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Researchers have figured out exactly how a beetle springs its wings open – and have used the mechanism to make a tiny flying robot. The Swiss and Korean team has published their findings in Nature. The rhinoceros beetle (Allomyrina dichotoma), like many flying creatures, can tuck its wings neatly into its body when it’s not […]

In 2012, physicists at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced the discovery of the Higgs boson, sometimes referred to as the “God particle”. The Higgs boson was the last piece of the puzzle in the Standard Model of Particle Physics which describes the known phenomena in the universe. The particle was first theorised in 1964 […]

If the art of knitting wasn’t mind-boggling enough, researchers have designed a prototype machine that can knit in 3 dimensions. They’ve called the new fabrication technique “solid knitting” and have the aim of one day producing a machine capable of knitting furniture. The technique works by building up knitted layer by knitted layer in a […]

For the first time, images and data directly been gathered showing exactly what happens when a shark collides with a boat. In fact, the researchers believe it is the first video of any large marine animal being struck by a boat. The information could help scientists learn more about the impact of vessel strikes on […]

UK and Polish scientists have identified a new microscopic wood structure which fits into neither the hardwood nor softwood category. The wood, which belongs to trees in the Liriodendron genus, could be a particularly powerful absorber of carbon dioxide. The study is published in New Phytologist. There are 2 living Liriodendron species: the tulip tree […]

Observations from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft, which successfully struck and redirected the asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022, have revealed new insights into the Didymos binary asteroid system. The findings, which include the estimated ages of the asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos (about 12.5 million years and less than 300 thousand […]

Ever had to take part in a work team-building exercise? Found the newspaper tower or human knot a little tiresome? Consider yourself lucky the exercise wasn’t stinging each other with nettles to test different remedies. That was the pursuit of a group of emergency department doctors at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. From the judicious […]

An oncoming geomagnetic storm predicted to hit Earth in the next 24 hours is expected to produce significant geomagnetic activity and potentially visible auroras in some parts of Australia tonight. “Since Saturday morning, both solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – eruptions of solar material out into space – have been observed,” says Bret […]

Painkillers, also known as analgesics, are medications designed to alleviate pain without causing a loss of consciousness. They work by interacting with the body’s nervous system to either block or alter the perception of pain. The effectiveness and potential for addiction vary significantly among different types of painkillers, which can be broadly categorized into non-opioid […]

An analysis of 8.2 million scientists’ digital records has revealed high levels of inequality, where a small group enjoys most of the academic output. The researchers, from German, Canadian and Spanish institutions, found that this stratification appears around the world and in every major scientific field. The study is published in Humanities and Social Sciences […]

Scientists researching innovative ways to control invasive snails have discovered some unexpected vampiric qualities – they’re enthralled by the colour red and repelled by garlic. The findings, published in a paper in Scientific Reports, could help lessen invasive snails’ cost to Australian grain growers. At the moment, snails cost the industry $170 million annually. The […]

US researchers have figured out an environmentally friendly way to mix fluorine into carbon molecules using enzymes and light. The discovery illuminates a path for safer and more ecologically sound materials, particularly pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals. “This work could pave the way for new, greener technologies in chemical production,” says senior researcher Professor Huimin Zhao, […]

Meet Asiatyrannus xui, the latest addition to the tyrannosaur family. A. xui was discovered in 2017 at the Nanxiong Formation near Ganzhou City in southeastern China. It lived about 69 million years ago, toward the end of the Cretaceous period (145 – 66 million years ago) only a few million years before the mass extinction […]

Southwest of Broome, on the northern West Australian coast, a narrow strip of pastoral land separates the Indian Ocean from the Great Sandy Desert. In a few years’ time, this thin band of country might become a passageway for cane toads to invade the sensitive Pilbara region. Or – if an ambitious plan succeeds – […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) JUICE mission is on its way back to Earth. But it won’t be staying long. JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) is about to do something no other spacecraft has done before. It’s about to attempt a “slingshot” manoeuvre as it plots its course to the largest planet in our solar […]

Hardware and software are the two elements that make any computing device functional. Hardware refers to physical components, such as the processor, hard drives, RAM and motherboard. These components are tangible and can be physically touched. Software refers to the set of instructions or programs that tell the hardware what to do. It includes operating […]

Artificial heart implanted in patient with end-stage heart failure The BiVACOR Total Artificial Heart (TAH), invented by Australian Dr Daniel Timms, has been successfully implanted in a human for the first time. The implantation occurred on 9 July as part of a US Food and Drug Administration Early Feasibility Study, which aims to evaluate the […]

A multidisciplinary team of researchers has leveraged a rich fossil record and cutting-edge computer modelling to recreate moa extinctions on Aotearoa New Zealand. Understanding their behaviour can provide contemporary scientists with tools to conserve present day flightless birds under pressure from habitat loss. Moas were a group of large flightless birds that went extinct 100-300 […]

A genetic study of nearly all living bird species has found that the first one to evolve likely had shiny, colourful, iridescent feathers. The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, also found, contrary to current belief, more cases of iridescence in birds outside the tropics. “For decades, scientists have had this hypothesis that there […]

A black hole represents one of the universe’s most enigmatic and powerful phenomena. New black holes are formed when massive stars exhaust their nuclear fuel and collapse under their own gravity. This process condenses a star’s mass into an incredibly small area, creating a point in space where the gravitational pull is so powerful that […]

NASA’s Fermi Telescope has revealed new details about the brightest of all time gamma-ray burst which may help explain these extreme and mysterious cosmic events. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) usually last less than a second. They originate from the dense remains of a dead giant star’s core, called a neutron star. But what causes neutron stars […]

The enigmatic question about possible life on Mars continues to baffle scientists, who earlier this month said the Red Planet was probably too cold for life to exist, but now they’ve found what they describe as “the first compelling detection of organic material,” on the plant. Now a leopard-spotted rock on Mars might hold the […]

The world has broken a record for hottest day set just 24 hours beforehand. According to the European Union’s climate monitoring program, the global average temperature was 17.16°C on 22 July. This beats the previous record of 17.09°C set on 21 July 2024, which had in turn beaten a record set in 2023. On 23 […]

Despite living just before the invention of the telescope, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe made huge contributions to European astronomy. He was also, like many scientists of his era, a very keen and secretive alchemist. His castle, called Uraniborg, was fitted with observatories in its towers and an alchemy laboratory in the basement. The building […]