Science & Environment

Esme StallardClimate and science reporter, BBC News Getty Images Beddington incinerator has breached its environmental permits on 916 occasions Beddington incinerator, which serves four south London councils, faces enforcement from the Environment Agency after exceeding air pollution limits on 916 occasions. The offences, which occurred between 2022 and 2024 at the energy-from-waste plant, were revealed last week after the operator …

Meghan OwenWork and money correspondent, BBC London and Lauren StanleyBBC London BBC Keisha and her daughter live in a flat that they say can reach 43C in summer As the UK experiences hotter temperatures families across the country are increasingly feeling the impact, with their homes no longer a sanctuary but an unbearable space that many are desperate to escape. …

Elizabeth DawsonBBC News and Erwan RivaultData Designer, BBC Verify Copernicus Unprecedented wildfires have scarred northern Spain in recent weeks A record one million hectares – equivalent to about half the land area of Wales – have burned across the European Union so far this year, making it the worst wildfire season since records began in 2006. Spain and Portugal have …

Matt Dempsey Artwork: the dinosaur had long spikes sticking out from the side of its head Scientists have discovered a bizarre armoured dinosaur which had metre-long spikes sticking out from its neck. The species, called Spicomellus afer, lived 165 million years ago, and is the oldest example of a group of armoured dinosaurs called ankylosaurs. The elaborateness and spikiness of …

SpaceX has pulled off a successful test flight of its newest generation rocket Starship, reversing a trend of disappointing failures. The world’s largest and most powerful rocket blasted off from Texas just after 18:30 local time (23:30 BST) for a nail-biting 60-minute flight. Parts of the engine appeared to explode at one stage, and flaps on the side of the …

Maddie Molloy BBC Climate & Science Bidyut Kalita This image titled “Special Delivery” was highly commended in the Behaviour: Invertebrates category. At first glance, the potter wasp appears to be riding a broomstick. But this industrious insect isn’t flying back to stir its witch’s cauldron, or playing Quidditch. It’s carrying a caterpillar – prey to feed its young. It was …

There are a number of reasons why this summer has been so warm. High pressure has regularly been overhead, meaning long spells of dry, calm, sunny weather. The dry ground has also helped temperatures to climb. Less of the Sun’s energy has been used in evaporating moisture leaving more to heat the ground and the air. A marine heatwave has …

Joshua Nevett Political reporter PA Media Trapped in underground rocks, a potential energy resource has eluded generations of British politicians. It’s called shale gas and the method of getting it out of the ground, known as fracking, has proved politically difficult. Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, has been banned many times by different prime ministers since 2011 over concerns about …

AFP Wikie, pictured with her calf in 2011, are still being kept at a facility in southern France A male killer whale at a closed marine zoo is being sexually stimulated by his trainers to stop him inbreeding with his mother. Marineland Antibes shut in January but managers, the French government and animal rights activists have not agreed on where …

PA/James Brown An artist’s impression issued by the University of Portsmouth of an Istiorachis macaruthurae A new species of dinosaur that had an “eye-catching sail” along its back has been named after sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur. The dinosaur, unearthed on the Isle of Wight, has been given the name Istiorachis macaruthurae with the first word meaning “sail spine” and the …