Although yellow fever does not currently exist in Australia, the species Aedes aegypti - which can transmit the disease - is found widely across northern Queensland. The virus remains a global health concern, but citizen scientists could help prevent its spread.
Simon Kutcher/flickr
Nuisance-biting and mosquito-borne disease are ongoing concerns for health authorities. But an effective citizen science program is now showing how all of us can help beat the bite of mozzies.
Analysis and Comment
Anomalies in nuclear physics experiments may show signs of a new force.
Shutterstock
As machine automation and artificial intelligence surge, there's paranoia our jobs will be overrun by robots. But even if this happens, work won't disappear, because humans need it.
A number of things may have gone wrong when researchers edited Chinese twins Lulu and Nana's genome. Either way, the failed experiment is a cautionary tale for us all.
Free space optical communication will allow the same connectivity in space we already have on Earth. And this will provide benefits across a number of sectors.
Emerging evidence suggests that prolonged stress exposure can accelerate the ticking rate of an internal cellular clock. By doing so, stress can contribute to faster ageing and body deterioration.
While the data from a fingerprint is very hard to retrieve, cybercriminals can get around biometric technology in various ways. And having a weak passcode is like giving them a hall pass.
The Minister for Government Services has announced a two-year roadmap to supposedly propel e-government. But the plans, part of a larger strategy, are considerably lacking substance.
From dementia to depression to drug addiction, artificial brain stimulation has been hailed as a landmark medical technology for the future. But safeguards are needed if we want the benefits without the risks.
In 1999, ahead of World Trade Organisation protests, a group of Australian activists created the first open internet publishing platform. This technology is the basis of the internet we know today.
The father of the web wants to address issues including malicious content circulation, misinformation, and the polarisation of online debate. But the methods he is proposing aren't great.
Most of us are probably having our data tracked in some form. And while there are regulatory safeguards in place to protect user privacy, it's hard to say whether these are enough.
Genetic apps claim to reveal fundamental insights about your health, well-being, and even intellect. But it's not just spurious science - believing these traits are genetic can have harmful consequences.
Elon Musk's latest venture has been met with confusion and ridicule. But drawing inspiration from science fiction for new technology should go beyond simplistic futurist fantasies.
We undertook a 28-day voyage to explore a possible lost continent in a remote part of the Coral Sea, in an area off the coast of Queensland. Here's what we found.
Defamation law reform is on the horizon. Social media companies may be held more liable for what they publish. But this could come at the expense of everyday users.
Twitter's proposed policy would result in the prolific spread of fabricated, but highly realistic images and videos. This could allow widespread misinformation on the platform.
We analysed eight years of Reddit posts from conspiracy theorists. Our findings have helped debunk some common myths about this somewhat alienated group of people.
Do you ever find you suddenly need to turn off the radio so you can concentrate on what you're doing? It's because you only have a finite amount of attention, for particular types of tasks at least.
Virtual Reality is failing to live up to the hype - but why? One problem is a lack of imagination. In a world of limitless possibilities, there's no need to test-drive a virtual family sedan.
Banning offshore gambling sites sounds sensible enough, and the federal government is planning to do this. But to what extent are these sites really ripping off Australian gamblers?
The convergence of technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and virtual reality may offer hope for the way we manage future bushfire disasters.
An estimated 1.75 million ibises were deposited at a single location in ancient Egypt. But the birds disappeared entirely from the region around 1850, and no one knows why.
Service outages, network congestion and infrastructure at risk of being destroyed by fire are some of the issues worsening an already devastating situation.
A US judge has allowed police access to the major DNA database without users' consent (including Australian users). It's a timely reminder that we urgently need genetic privacy legislation.
Large, intense bushfires can pump so much heat into the atmosphere they form their own thunderstorm system. And that can make the weather on the ground even more dangerously unpredictable.
A recent leakware attack targeting Johannesburg was the second of its kind ever recorded. Hackers demanded A$52,663 worth of bitcoins, in return for not releasing senstivie civilian information.
Past upgrades to the state's medical record system have cost tremendous amounts of money, and on at least one occasion, forced clinicians to revert to paper-based methods.
Robots are becoming more common in our lives. And while they may not have "feelings", perhaps the way we treat them reflects more on our character than we previously thought.
Qantas has faced calls to ground its entire fleet of Boeing 737s after cracks were found in three aircraft. But the incident is a threat to airlines' reputations rather than a real risk to passengers.
Nearly all your devices run on lithium batteries. Here’s a Nobel Prizewinner on his part in their invention – and their future.
The Conversation41.5 MB(download)
M. Stanley Whittingham was one of three scientists who won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing lithium-ion batteries – used to power mobile phones, laptops and electric cars.
Research shows we're pretty gullible as it is. And our increasing reliance on machines for completing everyday tasks makes us all-the-more vulnerable to being exploited.
StarCraft II is the latest complex game to be conquered by artificial intelligence. But if robots now reign supreme at virtual war, where does that leave us when it comes to real conflict?
Ensuring a building will be safe against fire requires careful consideration from not only fire engineers, but also from builders, architects and building owners.
The new payphones have Wi-Fi, mobile charging and transport information. But city councils are concerned they're digital billboards for Telstra, which could cost billions in lost productivity.
