-
The mysterious saola: extinct or in hiding?
Twenty years after the official recognition of the horned mammal saola as a new species, conservationists are still in the dark about just how many of the secretive animals are still in existence in the highly biodiverse Annamite mountain forests bordering Vietnam and Laos.
read more
-
Australia's science funding 'set by teenagers'
Most of the Australian government’s research funding is dictated by university students' subject choices and this link needs to be broken, said Australia’s Chief Scientist Ian Chubb.
read more
-
Nanotech filters remove office fumes
A new air purifier using sunlight and nanoparticles has been created to clean up dangerous pollutants – called volatile organic compounds - in the air of our offices and homes.
read more
-
Awards fete chicken vaccines and solar cells
The world’s most efficient solar cells, a new vaccine against chicken cholera and recycling car tyres to make steel are among the five winning inventions at the inaugural Australian Collaborative Innovation Awards.
read more
-
Sugar can make you dumb
Eating too much sugar can eat away at your brainpower, according to US scientists who published a study showing how a steady diet of fructose sapped lab rats' memories.
read more
-
Turtles closely related to birds and crocs
The turtle is a closer relative of crocodiles and birds than of lizards and snakes, according to researchers who claim to have solved an age-old riddle in animal evolution.
read more
-
Balding disease killing Australia's wombats
A mystery liver disease thought to be caused by introduced weeds is causing hairy-nosed wombats in southern Australia to go bald and die, researchers said.
read more
-
Low-cost artificial leaf to help the world’s poorest
The first practical artificial leaf has been developed, and this new technology may help to deliver carbon-neutral energy to the world’s poor.
read more
-
Researchers develop self-powered retinal implants
U.S. researchers have developed self-powered retinal implants, with high resolution, designed to give vision to the blind, according to a study published in Nature Photonics.
read more
-
Economists list cheapest ways to save world
Leading economists have ranked how to most cost-effectively invest to solve many of the world's seemingly insurmountable problems, a Danish think-tank said, calling for a shift in global priorities.
read more
-
Blood test could predict postnatal depression
Women who have inherited specific genetic variants may be at increased risk for postnatal depression.
read more
-
Fake shake tests for earthquakes
Engineers have put a state-of-the-art building to the test, by shaking it at a range of frequencies to imitate a real earthquake.
read more
-
Ceratosaur discovered in Australia
Evidence of Australia’s newest predatory dinosaur has been uncovered.
read more
-
Nanoparticles found in our daily food
Researchers have found carbon nanoparticles in foods, including bread, cornflakes, biscuits and caramels.
read more
-
Role of mirror neurons exaggerated, says scientist
The debate surrounding the development of mirror neuron systems has been revived with an article countering the popular theory.
read more
-
Colourful birds quicker to evolve
Birds with multiple versions of their colour patterns evolved into new species more quickly than those with uniform plumage, Australian researchers revealed in a significant genetic study.
read more
-
Large sand dunes move on Mars
Martian dune systems are surprisingly active, overturning the view of Mars as a fairly static environment with very low erosion rates, US scientists said.
read more
-
Mini-mammoths lived on Crete
The smallest-ever mammoth roamed Crete up to 3.5 million years ago, measuring some four feet (just over a metre) at the shoulder, the size of a baby elephant today.
read more
-
Gassy dinos may have warmed the Earth
Giant dinosaurs that roamed the Earth millions of years ago may have warmed the planet with the gas they produced from eating leafy plants, British scientists said.
read more
-
Rock analysis suggests France cave art is 'oldest'
Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out confirms that they are.
read more
-
'Fiery rain' tells Solar System secrets
A German-Australian collaboration has measured the time it took for several meteorites to reach Earth, in a step towards pinning down timescales for the formation of asteroids and planetoids billions of years ago.
read more
-
Killer Canadian coelacanth discovered
Canadian scientists have discovered a fossilised ‘rebel’ coelacanth fish with an unusual body shape that suggests it was a fast-swimming predator.
read more
-
Australia once had 70kg, tree-dwelling, wombat-like marsupials
A collection of northern Australian fossils of large prehistoric tree-dwelling marsupials, seven times larger than modern koalas, is causing a frenzy of excitement within the palaeontology world.
read more
-
Black hole caught eating star
Scientists have witnessed the rare spectacle of a supermassive black hole devouring a star that had ventured too close - an event that occurs about once in 10,000 years.
read more
-
Universe lab measures neutrino mass
A study which used the universe as a giant particle physics experiment has produced the most sensitive measure of mass of the neutrino remnants of the Big Bang.
read more
