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New research sheds light on why yawns are so contagious.

Scientists are closer to solving one of the big puzzles of the plant world - why leaf size matters.

Experiment in the Bellingshuan Sea reveals temperature rise has more alarming implications for biodiversity in polar waters than previously thought

Marine life on the Antarctic seabed is likely to be far more affected by global warming than previously thought, say scientists who have conducted the most sophisticated study to date of heating impacts in the species-rich environment.

Growth rates of some fauna doubled – including colonising moss animals and undersea worms – following a 1C increase in temperature, making them more dominant, pushing out other species and reducing overall levels of biodiversity, according to the study published on Thursday in Current Biology.

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Rising sea levels pose a serious threat to cites like Boston, New York and Miami Beach. So what are they doing to protect themselves?

Tropical storm Harvey may have bared its teeth at Houston, but other cities in the US have felt the pangs of nervousness. Several cities are vulnerable to the fiercer storms and sea level rise that are being fueled by climate change.

Cities, by their very nature, struggle during flood situations. Water that would have been soaked up by grass and other vegetation washes off the concrete and asphalt of urban areas and, if not properly diverted away, can inundate homes.

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Researchers observe smooth-coated otters watching and learning from each other.

Rescue operations continue to save people across Texas stranded by tropical storm Harvey. Though rainfall is slowing and wind speeds have dropped, officials say the flooding will take longer to subside. Harvey weakened as it moved inland over Louisiana on Thursday, leaving behind record flooding

• Houston flooding: two explosions take place at Texas chemical plant
  

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The reasons why the fourth-largest city in the US has become its flood capital.

More tests next month might mean the pods for the science-fictional transport system hit 500 km/h

This is the largest radio telescope on Earth, 5,000m up in the Atacama Desert. It can see stars and planets being born millions of light-years away.

Protests planned after president suggests Roșia Montană Unesco application could be withdrawn, potentially enabling the return of a controversial mining project

Romania’s prime minister has suggested his government will seek to withdraw an application to have the former gold mining area of Roșia Montană declared a Unesco world heritage site, potentially paving the way for the return of a controversial mining project.

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Tim Flannery speaks about how to help feed, power and clean the world sustainably. 

Conservation charity WWF warns that the species were found in areas at risk from human activity.

A climate “red team” is just a polite way to describe bailing out scientific losers

Climate contrarians, like Trump’s EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, don’t understand how scientific research works. They are basically asking for a government handout to scientists to do what scientists are should already be doing. They are also requesting handouts for scientists who have been less successful in research and publications – a move antithetical to the survival of the fitness approach that has formed the scientific community for decades.

The helping handout would be through a proposed exercise called a “red team/blue team” effort. It is a proposal that would reportedly find groups of scientists on both “sides” of the climate issue (whatever that means), and have them try to poke holes in each others’ positions. I will explain why this is a handout but first let’s talk about the plan and how it interferes with the scientific process.

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North Korea has fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. How should the international community respond to this provocation? Christopher Hill explains what we can realistically expect from all sides.

Why has the government returned to an industrial strategy abandoned in the 1980s?

Winning and shortlisted images from this year’s competition, from awe-inspiring action shots to charming portraits, featured in a new book celebrating some of the best bird photography of the year

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RN Drive brings you up to speed with news from the wide world of science.

Rescue workers in Mumbai are searching for people feared trapped beneath a collapsed building following two days of torrential rain in India’s commercial hub. At least 1,200 people have died across south-east Asia as a result of flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains, and millions of people are estimated to have been affected

• Mumbai building collapses in monsoon rains as South Asia floods wreak havoc
  

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Coalition reportedly drops links to emission trajectories in draft proposal for a Clean Energy Target. It comes as Turnbull changes tone again on new coal, and the Queensland LNP releases a renewables policy derided immediately as a "farce".

Skipjack tuna from the western Pacific is common on supermarket shelves, but a new coalition argues its certification as sustainable is illusory

Consumers of tuna from the world’s biggest fishery are are being “betrayed” over its sustainability, according to a coalition of scientists, retailers, politicians and campaigners, including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The vast Western and Central Pacific fishery provides about half of the world’s skipjack tuna, the type most commonly found in cans on supermarket shelves. Some is certified as sustainably caught by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and carries the group’s “blue tick” logo. But the same boats can also use, at other times, unsustainable methods to catch uncertified fish, a contradiction seen as unacceptable by the new On The Hook coalition.

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