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Climate change is shrinking sheep

Scientists say milder winters help smaller sheep to survive, resulting in this “paradoxical decrease in size”.

Dolphin ‘superpod’ spotted off Wales

Eight volunteer members of the Sea Trust came across the “mile-long wall of dolphins” near the Smalls Lighthouse in the Irish Sea.

Huge declines in woodland birds

The nightingale has effectively vanished from woodlands across the UK. A 30-year survey of British woodland birds has found that its population has fallen by more than 95%. Seventeen other bird species have also declined significantly, many of which overwinter in tropical west Africa where their habitat is being destroyed.

Big brother untangles baby babble

So, Professor Roy, who by then had a child on the way, set about solving the conundrum. His solution: wire up his house with 11 cameras, 14 microphones and terabytes of storage and record every waking moment of his soon-to-arrive son.

Why salamanders are never out on a limb

What they found was that regeneration comes not through pluripotent cells, as thought, but through cells that keep a “memory” of their tissue origin.

Ant mega-colony takes over world

Argentine ants living in vast numbers across Europe, the US and Japan belong to the same interrelated colony, and will refuse to fight one another. The colony may be the largest of its type ever known for any insect species, and could rival humans in the scale of its world domination.

Vegetarians ‘avoid more cancers’

But the apparently protective effect of vegetarian did not seem to stretch to bowel cancer, a major killer.

Swine flu parties ‘a bad idea’

Throwing “swine flu parties” in an attempt to get immunity against the virus while it is a fairly mild form is not a good idea, doctors say.