As the head of a media and communications program, my life’s digital-analogue balance was off. Four weeks at sea with no devices refocussed my views – even on things that had been there all along.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 2001 - 2025 of 6520 articles
We need phosphorus for life, as well as for fertiliser to help plants grow, but raw supplies are limited.
Children see adults on smartphones, looking up information they need to know, and being continuously connected. They want to copy this behaviour in their play and practise being an adult.
On December 26 a solar eclipse will be visible from northern Australia, southern Asia and parts of the Middle East.
How likely is it that everyone in a family Kris Kringle will draw their own partner? It took a roomful of mathematicians to find out.
At Christmas shopping, you may have noticed toys are becoming very complex. They fly, hop, jump and follow you around – some even need to be ‘connected’. But why are we seeing such technical advances?
‘The size, the grandeur, the peacefulness of being in the dark’: what it’s like to study space at Siding Spring Observatory
The Conversation, CC BY54.3 MB (download)
Three hours north-east of Parkes lies a remote astronomical research facility, unpolluted by city lights, where researchers are trying to unlock some of the biggest questions about our Universe.
Our extinct, distant cousins still lived in Indonesia 110,000 years ago.
After analysing posts from 100,000 Twitter users, our research used big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal the hidden personality traits underpinning thousands of jobs.
Last year, it was estimated data centres around the world generated the same amount of carbon emissions as created by the global airline industry’s fuel usage.
Facebook is planning to put end-to-end encryption on all its messaging services soon. But governments aren’t happy about it, as it could make it harder to catch criminals.
The tragedy at Whakaari/White Island highlights the need for consent forms to ensure tourists are fully informed when choosing to visit dangerous locations.
Peanut allergens have multiple allergenic traits that set them apart from other nuts.
Knowing an animal’s normal lifespan is hugely important for conservation efforts, but it’s harder to find out than you’d think.
The ACCC’s inquiry was launched to address concerns about the market power of major digital platforms, such as Google and Facebook, and their impact on Australia’s businesses and media.
A recent cave art discovery in remote Indonesia is changing our understanding of the beginnings of art and the emergence of religious-like thinking in the early human story.
This newly discovered species is the oldest one known to resemble today’s penguins in both size and leg proportions, unlike its giant co-habitants at the time.
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.
Visiting an active volcano involves risk. Hazard monitoring systems can issue warnings but in the case of the privately-owned White Island, the decision to take a tour falls to tourism operators.
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.
Five people have died and several remain unaccounted for after a sudden volcanic eruption on Whakaari/White Island off the east coast of New Zealand.
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.