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Poo transplants to treat range of diseases
Other people’s faeces is something we instinctively avoid, but the emerging science of the human microbiome suggests this gut reaction is wrong.
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Playing with genes
Some people play sport, others play Xbox. And now there is a growing group of people who play with DNA sequences.
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Seawater key to early evolution
Evolutionary biologists have often pondered why life suddenly exploded into different forms 543 million years ago. Now, it seems seawater held the missing ingredient.
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Bee navigation aids robot aircraft
A scientist’s passion for bees and their remarkable flying skills is opening up undreamed-of possibilities in human transportation and travel.
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Bred to win
Hard work and training push elite athletes to the edge of their ability, but genetics also plays a key role in their ultimate performance, explains Becky McCall.
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The science of a catastrophe
No one thing sent Titanic to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Rather the ship was ensnared by what engineers term an 'Event Cascade'.
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Malaria's last stand
Promising results from the world's biggest malaria trial could transform the landscape of infection for this devastating disease.
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The big sell
Just what drives us to consume can be explained in the nuances of our brain and the way in which we evolved.
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Rock art: the story of us
Our ancient ancestors left a global legacy of rock art that has the capacity to both inform and mystify archaeologists and anthropologists. Advances in neuroscience and medical imaging are helping to explain why these creations look the way they do.
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Viewing Vesta
Even before NASA's Dawn spacecraft eased into orbit around Vesta last year, it didn't take a genius to know space scientists were about to see something unusual.
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Megafauna hunters changed Australian bush
Hunting Australia's megafauna to extinction may have triggered a knock-on effect that transformed our forests into dry, scrubby bush, new research suggests.
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Atom smashers
When powerful particle beams stopped circling the Tevatron last year, the U.S. monster had smashed more than a quadrillion particles together. But the mega machine may yet have the last word in physics.
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Interview with Brian Schmidt
A recent report commissioned by Australia’s Chief Scientist has found some concerning trends in science enrolments. Jude Dineley gets Nobel Laureate Brian Schmidt's take on the issue.
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A fresher mind
Understanding how the brain ages may hold clues to keeping our minds sharp and spry for longer.
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Made to order
Technology is marching towards a new world where artificial body parts make us fitter, healthier and longer living. Are we facing a future where we'll see our great, great grandchildren grow up?
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Miracle Pill
Doors are opening into a brave new future where drugs that mimic kilojoule-starved diets can offer us longer lives and fewer age-related diseases - without the hardship.
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How will the world end?
Despite the conspiracy theory and the movie, the end of the Mayan calendar system in 2012 does not spell apocalypse for humanity. But there are risks to our continued existence on Earth. Here's what to look out for.
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World's most bizarre mating rituals
Spanning cannibalism and partner swapping to hermaphroditism and parasitic insemination, sex in the animal world can give even the most broad-minded human pause to think.
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Queens of the jungle
If humans engage in homosexuality, it's no surprise that other animals do too. But how do you explain the rejection of sexual reproduction in terms of Darwin's theory of evolution?
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The day the Dead Sea died
Scientists drilling into the bed of the Dead Sea have found records of an ancient mega-drought, plus tantalising indicators of Biblical chronologies.
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Where the wild berries grow
The wild berries of Alaska may safeguard both the health and economic future of native communities, but only if rising temperatures don't interfere first.
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Time piece
The battle to keep precise time is a frontier encounter between quantum physics and technological know-how.
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Beyond the Solar System
NASA's IBEX spacecraft has directly sampled multiple heavy elements from the Local Interstellar Cloud for the first time, giving us a glimpse of the material that lies outside our Solar System.
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Shaky ground
Scientists who failed to warn citizens of a major earthquake have been charged with manslaughter, igniting debate and raising the question - will we have any warning before future big earthquakes hit?
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A mammoth rundown
Mammoths are one of the largest known mammal species to ever inhabit the Earth, and have been found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. Here's an overview of all the species that have so far been discovered.
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