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Many soldiers carry the psychological weight of taking another life — but is killing always an unbearable burden, or can some soldiers rationalise it and find ways to cope? A study of more than 14,600 Norwegian Armed Forces veterans suggests that killing in combat is not always detrimental to a soldier’s mental health. Context appears […]

Researchers have made significant headway towards determining the genetic risk factors driving spina bifida, a birth defect which can cause severe disability. The findings of a Nature study open new avenues to diagnose, treat, and potentially even prevent the condition, which effects roughly 1 in every 3,000-10,000 births. “Our research identifies specific steps in embryogenesis […]

The Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption of January 2022 was expected to warm the planet, as hundreds of millions of tonnes of water vapour was injected into the atmosphere. But it didn’t according to US researchers. Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is a submarine volcano, with a vent 200m below the ocean’s surface. It sits 20o south of […]

Australia is seeing a resurgence in geothermal energy, but not for power generation. Our rocks are too deep, too cool, and too far from power grids, and earlier attempts have all ended in failure. So what’s booming? Direct use of the county’s cooler geothermal water. That, says Professor Graeme Beardsmore of Melbourne University, should be […]

Similarities between the Bronze Age cultures of Denmark and Norway suggest people were making the journey from one place to the other. How did these ancient people cross the sea? A new computer model described in the journal PLOS One has been used to help archaeologists better understand the seafaring abilities of these seafarers Scandinavia. […]

More than 100 dinosaur tracks left behind in modern-day Scotland about 167 million years ago reveal a tantalising glimpse of life during the Middle Jurassic. Palaeontologists have identified up to 131 footprints in rocks on the Isle of Skye, the largest and northern-most island in the Inner Hebrides archipelago of Scotland’s west coast. The tracks […]

Australia is into autumn but don’t be surprised if the residents of Perth on the west coast haven’t noticed. The city of more than 2.1m people is baking through a prolonged heatwave – a stretch of extremely hot weather the likes of which hasn’t been seen this late in the season for 40 years. Australia consistently […]

Palaeontologists have found evidence that dozens of alligator-sized amphibians died together about 230 million years ago. It’s unclear whether such a die-off was common, or if something more sinister was behind the creatures’ demise. The animals lived during the Triassic period which lasted from 252 to 201 million years ago. The Triassic is the first […]

Australian researchers have discovered that giving infants antibiotics in the first few weeks of life weakens their immune response to vaccines, possibly because of changes to certain bacteria in the gut microbiome. Experiments in mice also revealed it was possible to restore vaccine immune response by administering Bifidobacterium species or Infloran, a probiotic already proven […]

A new study suggests that Earth’s first crust formed continents and plate tectonics earlier than previously thought, with potential ramifications for theories about when life on the blue planet first evolved. The research is published in Nature. “This discovery has major implications for how we think about Earth’s earliest history,” says study lead Simon Turner, […]

In 2023, the World Health Organization declared loneliness and social isolation as a pressing health threat. This crisis is driving millions to seek companionship from artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. Companies have seized this highly profitable market, designing AI companions to simulate empathy and human connection. Emerging research shows this technology can help combat loneliness. But […]

Rechargeable batteries are an essential part of modern life and play a major role in decarbonisation. Now, 2 studies provide important new insights in the search for ways improve them. In one study in the journal Advanced Energy Materials, chemical engineers in Korea explain a previously overlooked mechanism through which lithium-ion batteries degrade. They say […]

CERN has responded in new reports to suggestions that its proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) is not technologically feasible, suggesting that the project’s aims to delve further into the mysteries of the universe are attainable. CERN operates the largest machine on Earth – the 27-kilometre, ring-shaped Large Hadron Collider (LHC),  the particle accelerator used to […]

The discovery of a stone tool production technique never before seen in East Asia has revealed that ancient people in the region experienced more cultural change than previously believed. Middle Palaeolithic finds in other parts of the world point to key developments in ancient human technology and behaviour. The Middle Palaeolithic is the second subdivision […]

On Thursday 27 March, the European Space Agency (ESA) sent its last messages to the Gaia Spacecraft. They told Gaia to shut down its communication systems and central computer and said goodbye to this amazing space telescope. Gaia has been the most successful ESA space mission ever, so why did they turn Gaia off? What […]

Neuroscientists in the US have created a device capable of decoding brain activity and translating it into speech so quickly, it almost enables a person who cannot speak to hold conversations. They’ve tested the device in clinical trial of a 47-year-old woman with quadriplegia who lost the ability to speak after a stroke almost two […]

A review of research into the fossil fuel industry has led an interdisciplinary group of scientists to warn that the environment, future liveability and people’s health are at risk if urgent action is not taken to stop carbon emissions. The US-focused review has just been published in the peer-reviewed journal Oxford Open Climate Change. The […]

Shark loss can have major effects on their ecosystems say researchers studying great white sharks in  South Africa and reefs in northern Australia. “The removal of a top predator leads to cascading effects on the marine food web” says Dr Neil Hammerschlag of the Shark Research foundation. Hammerchlag, then at the University of Miami, Florida, […]

On March 26 NSW Health issued an alert advising people to be vigilant for signs of measles after an infectious person visited Sydney Airport and two locations in western New South Wales. The person recently returned from Southeast Asia where there are active measles outbreaks in several countries including Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. The NSW […]

Concussion during childhood – even mild trauma – can jeopardise future educational success, according to a study conducted at Tampere University in Finland. “A mild, single concussion is often considered a relatively harmless event, but our research suggests that it can have long-term effects on learning and cognitive abilities,” says Julius Möttönen, Doctoral researcher and neurology […]

Seabed mining companies want to harvest polymetallic nodules from the deep ocean floor to access critical metals like copper, cobalt and nickel for the green revolution. But how will mined sites recover? Researchers lead by the U.K.’s National Oceanography Centre, have re-explored a 5000m deep test-mine from 1979 to shed light on this question.  The […]

A new copper-tantalum-lithium alloy has been shown to remain incredibly strong even at high temperatures, making it one of the most resilient copper-based materials ever created. The material’s “exceptional thermal stability and high-temperature mechanical properties” will have applications for aerospace, defence and industrial applications. It is described in a paper in the journal Science. Martin Harmer, […]

The use of information technology (IT) has significant environmental and social impacts, including human mortality from climate change. One striking example is the carbon emissions and impacts associated with digital communication. To quantify the human cost of carbon-emitting technology, researchers use the 1,000-ton rule that estimates that for every 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide released […]

Australians were outraged this month when an Instagram “influencer” named Sam Jones picked up a wild wombat joey and separated it from its mother. A video of the action went viral. Jones left the country, leaving behind comments from many people who felt her behaviour was unacceptable. She later explained her actions, and apologised. Associate […]