Ancient roos bounce back
Palaeontologists from Flinders University have described three unusual new species of giant fossil kangaroo. Over the last decade, a series of discoveries around Lake Callabonna in arid South Australia have yielded multiple complete…
Shared houses also share bacteria
People living together often share many things. One of them turns out to be bacteria, as one of the biggest ever studies into bacterial transfer reveals how your co-habitants can affect your health….
Reverse extinctions, Tasmanian tigers and smoky mice
The idea of bringing back extinct flora and fauna is not new, but the challenge is two-fold: first in sequencing a full genome from recovered DNA fragments, and then in taking stem cells…
All cats are psychopaths
Most people know that cats can be unpredictable. Now, scientists have developed a test which proves that cats have psychopathic characteristics. Cats have been loved, valued and even worshipped by people for thousands…
Aussie lungfish has largest animal genome known to science
Scientists are teasing out the secrets that place the Australian lungfish near a critical moment of evolution. A team of researchers at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna has sequenced…
Aussie Anne Abbott wins John Maddox Prize for ‘Standing up for Science’
While the main John Maddox Prize for 2020 goes to Anthony Fauci and Salim Abdool Karim for their communication of evidence during the Covid-19 pandemic, the judges have again this year chosen to…
Lorikeets rule as 4.6 million birds are counted in 7 days
The 2020 Aussie Backyard Bird Count achieves a record response for citizen-based science. Unprecedented numbers of people across Australia took part in BirdLife Australia’s popular 2020 Aussie Backyard Bird Count, which ran from…
Teaching humans to hibernate
The idea of making astronauts hibernate on long space missions often appears in science fiction, but now it is one step closer to reality. Scientists from the University of Tsukuba in Japan have…
Solar panels that sweat…
Engineers across the world are searching for way to improve the efficiency of solar panels. As new materials and designs are tested, any efficiency improvement – even a few percent – is announced…
Martian colonists could live in ancient volcanic lava tunnels
Scientists have discovered the safest place to build a permanent base on Mars: lava tunnels created by volcanoes that are now extinct. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a magnetic field that protects…
