Ancient reef uncovered in Pacific

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An ancient reef may provide scientists with clues about what will happen to coral when sea temperatures rise.

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Ants protect trees from elephants

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A species of acacia tree found in Eastern Africa seems to be protected from elephant damage – by the ants that live on it.

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Creation was Godless says Hawking

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There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking concludes in a new book.

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Weather clash causes snowy winter

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The collision of two major weather events can explain unusually large snowfall in the US and Northern Europe, researchers say.

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Greatest free-kick ‘was no fluke’

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Physicists explain one of football’s most spectacular free-kicks, showing that Roberto Carlos’s 1997 “impossible goal” was not a fluke.

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Clue to ancient Antarctic seaway

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Scientists have found evidence for an ancient sea passage linking currently isolated areas of Antarctica.

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Big rocket booster in second test

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A further test ignition takes place on the giant booster intended to power Nasa’s next big rocket.

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Killer space blast ‘off the hook’

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The theory that the great beasts living in North America 13,000 years ago were killed off by a space impact can now be discounted, a new study claims.

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UK biofuels ‘fail on green goals’

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The vast majority of biofuels sold on UK forecourts are imported and do not conform to environmental standards, figures show.

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Beefy dino sported fearsome claws

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Fossils of a new type of dinosaur, which looks like a beefy version of the predatory Velociraptor, have been unearthed in Romania.

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Stricter checks for climate body

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The UN’s climate science body needs stricter checks to prevent damage to its credibility, an independent review concludes.

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Geneticists crack the apple code

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A team of 86 global scientists sequence the genetic code of the Golden Delicious apple for the first time.

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NGOs warn of ‘toxic’ whale meat

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A coalition of 10 NGOs urges the International Whaling Commission to persuade the World Health Organization to act over fears about eating whale meat.

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Double strike ‘killed dinosaurs’

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The dinosaurs were wiped out by at least two meteorite impacts rather than a single strike, say scientists.

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Wheat genome boost to food supply

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The draft sequences of the wheat genome released by UK scientists may prove to be a vital contribution to the efforts of securing global food supply.

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Tiger cub ‘found in stuffed toys’

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A two-month-old tiger cub is found sedated and hidden among stuffed toys in a woman’s luggage at Bangkok’s international airport.

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Particle detector heads for launch

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The $1.5bn Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer arrives in Florida to make it ready for launch to the space station.

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Kepler spies Saturn-sized worlds

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Nasa’s Kepler space telescope detects two large planets orbiting a star some 2,000 light-years from Earth.

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Oldest evidence of arrows found

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Researchers in South Africa have revealed the earliest direct evidence of human-made arrows.

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‘No man-made fix’ for rising seas

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Even the most extreme geoengineering approaches will not stop sea levels from rising due to climate change, a study suggests.

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Dolphins ‘cough’ up DNA secrets

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A new technique to harmlessly extract DNA from dolphin “breath” could assist conservation efforts aimed at marine mammals.

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Beer bugs live 553 days in space

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Microbes taken from a cliff face in the English fishing village of Beer survive for a year-and-a-half on the outside of the International Space Station.

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Planet pulverised by double star

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Astronomers have uncovered evidence for massive planetary collisions around several binary stars

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Rich exoplanet system discovered

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Astronomers discover a planetary system with at least five planets orbiting a star much like our Sun.

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‘Living space’ key for evolution

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Charles Darwin may have been wrong to argue that competition was the major driver of evolution, a study suggests.

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Data blow to gravity satellite

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The European Space Agency is battling to recover its Goce gravity satellite which has been struck by a second computer glitch, blocking data delivery to Earth.

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