A body in an Italian museum reveals that Egyptians living 1,500 or more years before the Pharaohs already knew how to preserve bodies.
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Analysis and Comment
The planets we can see in the sky were known to the ancient Greeks as 'wandering stars'. But they appeared much earlier in the stories and traditions of Australia's Indigenous people.
The broad and ill-defined new powers outlined in the government's new telecommunications bill are neither necessary nor proportionate – and contain significant scope for abuse.
In May-August each year, giant Australian cuttlefish gather and mate over a narrow stretch of rocky coastline in South Australia. At their peak you see literally one cuttlefish per square metre.
The succession of data access legislation in the Australian parliament is fast becoming a Mad Hatter's tea party. We need better oversight, and fast.
The Meg has all the typical monster movie cliches including some terrifically bad dialogue. But what about the science?
Educators and technologists must work together to design better education apps – particularly those used without a teacher present.
Research has shown that large social platforms like Facebook can reinforce problematic social hierarchies and prejudices around gender, sexuality and race.
Bees and wasps can recognise people's faces – despite having less than one million brain cells, compared to 86,000 million brain cells that make up a human brain.
Research and News
If you already write for The Conversation, thank you! But less than 30% of story pitches to our Science and Technology section come from women.
The Parker probe will go closer to the sun than any other spacecraft has dared go before – literally touching it.
My favourite gem
Zirconia is a mineral with a crystal structure made from the elements zirconium and oxygen. It looks pretty like diamond, but is only worth a fraction of the value.
Sapphires and rubies are both crystals of the mineral corundum - but with different impurities to create blue and red hues. Australian sapphires are renowned for being inky blue.
When DNA talks
We're at the point in DNA technology where individuals who – having parted with $99 and a small vial of saliva – may suddenly find themselves in a criminal investigation.
Our ability to reconstruct physical features from DNA is advancing, but can we ensure the privacy of "anonymised" genetic data if we can predict the face of its owner?
Ancestry and identity are not the same thing. A scientist tells the story of what happened when he sent his DNA to an ancestry company.
From around the world
Once associated with mind-control experiments and counter-cultural defiance, psychedelics now show great promise for mental health treatments and may prompt a re-evaluation of the scientific method.
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My Health Record is a step towards empowering patients with greater knowledge about their health – and could help save lives in emergencies.
Opt out
Unless you take action to remove yourself before October 15, the federal government will make a digital copy of your medical record, store it centrally, and give numerous people access to it.
Printed guns
A US gun rights advocate has won the right to publish instructions on the web for 3D printing firearms. In an era where anyone can access a 3D printer, is this the end of gun control?
Red sunsets
The "red sky" proverb has endured across cultures for centuries, and modern science can explain why this is so.
Mungo Lady
It's been half a century since Jim Bowler discovered Mungo Lady which changed the course of Australian history. But now he says the find has fallen off the national radar, leaving a legacy of shame.
Volcano risk
Important points about volcanoes: location matters, explosiveness can be predicted to an extent, and fast-moving flows of volcanic materials (known as pyroclastic flows) are deadly.
Space Force
The Outer Space Treaty has guided global exploration and use of outer space since 1967. Trump's 'Space Force' may not be a good fit.
Huawei
Australia's willingness to include Huawei and ZTE in its 5G mobile infrastructure should be based on a rational analysis of risks. We take a look at current and past court cases brought against them.
The Earth spins
To answer this tricky question, we have to look back in time to when the Earth was born, 4.5 billion years ago.
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- Why we’re watching the giant Australian cuttlefish
- Are they watching you? The tiny brains of bees and wasps can recognise faces
- The Meg! When the (giant prehistoric) shark bites, the science bites back
- Two types of tectonic plate activity create earthquake and tsunami risk on Lombok
- Australians left to monitor their own NBN broadband speeds
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