A scientist based at the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, has prevented the world’s smallest waterlily from becoming extinct. Carlos Magdalena now plans to repopulate the plant in its native home in the hot springs of Rwanda. Read more here

Engineers from BP are scrambling to find a way to contain oil gushing from a well on the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico. BP has met problems with a containment box it tried to lower over the blown-out well in order to funnel the leaking oil to the surface. For more info read it here…

According to the BBC, the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award has been disqualified after judges ruled that the featured wolf was probably a “model”. The 2009 winning image, dubbed the storybook wolf, was taken by photographer Jose Luis Rodriguez. Mr Rodriguez strongly denied that the wolf was a trained animal, according to a statement from the organisers. His photograph was chosen out of more than 43,000 competition entries in October 2009. More from the BBCThe Competition is owned by BBC Wildlife Magazine & the Natural History Museum.

Heartbreaking & graphic, view them here