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Brazil’s state oil firm has received a licence to conduct exploratory oil drilling in the sea off the Amazon, despite environmental concerns about the project. The approval will allow Petrobras to drill in a block located in Amapá, 500km (311 miles) from the mouth of the Amazon River on the Brazilian Equatorial Margin. The company…

Jonah FisherEnvironment correspondent Getty Images Under the new proposals water companies could face automatic fines for some rule breaches Fining English water companies for spilling raw sewage will soon become quicker and easier, the government has said. New proposals would see automatic fines of up to £20,000 issued for some minor offences and make it…

Mosquitoes have been found in Iceland for the first time after the country experienced record-breaking heat this spring. Insect enthusiast Bjorn Hjaltason encountered the mosquitoes over several nights last week while using wine-soaked ropes to observe moths, local media reported. Mr Hjaltason found two female mosquitoes and one male which were later confirmed to be…

Common dolphins, among the most abundant marine mammals on Earth, are living significantly shorter lives in the North Atlantic. A new study published on October 10 in Conservation Letters reports that their lifespan has dropped sharply in recent decades. Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder found that female common dolphins are living an average…

Our Milky Way is constantly in motion: it spins, it tilts, and, as new observations reveal, it ripples. Data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope show that our galaxy is not only rotating and wobbling but also sending out a vast wave that travels outward from its center. For about a century,…

Researchers at University College Cork, led by Professor Yvonne Nolan, have uncovered the specific metabolic processes that explain how exercise helps offset the harmful behavioral effects of eating a Western-style cafeteria diet. Published on October 21 in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Medicine, the study shows that voluntary running can reduce depression-like behaviors triggered by diets…