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Letter: Sir David MacKay obituary

In the late 1980s I was a scientist at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in Malvern. David MacKay was placed with our team as our summer student for two months’ work experience. It rapidly became clear that not only did he fit well into our small thermal imaging research team, but he was able to complete the tasks we allocated to him in about half the time we would normally expect for a student.

In his final week we ran out of jobs, so we suggested he could do his own little project. He presented us with an astrolabe made from cardboard and odds and ends found round the lab, with the appropriate azimuth and altitude circles for Malvern plotted on plastic transparencies using our lab plotter. When he left to go back to his second undergraduate year, we were sure he was heading for great things.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Roaring rescue: circus lions begin new life in African bush – video

Thirty-three lions rescued from circuses in South America arrive at a big cat sanctuary in South Africa. The lions are seen roaring and playing with each other as they’re freed into nature for the first time. They were rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia and have been resettled in an private estate in Limpopo province

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Source: Guardian Environment

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How well do you know British wildlife?

Test your pawprint identification skills and your knowledge of native species with our nature quiz

Which of the following animal paw prints belong to a fox?

a

b

c

d

Which of these edible plants isn’t associated with the seashore?

Samphire

Sea Pea

Three-cornered leek

Sea Beet

Which is the odd one out and why?

Agaricus xanthodermus, yellow stainer

Boletus edulis, the penny bun

Agaricus arvensis, the horse mushroom

Calvatia gigantea, the giant puffball

What animal’s scientific name is Cupido minimus?

Red fox

European otter

Small blue butterfly

Wren

Which of the following bird names do you complete with tern?

The roseate …

The marsh …

The long-tailed …

The Coal…

Which bird is the odd one out and why?

Cuckoo

Turtle dove

Swift

Wren

Which of these creatives is a non-native arrival in this country?

Harlequin ladybird

Seven-spot

Roe deer

What has been successfully brought back from extinction in Britain just next to the nuclear power stations at Dungeness in Kent?

The great bustard

The crane

The short-haired bumblebee

The large blue butterfly

What species is most commonly found on Isle of Mull, Scotland?

The red-barbed ant

The white-tailed eagle

The red squirrel

The lundy cabbage

Nature reserves. Identify which of these lovely wild places is The North York Moors, Yorkshire

a

b

c

d

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Off the hook: can a new study in the Pacific reel in unsustainable fishing?

The Nature Conservancy-funded program will test how new hook designs and other practices could reduce bycatch while keeping the fishing business lucrative

Within seconds of being hauled onto the Shen Lain Cheng, a 79-foot tuna fishing boat from China, the crew’s most senior member, whose deeply wrinkled face conveys more than his 58 years, is plunging a T-handled spike between the glistening eyes of a 100-lb yellowfin tuna. The hope is that the swift death has minimized the release of lactic acid, which degrades the flesh meat and reduces the crew’s chances of earning a grade-A for this fish once it is offloaded back at port in Koror, Palau, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean.

He quickly eviscerates the taut, silvery fish, pulling out an assembly of organs that look like something from another planet. He removes the heart and stomach – the scavenged parts that will likely go into tonight’s crew dinner – and tosses the rest of the guts overboard before flushing the carcass with running water, sewing up its gaping mouth, and placing it into the icy waters of the boat’s cold storage tank.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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A sustainable fishing experiment in the Pacific – in pictures

We go behind the scenes on a tuna fishing expedition in Palau, an island nation in the western Pacific, where researchers from The Nature Conservancy test a number of sustainable fishing practices that could reduce bycatch – the unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing – while keeping the fishing business lucrative

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Source: Guardian Environment

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The innovators: desalination unit brings clean water on wheels

Portable ‘Desolenator’ makes sea water and rain fit for human consumption

Travelling around Thailand in the 1990s, William Janssen was impressed with the basic rooftop solar heating systems that were on many homes, where energy from the sun was absorbed by a plate and then used to heat water for the home.

Two decades later and Janssen has developed that basic idea he saw in south-east Asia into a portable device that uses the power from the sun to purify water.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Snowy Mountains brumbies should be culled by 90% over 20 years – draft plan

Draft wild horse management plan for Kosciuszko national park aims to cut the population of wild horses from 6,000 to 600

Ninety per cent of the Snowy Mountains brumbies would be culled over the next two decades, under a plan released by the New South Wales government.

The draft wild horse management plan for Kosciuszko national park aims to cut the population of wild horses in the park from 6,000 to about 3,000 in the next five to 10 years.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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The eco guide to cruises | Lucy Siegle

Before you embark on a cruise, there are serious ethical questions to ask…

Ahoy, my ageing hearties. Increasing numbers of mega liners are being built. These monster ships can carry, entertain and feed 5,000 passengers at a time. Meanwhile research from Tourism Concern shows that the older vessels are responsible for 36 times as many greenhouse gas emissions per passenger kilometre than Eurostar and three and a half times more than a long-haul flight. And this is just the start of a long ethical rap sheet.

So here are the questions to ask before setting sail that nobody does…

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Australia commits $15m in bid to eradicate carp using herpes virus

Coalition government announces budget funds for national plan to control Australia’s worst freshwater feral pest

Tuesday’s federal budget will include funding for a $15m for a national carp control plan in an attempt to eradicate Australia’s worst freshwater feral pest, the government announced on Sunday.

The plan includes the staged release of the carp-specific herpes virus in the Murray-Darling basin. CSIRO scientists have been testing the virus in Australian native fish species and other animals found along the river for the past seven years and have established that it is safe to release into the ecosystem without harming other species.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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Mane event: 33 lions flown home after rescue from life in the circus

Big cats arrive in South Africa, where sanctuary beckons, after having suffered cruel treatment in Colombia and Peru

The roars of lions filled the cargo section of Johannesburg’s main international airport on Saturday evening as 33 lions rescued from South American circuses landed in South Africa.

The animals will now be released into a bush sanctuary for big cats.

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Source: Guardian Environment

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