Laura Boness
Preschool students learn from observing their peers. Image: Kiselev Andrey Valerevich/Shutterstock

Preschoolers think like scientists

Child’s play is very similar to scientific experiments.

Astronomers have assembled a new portrait of the stars. Image: NASA, ESA, G. Illingworth, D. Magee, and P. Oesch (University of California, Santa Cruz), R. Bouwens (Leiden University), and the HUDF09 Team

Hubble looks deep into the Universe

We can now see further into the skies than ever before.

PhD student Anirudh Sharma with his new solar cells. Image: Ashton Claridge, Flinders University

Plastic and print power

Plastic solar cells could pave the way for a clean energy industry.

Not all sperm are able to successfully fertilise an egg. Image: Lukiyanova Natalia / frenta/Shutterstock

Protein could give IVF couples hope

One protein is critical for the beginning of life.

A mutation in Taqpep converts a mackerel tabby pattern (upper) to a blotched tabby pattern (lower). Image courtesy of Helmi Flick

How the cheetah gets its spots

There may be a big difference in size, but cheetahs and tabby cats have things in common.

By understanding the changes in the human brain, scientists may be able to develop a cure for epilepsy. Image: LANBO

Scientists find trigger for epileptic seizures

This could be a step towards curing temporal lobe epilepsy.

A shoe nail between the gateway paving stones. Photo/©: Sabine Hornung, Arno Braun

Ancient Roman fortification discovered in Germany

It wasn’t only Asterix who resisted the Roman conquest of Gaul.

Image: Reaktion Books

Book review: Frog, by Charlotte Sleigh

As a famous frog once said, it’s not easy being green.

Some of the blueberries spotted by Opportunity, 200 metres north of Victoria Crater. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/U.S. Geological Survey

“Blueberries” could be key to Martian life

It’s unlikely that anything still lives on Mars today, but anything that was around millions or even billions of years ago might have left a few traces behind.

A storm is brewing in Mali, presumably over dry soils. Image: F. Guichard & L. Kergoat, AMMA project, CNRS copyright

How accurate are the weather models that predict thunderstorms?

The forecast is sunny, but there’s a slight chance of chaos.

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