Planet Earth online is the free, companion website to the award-winning magazine Planet Earth published and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Planet Earth covers news from across the environmental sciences - whether research is funded directly by NERC or is carried out by NERC's research and collaborative centres. It also covers the work of partner organisations, such as through the £1bn "Living with Environmental Change" programme.
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An innovative study looking at how orangutans build their nests has revealed that the apes use a high level of engineering know-how.
Plants & Animals
Apr 17, 2012
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Tiny fossils that scientists have thought for decades were the embryos of the earliest animals ever found have turned out to be the remains of much simpler microbial organisms.
Paleontology & Fossils
Dec 22, 2011
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Scientists have demonstrated a clear link between the 11-year sun cycle and winter weather over the northern hemisphere for the first time.
Earth Sciences
Oct 10, 2011
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Scientists have found that our cousins the Neanderthal employed sophisticated hunting strategies similar to the tactics used much later by modern humans. The new findings come from the analysis of subtle chemical variations ...
Archaeology
May 16, 2011
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Trawling the seabed doesn't just remove some of the fishes living there; it also makes some of the survivors thinner and less healthy by forcing them to use more energy finding less nutritious food.
Ecology
Dec 11, 2014
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Bottlenose dolphins in Africa use signature whistles to identify each other, say scientists investigating the animals communication.
Plants & Animals
Nov 19, 2014
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A new solution to measure cell movement could save scientists hundreds of thousands of pounds, says the researcher who developed the method to save himself time and money in the lab.
General Physics
Nov 11, 2014
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The tiny creatures that live in seabed sediments are far more genetically varied than we thought – and they're spread around the oceans according to similar rules to those governing the distribution of bigger plants and ...
Ecology
Oct 27, 2014
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A UK-led international research team has carried out the first experiment to recreate what would happen if CO2 started leaking after being stored deep under the sea floor. Their findings add weight to the idea that this could ...
Environment
Oct 2, 2014
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A new way of using DNA analysis to find out what reptiles have been eating has revealed that the UK's rarest snake species may be under pressure because it needs very different kinds of food at different times in its life.
Plants & Animals
Aug 11, 2014
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