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.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
A recent experiment with atomic nuclei is hard to square with our current understanding of physics.
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 determined approach to improving diversity will also lead to better science.
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.
Sometimes the only way to tell the difference between a baby dinosaur and a grown-up one is to find fossils of them both together.
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.
The humanities can supply wisdom to guide our galloping technological progress.
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.
A drying climate and the arrival of people together finished off Australia's megafauna.
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.
It's not always easy to work out where Aboriginal remains came from, but science can help.
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.
Bigger penalties for pirating plants could help encourage growers to develop new varieties.
Astronomers using a new technique to hunt black holes found one 70 times as heavy as the Sun
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.
Weather radar archives hold decades of data about the movements of birds and other flying animals.
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.
Water and sap inside the wood make mini explosions as they turn into gas and burst out. That's why damp wood makes the noisiest fires.
It's now possible to choose embryos for IVF based on the likelihood they will have certain traits.
Mysterious cosmic flashes known as gamma-ray bursts are caused by the death throes of massive stars.
Synthetic biology lets us explore places where evolution has never gone, to help meet humanity's food needs in a future shaped by climate change.
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?
Decisions about research funding -- and how those decisions are announced -- should not be political and should follow a set schedule.
There's really no reason you can't use binoculars to look into space – and in fact astronomers have been working on doing so for a long time.
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.
Odd findings in a brain scan of a 29-year-old woman have scientists asking new questions about how our sense of smell really works.
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.
Solar cells make electricity directly from sunlight, but how do they do it?
The order requires Facebook, Twitter and Google to remove certain content globally, based on it being defamatory under India's local law.
Trials of the program found about 5% of offending drivers used their mobile phone with both hands, while the vehicle was moving.
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?
Algorithms can amplify toxic content, but the problems start in human communities.
Ensuring a building will be safe against fire requires careful consideration from not only fire engineers, but also from builders, architects and building owners.
Animals that pause their pregnancies could help us learn valuable lesson about human pregnancy, and even unlock secrets to stem cells and cancer.
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.
Climate is the most important driver of the colour and brightness of birds' eggs.
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.
Sometimes our brain gets confused and misunderstands what the eyes tell it.
Algorithm-based apps can recommend clothes based on what other people have worn, but they have a long way to go before they understand fashion.
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.
Race horses should be bred for both speed and durability so owners have an incentive to keep them racing fit and away from the abattoirs.
Awards can make scientific careers, but too often award rules and application processes shut women out.
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?
Stars begin their life inside very large, fluffy clouds of space dust and gas called nebulae.
The prizes are among the country's most prestigious accolades for science-related achievements. This year marks their 20th anniversary.
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.
Research and News
Scientists who discovered planets in far off stellar systems and the fundamentals of the Big Bang Theory have earned the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.
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.
Year of the elements
For too long silver has been used to mark second best but this element deserves more recognition thanks to its antibacterial properties.
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?
Titanium is a tough but light metal that makes great replacements for bone in our body. But it has plenty of other uses in industry as well.
On its own it's just tin. But mix it with other elements and it turns into a material that helped shape the ancient world.
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.
Curious Kids
The earliest typewriters had the letter keys in alphabetical order. The trouble was that if you hit two keys quickly the levers would jam.
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.
When water turns from a gas into a liquid, it forms droplets. Whether those droplets are dew or rain depends on where the droplet forms.
Robots are not yet as good as humans at working with other humans or even working with other robots.
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.
There are three ways heat can be shared: conduction, convection and radiation. Find out which one lets heat travel through space.
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.
Scientists say humans are pretty similar to chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. So why don't we have fur like they do?
The students of class 3E, Ferny Grove State School, want to know if astronauts get space sick when travelling to the International Space Station.
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.
While we move soap around, it lifts up invisible oil that holds germs onto your hand.
50th anniversary of Moon landing
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.
CC BY-ND46.8 MB (download)
In episode 2 of The Conversation's new podcast series, we look at how people reacted to the moon landing – and why some still believe it was a hoax.
CC BY-NC42.5 MB (download)
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.
Tourism, mining and new settlements are possibilities for our Moon. But what rules and regulations should govern our behavior there?
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Evolution
The discovery of a perfectly preserved snake skull fossil answers many questions about the evolution of snakes from lizards.
Human evolution
New research models how the Homo floresiensis species could have evolved its small size remarkably quickly while living on an isolated island.
Eyes
Having different coloured eyes is quite unusual, but it happens in many species throughout the animal kingdom.
Patterns
Alan Turing's last published paper revealed the mathematics behind the beautiful patterns that adorn the natural world.
Uncertainty
Heisenberg's famous Uncertainty Principle is put to the test to see if things really are uncertain in the quantum world.
Uni hacked
The worst-case scenario is that hackers still have access to the university systems via a backdoor and are siphoning off critical data as it emerges.
So many sats
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.
Shipwrecked
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.
Poor Pluto
The dwarf planet Pluto is heading away from the Sun and that's having a devastating impact on its atmosphere.
Faking it
Archaeologists have uncovered a 2,000-year-old amber bead scam. But humans have been making fake jewels and icons for much longer than that.
Tassie devils
Tasmanian Devils can be incredibly aggressive during mating season and their biting can have fatal consequences.
AI and ethics
Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the way we live, work, communicate and travel. So long as it's designed that way.
Internet for all
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.
Black hole image
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?
Goodbye Winx
It's the last race for Winx this weekend and she's been an incredible race horse. But what makes a good race horse?
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