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After a mysterious ‘mass mortality event’ turned ochre stars to goo, experts say rapid evolution may have saved the creatures

Five years after a mysterious virus wiped out millions of starfish off the western coast of North America, causing them to lose legs, dissolve into fleshy goo and taking various species to the brink of disappearance, scientists have announced a remarkable reversal.

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Allendale, Northumberland: Growing abundantly along motorways, these pristine white flowers with their yellow centres have an endearing simplicity, like a child’s drawing

Driving north from Newcastle up the A1 there’s an upside to the slowing traffic. It’s an opportunity to look at the high embankments on either side that are crowded with oxeye daisies, Leucanthemum vulgare. Growing abundantly along motorways, these pristine white flowers with their yellow centres have an endearing simplicity, like a child’s drawing. Mixed among them I can see the yellow of buttercup, mauve of vetch, sharp pink of campion and isolated patches of red clover. Lower down, near the gritty edges of the road, are canary-yellow sprawls of bird’s foot trefoil, colours that have mostly been banished from farmland.

I grow all those wildflowers in my garden. All have nectar for bees, butterflies and hoverflies. The golden centre of the daisy head is not one flower but many, a composite of tiny disc florets, each containing food for insects. A grass path curves through my small perennial meadow, where chimney sweeper moths flicker between umbels of pignut and ragged robin. As I pause there in the evening light, there’s a delicacy to the planting with its fine grasses and small bursts of colour. On tall stems, the oxeye daisies glow as the sun drops behind the wood.

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"Are you prepared to build or subsidise a new coal-fired power station?" Energy minister Josh Frydenberg was asked it a thousand times. And a thousand times he didn't answer it.

Market operator releases assessment of wholesale margins made by South Australia's Tesla big battery in the first three months of 2018.

The second big battery in South Australia is charging up on the Yorke Peninsula.

Recently, a 50kW/150kWh energy storage container was assembled and tested at GreatWall Power Plant and shipped to the energy center of an industrial park in Shanghai.

If the right wing has problems with the NEG, wait until they see the Integrated System Plan. Meanwhile, future prices for coal-dependent NSW now nearly as pricey as renewables-focused South Australia.

Sydney-based MAKO Tidal Turbines to undertake six month demonstration of its renewable energy technology at Gladstone Port.

Trump administration hires more people whose policy positions directly conflict with the mission of the agency where they serve.

Perovskite solar technology leader’s solar cell exceeds highest ever performing single-junction silicon solar cell.

Victoria’s inland wetlands lock away the annual emissions of 185,000 people, or roughly the population of Geelong, according to the state’s first ever tally of the valuable environmental resources.

MPs have voted in favour of building a new runway at London’s Heathrow airport, paving the way for expansion after decades of delays and policy U-turns. The 415 to 119 vote was missed by the most high profile opponent Boris Johnson, who once said he would ‘lie down in front of bulldozers’ to stop the expansion. He was in Afghanistan and came in for criticism from Tory MPs for sidestepping the embarrassment of either not supporting the government or breaking his word

• MPs back Heathrow third runway project as Johnson faces criticism
  

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The moment the biggest satellite ever released from the space station was set free.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

An all-women expedition sets out to gather scientific data on the world's largest accumulation of marine plastic.

Fourteen EU environment ministers on Monday urged the European Commission to include 2050 net zero options in its upcoming long-term climate strategy and for the bloc to signal this year its willingness to up its Paris pledge.

France’s environment ministers are pushing for the EU’s trade policy to be brought into line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, in what many will see as a retaliatory move aimed at the US.

The average Australian feral cat kills 225 reptiles a year, which adds up to 596 million in total, according to a new estimate. Pet cats, meanwhile, kill a further 53 million. John Woinarski, Professor (conservation biology), Charles Darwin University Brett Murphy, Senior Research Fellow, Charles Darwin University Chris Dickman, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, University of Sydney Sarah Legge, Associate Professor, Australian National University Tim Doherty, Research Fellow, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

A state-of-the-art telescope is named after Annie Maunder, a Victorian pioneer of space photography.

EU carbon prices drifted lower on Monday but remained above €15 amid a looming increase in supply.