Northern USA) differ from plants that populate landscapes further south.

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For 300 people in the Beninese village of Kokahoue, life without electricity is a daily reality, forcing midwives to deliver babies using lamps and torches. French photographer Pascal Maitre, winner of London Business School’s annual photography awards, has documented the problem in a stunning series of images, while entries from other contestants explore how communities have improvised to deal with issues ranging from poaching to deforestation

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East Chaldon, Dorset: Her diary records a happy morning when she and her lover, the poet Valentine Ackland, lay on top of a barrow listening to the wind

A row of round barrows stud a Dorset ridge – five of them, although tumbled gaps suggest there once were more. From the old chalk trackway, trails lead through shaggy grass to the top of each. To the north, charcoal and dun in the wintry light, stretches a broad swathe of heathland; to the south, gentle green hills enclose the village of East Chaldon.

In the 1930s, the walk up to this bronze age site was a favourite with Sylvia Townsend Warner, her long career as a writer already launched. Her diary records a happy morning when she and her lover, the poet Valentine Ackland, lay on top of one of the barrows listening to the wind and discussing torpedoes. Today, there’s no hint of things military, only a fly-past by two ravens whose cries sound more conversational than martial.

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Our energy system puts consumers more or less at the mercy of business and regulators. What if the future of energy meant putting the power back in the hands of households? Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Research fellow, Australian National University Archie Chapman, Research Fellow in Smart Grids, University of Sydney Paul Scott, Research fellow, Australian National University Veryan Anastasia Joan Hann, PhD Candidate - Energy Policy Innovation, University of Tasmania Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Analysts say Telstra may spend $20 billion to enter Australia's energy markets as it looks to boost earnings and take on the incumbent utilities. Some smaller retailers have shown the path forward.

Infigen Energy to shift focus to "C&I gen-tailer," as more Australian businesses seek to control their energy costs.

NEG still looks like a poorly thought out policy; rooftop solar delivers for Queensland; and Infigen's nosebleed debt financing fee.

Greens senator Janet Rice says Turnbull government's lack of policy and ambition on electric vehicle uptake is seeing Australia get left behind.

As the share of U.S. electricity generated from coal plants continues its steady decline, the question remains as to what will ultimately replace this resource in meeting U.S. electricity demand.

Australia's first large scale solar and big battery storage installation - the Lakeland project near Cooktown in far north Queensland - officially connected to the grid.

Premiers and senior Ministers in two of the six states in the National Electricity Market are now actively campaigning against market outcomes.

Blackouts in Victoria illustrate how networks and regulators have failed to change their business models, and failed to keep up with technology.

Magnets, air blowers, centrifuges, crushers: your recyclables go through a lot before they get turned into something else. Trevor Thornton, Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Oysters aren't just good for a feed. They also give a vital boost to coastal ecosystems, which is why efforts are underway to restore Australia's once-abundant oyster reefs to their former glory. Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Ian McLeod, Senior Research Scientist - Coastal Restoration, James Cook University Maria Vozzo, PhD in Marine Ecology, Macquarie University Vivian Cumbo, Postdoctoral Research, Macquarie University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A chunk of the monster Whitechapel fatberg is now a superstar museum exhibit. It shines a horrifying light on our throwaway age – but will it stop people clogging up the sewers with the grease from their Sunday lunch?

The fatberg that went on display this month at the Museum of London is proving something of a sensation. Visitor numbers have more than doubled; there is a palpable air of half-term excitement when I visit; and the fatberg fudge – modelled to look like the rough-hewn fatberg brick, with little raisins to represent flies (or something worse) – has sold out. The museum has hit on an unlikely goldmine.

Unsurprisingly, curator Vyki Sparkes is looking pretty pleased with herself, and is already talking about a world tour for her prized object – a slice of the giant Whitechapel fatberg discovered last year. There is just one problem: no one knows if it will survive. It is already changing colour as it continues to dry out, and Sparkes is worried that it may start to disintegrate. It is due to be on show at the museum until July. Best come early to avoid disappointment. But, for now, it is an undoubted triumph, raising the question “what is art” – can hardened sewage in a glass case have aesthetic value? – and confronting us with the environmental destructiveness of our throwaway age.

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Documenting fracking protests in Kirby Misperton, photographer Gary Calton found a surprising mix of people uniting to protect Britain’s countryside

It’s early February and the mood at the anti-fracking camp in the embattled village of Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire, is one of cautious optimism. The camp, a collection of makeshift wooden buildings in a muddy field outside town, has been running since December 2016, but it’s only in the last five months that demonstrations against the fracking company Third Energy have flared up, leading to an extraordinary police presence around the village, more than 80 arrests and – just a couple of weeks ago – an apparent victory for the protesters.

I’m in the company of Observer photographer Gary Calton, who has been documenting events here for six months. Calton, who lives eight miles away, has pictures of protesters boarding lorries, lying down at the gates to the site and facing off against battalions of police. He has also captured more intimate moments, the protesters running through drills, chatting, sleeping and – a key activity on the freezing day I visit – simply keeping warm as they wait for the next chapter in the fracking saga to unfold.

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