The 'contexual-binding theory' suggests memories are easier to retrieve when your brain is in a similar context to when the memory was first formed. Food for thought if you're cramming for an exam.
Genetic analysis has traced the evolutionary footsteps of modern humans all the way back to a prehistoric wetland that spanned parts of modern-day Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The New Zealand robin has learnt to hide left-over food for later consumption, and it turns out that male birds with the best spatial memory have the greatest breeding success.
Researchers rarely collect information that lets them to compare their results with what was believed beforehand. If they did, it could help spot new or important findings more readily.
Despite its huge complexity, your brain directs its neural traffic in relatively straightforward ways when approaching cognitively demanding tasks such as puzzles.
A major cyber attack on a data lake could have immense consequences for any of us. And the damage could be felt anywhere from banking to the healthcare sector.
Manufacturing minerals is an expanding field of study. Making more of them could help alleviate various pressures faced by our growing population. But how are they made, and where can they be used?
Mark Zuckerberg may try to minimise their concerns, but Facebook moderators and other online workers are beginning to organise for their own protection.
We have not been able to develop an intelligence workforce that can keep up with the speed of advancing technologies and their threat to our national security.
Pope Francis continues to champion the importance of science in our world. Having the head of the Catholic Church support various scientific movements is a win for us all.
Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge is bidding to break the mythical 2-hour barrier in Vienna this week. Analysis of previous world records suggest he needs to find an extra 15 second from somwhere.
Oxygen is vital for life, so much so that cells can sense when there isn't enough and adapt almost instantly. So how do they do it? The winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physiology figured it out.
The periodic table is one of the classic images of science that is found in labs as well as on t-shirts, mugs, even set to music. But what exactly is the periodic table?
How do you return Aboriginal remains to their place of origin when you have no record of where they came from? Look to a chemical element that's laid down in teeth as people grow up.
Many other key arrangements have been tried. Some are claimed to be easier to learn or faster to use than QWERTY. But none has proved good enough to beat QWERTY.
Flickr/Jeff Eaton
When a sound is made, it spreads. And when it hits a hard surface that is far away, it bounces back and comes back to where the sound was made. That's what we call an echo.
Shooting stars are not stars at all. They are tiny space adventurers who accidentally wander into our sky and get sucked toward us by Earth's gravity. Here's the story of a shooting star's journey.
We can't make it rain. But you are already helping if you don't use more water than you need. And you can talk to your parents about the planet getting warmer, because the heat makes drought worse.
As a police officer, I was involved in many pursuits, investigated serious accidents and later became a researcher. Here's what I've learned about how police make decisions in a pursuit.
As gas from your stomach comes up your food pipe, it makes the surface of the upper part of your oesophagus rattle and vibrate. It is a bit like windows that rattle during a windy storm.
Animals that evolved in cold parts of the world usually have lighter skin. If a light-skinned animal has blood vessels close to the surface of their ear skin, this will make the ears look pink.
Volcanologists study the formation and eruptions of volcanoes - surely one of the most interesting jobs around. However, it can also be very dangerous.
X-rays are like light rays, but they can pass through more stuff. Some of the x-ray's energy is blocked by bone, which is why you can see bones so clearly on x-ray scans.
Ferns came along more than 200 million years before the dinosaurs walked the Earth. They were food for plant-eating dinosaurs and they're really great survivors. Heather, age 8, wants to know more.
In the future we might get sick of hearing people tell their stories about going to the Moon. Perhaps the Moon will just be like thinking about today's Antarctica – a remote but accessible place.
The first episode of a brand new podcast series to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landings looks back at what going to the moon taught us and why we stopped sending people there.
Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle is put to the test to see if things really are uncertain in the quantum world.
It’s been reported that names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, personal email addresses and emergency contact details, tax file numbers, payroll information, bank account details, passport details and student academic records were accessed.
www.shutterstock.com
The first 60 satellites from Elon Musk's planned low orbit internet network have lit up the skies. But with more planned, astronomers say the satellites could ruin their work.
A bathymetric map showing SS Iron Crown on the sea floor.
CSIRO
Finding the wreck of SS Iron Crown, lost underwater for more than 70 years, was the (relatively) easy part. It's what we can learn from now on that's the challenge.
The spectacular layers of blue haze in Pluto’s atmosphere, captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the way we live, work, communicate and travel. So long as it's designed that way.
People with poor broadband services spend more time in queues at the bank and for other services that should easily be accessible online.
from www.shutterstock.com
Labor’s 2019 NBN election policy will disappoint those hoping for a fast-tracked return to that party's 2009 vision of high-speed fibre for (almost) everyone.
The first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the centre of galaxy Messier 87 and its shadow.
EHT Collaboration
Astronomers say they have "seen what we thought was unseeable" in releasing the first image of a supermassive black hole. So how did we get to this historic observation?
Jockey Hugh Bowman rides Winx for an exhibition gallop at the Royal Randwick Racecourse, in Sydney, earlier this month.
AAP Image/Joel Carrett
The Conversation relies on sector, government and reader support. If you would like to help us have even better conversations, then you may like to make a one-off or on-going donation.