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Genetic analysis has revealed why New Zealand’s native flightless parrot, kākāpō, are just as likely to have green- or olive-coloured feathers. Kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus) is a nocturnal bird which experienced severe population decline after the arrival in New Zealand of Europeans who brought with them new predators. By 1995, just 51 birds remained. Conservation efforts have […]

A new study has added to the growing evidence that long-term vaping is harmful to health, finding that young people who vape perform worse than others in tests measuring their capacity for exercise. Although the study only involved 60 people, it found vapers’  exercise performance was similar to that of young smokers. The research was […]

For prey, entering the stomach of a predator is usually the end of the road. But, in a world first, a research team from Japan has used X-ray videography to show how Japanese eels escape after being swallowed. Unlike land-based predators that bite or tear at prey, many predatory fish feed by sucking smaller prey […]

NASA’s beleaguered Europa Clipper spacecraft passed its final technical review today, and is now ready for launch toward Jupiter as soon as its launch window opens next month. “We are ready for Jupiter,” Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said today in a teleconference. “Now that […]

Unstable workforces plague healthcare in remote areas. Aboriginal communities are particularly vulnerable to the revolving door of healthcare staff. But according to researchers, training local Aboriginal practitioners is one of the most effective ways to stabilise the workforce – and in the Northern Territory (NT), a new venture is underway to do more. A recent […]

Dramatic changes in temperature and rainfall are coming for up to 70% of the world’s population in the next 20 years because of high greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study. A report, published in Nature Geoscience, finds that dramatic cuts to emissions would drop this figure to 20%. The Norwegian and UK team […]

Surgeons in the US who last year carried out world’s first successful whole eye and partial face transplant say a year on the eye has survived and even shows indications of retinal response to light stimuli. Dr. Eduardo D. Rodriguez, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon at New York University Langone Health, says that while the […]

Researchers have developed an X-ray scan (of a sort) for flow batteries that will make them more efficient. The international team of scientists has published the technique in Nature Communications. Flow batteries use liquid electrolytes and are safer and longer-lasting than lithium-ion batteries, and could be particularly useful for grid storage. “To date, the system […]

The current AFL season has been plagued by headlines about the dangers of concussions, with 6 players announcing their early retirement due to excessive head knocks.  Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), along with long-term cognitive decline, is commonly recognised as one of the most serious and dangerous consequences of repetitive sports concussions.  But a new study […]

Medical clowns are known to have a positive therapeutic impact on kids in hospitals for a range of health issues, and now it’s been shown they can reduce the length of stay and antibiotic use for children with pneumonia. A study, done on 51 children, found that those visited by medical clowns on average left […]

Fruit flies on treadmills are giving scientists insights into how insects walk in ways that previous, more invasive techniques could not. Researchers want to understand how insects’ nervous systems respond to rapid changes underfoot. All animals must navigate potential hazards and changes in terrain, otherwise injury from falls would be likely (send this to your […]

The surprising discovery of a bacterium in a marine sponge from the Great Barrier Reef with striking similarity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen responsible for tuberculosis (TB), could unlock and inform future TB research and treatment strategies.  TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, yet the origins of M. tuberculosis are still not fully understood.  […]

The shroud of gas around another galaxy has been photographed and analysed pixel by pixel for the first time. It shows that galaxies are much bigger than we thought and that the Milky Way is already interacting with our nearest galactic neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy. Researchers have published in Nature Astronomy their analysis of an […]

Unlike today, the Moon was once volcanically active. But exactly how long this period of volcanism persisted remains unclear. New analysis of lunar samples returned by the Chang’e-5 mission by the China National Space Administration suggest volcanic eruptions were occurring on the Moon as little as about 120 million years ago. The new findings, published […]

New research reveals a dire need to protect and preserve not only islands’ biodiversity, but their cultural and linguistic diversity too. Lindell Bromham, an evolutionary biologist from the Australian National University, has been working with linguists for a decade to understand why, when you plot both language diversity and biodiversity on a map, they tend […]

In fascinating research, which might change our understanding of the moon, scientists in the US have estimated a new timespan for when the Moon’s magnetic field could have existed, if it ever did. The analysis of lunar rocks collected from the Apollo missions suggests that, if a magnetic field did once exist on the Moon, […]

Pterosaurs were the largest creatures to ever take flight. How they did so has long been subject to debate. Research on new fossils from the Arabian Peninsula provides fresh answers. During the “Age of Dinosaurs”, large reptiles called pterosaurs soared through the skies. These animals were wiped out 66 million years ago when an asteroid […]

Clinicians can’t spy the blood vessels, muscle, and organs that lie beneath the skin with the naked eye when treating their patients. But researchers may have just found a way to make it possible one day. US scientists have turned living tissues transparent with the use of a common food dye found in the humble […]

Andrea Morello is Scientia Professor of Quantum Engineering at UNSW and a Program Manager in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology and a 2024 Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow. He believes quantum computing is at a fork in the road. “To build a quantum computer, you still need to […]

Last year, the Victorian Government released more than  1.1 million recognised environmental pests into dams, lakes and reservoirs. These pests are brown and rainbow trout, popular among recreational fishers but seriously threatening to Australian native species. This year, the Government plans to release some 1.2 million more. Millions of dollars are given to the Victorian […]

The Australian Government has proposed 10 mandatory “guardrails” for high-risk AI development and use, with plans to regulate them in the works. The government, which appointed an expert group to develop the guardrails, is now taking submissions on how they might be regulated. The 10 guardrails include establishing and publishing accountability processes, appropriate governance for […]

Some of New Zealand’s most iconic species may actually have relatively recently trekked over from Australia according a more than 2-decades-long palaeontological study. Zealandia’s true ancients Researchers have found that the truly ancient species of New Zealand are animals like the kākāpō, small wrens, bats and freshwater limpets. These lineages have been present since the […]

NASA’s New Horizons Kuiper Belt search has revealed a population of objects in the outer solar system which suggest the solar system formed from a much larger protostellar disc than originally thought. The Kuiper Belt is a region beyond Neptune populated by ancient remains of planetary building blocks. It was first discovered in the 1990s. […]

From genetically engineered plants to the world’s first method to catalogue and describe all ecosystems on Earth, the winners of the 2024 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes were announced in Sydney last night. The 19 individuals and teams were recognised for their excellence across the categories of research and innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science, […]