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Collection will help scientists piece together a large branch of insects’ family tree and be a resource for scientists who study natural controls on the environment

In two rooms of Charles and Lois O’Briens’ modest home in Tucson, Arizona, more than a million insects – a collection worth an estimated $10m – rest in tombs of glass and homemade shelving. They come from every continent and corner of the world, gathered over almost six decades; a bug story that began as a love story.

This week, the O’Briens, both octogenarians, announced that they would donate their collection, one of the world’s largest private holdings, to Arizona State University.

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On Saturday, people in 7-thousand cities across the world will turn their lights off to mark Earth Hour.

The government is still being niggled from inside and outside the party coalition on two issues; 18C and same-sex marriage.

Stoke Wood, Northamptonshire Hazel, as boles, can provide a rich hunting ground and my first unusual find is a pill millipede

The rolling limestone landscape exhibits the first signs of spring. Hawthorn buds burst with fresh green leaves and huge queen bumblebees career between blossoming sallow shrubs. Rockingham Forest once spanned these valleys and hills, and Stoke Wood is a salvaged fragment of that vast forest.

The wood has a rich ground flora; bluebell leaves push through in many areas, while elsewhere there are ankle-high seas of proud and pointed-leaved dog’s mercury, the plants already waving their unassuming tassels of green flowers.

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‘High quality units’ could lower cost of obligations, discussion paper says, despite previous opposition from Tony Abbott

The Turnbull government has left open the prospect of using international carbon credits to help meet Australia’s emissions reduction targets at lowest cost, a practice Tony Abbott ruled out when he was prime minister.

While Abbott used to characterise the trade of international credits as “money that shouldn’t be going offshore into dodgy carbon farms in Equatorial Guinea and Kazakhstan” – a new discussion paper, released on Friday, notes that “high quality international units could contribute to lowering the costs of meeting [Australia’s] 2030 target”.

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Note to readers: Our website will be down from 8pm on Friday March 24 ADST due to an upgrade to our servers.

The town of Coober Pedy is in uproar. What should have been a positive plan to shift to a renewable-focused mini-grid based around wind and solar and storage is causing outrage in the community, and embarrassment to the developer, and the federal agency that backed it.

Because of the lack of competition that could have been introduced if RET policy was held steady, fossil fuel generators can use their market power to artificially inflate prices, and somehow convince media and politicians that it is all the fault of wind and solar.

Queensland says proposal to lower voltage standards will allow networks to more easily accommodate rooftop solar and other technologies.

Coalition publishes climate policy discussion paper amid CCA resignations, claims of right-wing, anti-science bias.

A claim like this takes lashings of chutzpah, blinkers the size of Trump’s hairspray bill and more hubris than you can shake a branch of dead coral at

It takes a very special person to label the photographed, documented, filmed and studied phenomenon of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef “fake news”.

You need lashings of chutzpah, blinkers the size of Donald Trump’s hairspray bill and more hubris than you can shake a branch of dead coral at.

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The NSIDC doesn’t usually release data for both poles simultaneously, but has done so this time because of what scientists have dubbed an “exceptional” year in 2017..

On 24 March 2017, the Department released a Discussion Paper inviting input from business and the community. Submissions close at 5:00pm AEST on 5 May 2017.

On 24 March 2017, the Department released a Discussion Paper inviting input from business and the community. Submissions close at 5:00pm AEST on 5 May 2017.

What is a reasonable Feed-in Tariff (FiT) and why should a solar household in Bundanoon receive less than a solar household in Ballarat?

After years of planning, scientists are set now to send missions to explore the ocean world of Europa.

Changes in the approach to frequency control on synchronous units has resulted in changes that have compromised the resilience of the power system to frequency variations.

A mature stag has learnt how to use its antlers to lift bird feeders off garden trees.

Researchers are using genome sequencing to make sure patients get the right drugs more quickly.

On 27 March 2017, the Independent Reviewer, Dr Wendy Craik AM, released a background paper to support submissions to the review. Submissions will now be accepted until 5 pm (AEDT) on Friday 7 April 2017.