A challenge for university researchers is to make the best use of any funding on their projects and anything that can save money should be welcomed. University representatives are already asking the federal…
Think of your favourite piece of music. Do you get shivers when the music swells or the chorus kicks in? Or are the opening few bars enough to make you feel tingly? Despite having no obvious survival value…
Australia is world famous for its venomous critters, including its many highly venomous snakes. The snake that holds the popular title of “world’s most venomous” is the inland taipan (Oxyuranus microlepidotus…
Say hello to Torvosaurus gurneyi, the newly discovered theropod dinosaur that lived in Europe around 157-145 million years ago. It is potentially the largest land predator discovered in Europe and one…
Have you ever been snorkelling or scuba diving on a windy day when there are lots of waves? Did you notice how much that flow of water against your body affected your ability to swim and control your movements…
One of great challenges of the 21st century has been to develop ways to manipulate matter on smaller and smaller dimensions. As the great physicist Richard Feynman noted in his famous 1959 lecture, “There’s…
Evidence of the first people to settle in Australia can be found in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, in western New South Wales, informally referred to as Australia’s Rift Valley. Hundreds of archaeological…
It’s been a while since Fred Astaire played a CSIRO scientist in the 1959 movie of Nevil Shute’s novel On the Beach. Still one premise of the film holds true: you can’t always predict where your research…
High-tech robots called PackBots will be unleashed during the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil to help boost security and examine suspicious objects. The Brazilian government purportedly spent US$7.2 million…
When disaster strikes – such as January’s bushfire in Victoria or the recent cold spell that froze much of north America – it’s vital for emergency services to get the latest information. They need to…
By Philip Branch, Swinburne University of Technology
Metadata related to lawful interception has been in the news a bit lately. You may have seen last week the Australian Federal Police (AFP) called for more access to electronic metadata as a Senate committee…
Imagine this: you’re surfing the web while out at lunch. You decide to buy concert tickets, so to save having to put your sandwich down you ask a passer-by to log in to the ticketing website for you. As…
AUSTRALIA 2025: How will science address the challenges of the future? In collaboration with Australia’s chief scientist Ian Chubb, we’re asking how each science discipline will contribute to Australia…
Move over LHC: the next generation of circular accelerator is being planned.
Move over LHC: the next generation of circular accelerator is being planned.
Fotografik33/Flickr
While the world’s largest circular particle accelerator – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – will continue operation for the next few years, scientists have already started the conversation to build a much…
Modern science is no longer a solo effort.
Modern science is no longer a solo effort.
Flickr/ only_point_five
Close your eyes and picture a scientist. What do you see? Perhaps an Albert Einstein, staring intently at a blackboard covered in incomprehensible equations, or of Alexander Fleming, hunched over the laboratory…
Australian flowers and their pollinators have evolved a specific way of communicating – all based upon colour.
Australian flowers and their pollinators have evolved a specific way of communicating – all based upon colour.
aussiegall/Flickr
In Australia, honeyeaters are far and away the most abundant and important nectar-feeding birds, so also the most important avian pollinators of flowers. What effect has their visual perception had on…
Charlotte Dawson battled with online abuse.
Charlotte Dawson battled with online abuse.
AAP
By Troy McEwan, Swinburne University of Technology
The recent death of television personality Charlotte Dawson and the possible role that online abuse played in her struggles with depression shows how damaging this behaviour can be. The former model had…
To really get into the brain’s mechanisms, we need to build a working model.
To really get into the brain’s mechanisms, we need to build a working model.
Tankakern/Flickr
The structure of the brain reveals a network of massively interconnected electrochemically active cells. It is known that information can be represented by changes of state within this network, but that…
Students born in the Information Age are digital natives, but in an already crowded curriculum, where will technology subjects stand?
Students born in the Information Age are digital natives, but in an already crowded curriculum, where will technology subjects stand?
Lupuca/Flickr
Australia finally has its first digital technology curriculum which is mandatory for all Australian children from Foundation, the name replacing kindergarten, to Year 8. The Technologies area now has two…
We know gravity waves exist but just haven’t detected any… yet.
We know gravity waves exist but just haven’t detected any… yet.
www.shutterstock.com
Our unfolding understanding of the universe is marked by epic searches and we are now on the brink of discovering something that has escaped detection for many years. The search for gravity waves has been…
With the world’s eyes on Russia, anti-gay sentiment hasn’t alleviated.
With the world’s eyes on Russia, anti-gay sentiment hasn’t alleviated.
Flickr/jantangerine
As the Winter Olympics in Sochi draw to a close, a brief survey of trending topics across social media and international press reveal some entertaining and frightening contradictions on the slippery slopes…
Like humans, ‘man’s best friend’ can sense our emotions through voice alone.
Like humans, ‘man’s best friend’ can sense our emotions through voice alone.
Flickr/TheGiantVermin
Dogs really are our best friends. A study published today in Current Biology shows not only do dogs and humans read emotions in each other’s “voices”, but both are more attuned to “happy” sounds. And the…
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