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The Natural Environment Research Council have conducted a poll to help decide the name of its new £200m polar research vessel and the winning name is – RRS Boaty McBoatface – receiving 124,109 votes. Four times more than RRS Poppy-Mai, which came in second place. Despite the overwhelming result of the poll, the NERC are unlikely to use the winning name. The government says it wants a name that ‘reflects the serious nature of the science it will be doing’

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NERC chief has final say and faces dilemma between credibility of the organisation and burden of public opinion

Latest: Boaty McBoatface may not be name of new polar research vessel

Forget the EU referendum. The major test of modern democracy has fallen into the hands of the Natural Environment Research Council – over the naming of a boat.

As the polls finally closed for the naming of its new polar research ship, the NERC confirmed that the votes were overwhelmingly in favour of RRS Boaty McBoatface.

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Conservationists are putting fragments of information together to learn more about this enigmatic winged creature that only three living people have seen

Somewhere here among the red-dirt channel country of south-west Queensland is a bird that was, until recently, literally a legend.

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After a day in which Britain generated more power from the sun than from coal for the first time, the industry should be rejoicing. But the mood is fearful

Given that the government is determined to avoid playing a financial role in the planned new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point, it is perhaps surprising that it is involved in the UK’s largest solar array.

The 70-megawatt Lyneham photovoltaic farm – big enough to provide light and heat to 20,000 homes – is located at a former RAF base in Wiltshire owned and rented out by the Ministry of Defence.

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Average global temperature was 1.07C hotter - beating last month’s previous record increase

The global temperature in March has shattered a century-long record and by the greatest margin yet seen for any month.

February was far above the long-term average globally, driven largely by climate change, and was described by scientists as a “shocker” and signalling “a kind of climate emergency”. But data released by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) shows that March was even hotter.

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SUPER SWEEPER: At least one super-Earth could have formed close to the Sun sweeping away debris before the planet was destroyed, a new study suggests.

CORAL BLEACHING: Sea temperature rises of as little as 0.5% could see more than a quarter of corals on the Great Barrier Reef lose their ability to survive bleaching events.

Australia's State Party Report on the state of conservation of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, 2016

Coastal Risk Australia combines Google Maps with detailed tide and elevation data, as well as future sea level rise projections

For the first time, Australians can see on a map how rising sea levels will affect their house just by typing their address into a website. And they’ll soon be able to get an estimate of how much climate change will affect their property prices and insurance premiums, too.

Launched on Friday, the website Coastal Risk Australia takes Google Maps and combines it with detailed tide and elevation data, as well as future sea level rise projections, allowing users to see whether their house or suburb will be inundated.

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Wildlife experts say the bird likely died of natural causes after they fail to spot him at his usual haunts in the Lake District

England’s only resident golden eagle is likely to have died after failing to appear this spring, wildlife experts fear.

The bird, which has been a resident at Riggindale near Haweswater, Cumbria, since 2001, has not seen by RSPB staff since last November, and would normally be seen at this time of year building a nest and displaying to attract a mate.

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INSECT INNOVATION: Life in the scorching hot Sahara Desert is no problem for an ant that has evolved an effective and stylish heat-repellent system, new research finds.

AGED CARE: Video chatting with relatives over the internet might be able to reduce the risk of nursing home residents with dementia from becoming agitated or even aggressive, new research suggests.

All-star team with authors of seven previous climate consensus studies collaborate to debunk the ‘no consensus’ myth once and for all

There is an overwhelming expert scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.

Authors of seven previous climate consensus studies — including Naomi Oreskes, Peter Doran, William Anderegg, Bart Verheggen, Ed Maibach, J. Stuart Carlton, John Cook, myself, and six of our colleagues — have co-authored a new paper that should settle this question once and for all. The two key conclusions from the paper are:

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Slowing the Flow scheme, which saw 40,000 trees planted, reduced peak river flow by 20%, after 50mm of rain fell in 36 hours

Tree planting and other natural approaches have prevented flooding at Pickering in North Yorkshire over Christmas, at a time when heavy rainfall caused devastating flooding across the region.

An analysis of the Slowing the Flow scheme published on Wednesday concludes that the measures reduced peak river flow by 15-20% at a time when 50mm of rain fell on sodden ground in 36 hours. The scheme was set up in 2009 after the town had suffered four serious floods in 10 years, with the flooding in 2007 estimated to have caused about £7m of damage.

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DIABETES BREAKTHROUGH: Fully functioning pancreatic cells that produce insulin have been created in the laboratory from human stem cells for the first time.

Researchers ‘have no idea’ why red crabs off Panama might be behaving in such a way, says a biologist: ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen’

Descending in a submersible in waters off Panama, scientists noticed something strange happening near the seafloor. It was a drifting fog of sediment, disturbed by something below. Diving deeper, the scientists found the cause: crabs, thousands of them, swarming in a way never before recorded.

“We just saw this cloud but had no idea what was causing it,” said Jesús Pineda, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the lead author of a paper on the crabs published on Tuesday.

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As cycling’s popularity has increased, there has been a cultural shift away from fun and experiences towards a macho world of speed and Strava

I came across an interesting film the other day. It was linked from Sidetracked, a beautiful, outdoors lifestyle-y type magazine. The kind you buy in a bookshop rather than a newsagent, full of long-form journalism and photo essays, not product reviews and top 10 lists.

The video was of one woman, Lael Wilcox, talking about her experience cycling the Arizona Trail. She was racing, trying to get the best time, but on her own in a self-supported attempt.

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Snake expert rejects suggestion that the 7.5m python might have killed itself

A python caught in Malaysia and first thought to be the longest snake in captivity has lost both its run at the title and its life.

Two people working for the department that trapped the animal said it was remeasured at 7.5 metres, just 17 centimetres short of first place.

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The public consultation period for both speices will be open until 27 May 2016.

If Jayden Burleigh, 22, did die as a result of the redback bite, it will be the first such fatality in more than 60 years thanks to the introduction of antivenom

A 22-year-old Australian has died after being bitten by a redback spider in what may turn out to be the first such death since the antivenom was introduced 60 years ago.

Jayden Burleigh, from Sydney’s northern beaches, was reportedly bitten while walking on the north coast of New South Wales last week.

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