Australian science is “generally in good health”, but faces major challenges in the form of falling science participation and literacy in high schools, mostly stagnant enrolments at universities, and diminishing…
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Science + Tech – Research and News
Displaying 226 - 250 of 394 articles
Postgraduate students in humanities, arts and social sciences are older, feel less supported and have fewer spaces to work than their counterparts in sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics…
The University of Melbourne and Australian National University will perform a “stocktake” of all scientific research projects at the two institutions from the electronic era in an effort to map their social…
Australia is preparing to join a worldwide push to map the wider social returns on investments in science. This week Professor Julia Lane, who developed and led the US National Science Foundations’s Science…
A new coating for cotton that is 1½ times more water-repellent than Teflon can survive for dozens of machine washes, say the Australian scientists who developed it. A team from the Australian Future Fibres…
Australian researchers have provided the first support for a 60-year-old evolution theory - that species with multiple colours in the same population evolve into new species faster than those with one…
Anxiety gave way to relief across universities last night after Labor handed down a higher education budget that maintained indexation and delivered a $120 million increase to the overall research budget…
A $23-million “efficiency dividend” on administrative costs at CSIRO will inevitably affect the quality of scientific research at Australia’s national science agency, staff association president Michael…
Dingoes were twice the size of female thylacines and could have caused their extinction on mainland Australia through direct attacks, a new Sydney [study](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0034877?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plosone%2FEvolutionaryBiology+(PLoS+ONE+Alerts%3A+Evolutionary+Biology…
The British government has enlisted the services of Wikipedia in a push to make all taxpayer-funded academic research from the UK freely available online - regardless of whether it is also published in…
The annual $27-billion boost to Australia’s productivity from internet innovation is at threat from policymakers who would rather restrict online access than embrace it, Google’s Australia boss has warned…
Australia’s national science agency will receive $220m after settling litigation against three US companies to license the wireless local area network (WLAN) technology it invented in the early 1990s…
A $95-million rescue package for the world-class Australian Synchrotron research centre will ensure local scientists can “remain at the forefront of the highly competitive world of fundamental and applied…
The Conversation has “provided an avenue for academics to present an informed view of topical questions” and has become a “reliable source of information for the public at large around questions of major…
Scientists say they have found a way to activate the brain cells that trigger particular memories, according to research published today in the journal Science. Researchers at MIT employed optogenetics…
A bill designed to stop the transfer of sensitive materials and information would also impede crucial academic research, staff from the University of Sydney have told a senate hearing. The University of…
A team of Australian and European astronomers has discovered a highly unusual galaxy in the shape of an emerald-cut diamond roughly 70 million light years away. The astronomers - from Australia, Germany…
A new type of wheat bred with a gene that removes sodium from water can outgrow conventional strains by up to 25% in salty soils, Australian scientists have found. The breakthrough by a team from CSIRO…
Scientists say they have developed a way to use a patient’s own stem cells to build fully functional organs in a laboratory, in a potential solution to the global donor shortage crisis. The technique involves…
Australian researchers have discovered how a blood clot-busting enzyme is activated, unlocking a century-old atomic riddle that could lead to new treatments for clotting and bleeding disorders, and some…
The biggest space storm in five years is hurtling towards Earth at more than 2000 km per second. Two bursts of solar wind and plasma - known as coronal mass ejections (CME) - are expected to hit Earth…
The arrests of five members of the hacker group LulzSec are unlikely to land a lasting blow for authorities in the “constantly moving battle” with politically motivated online collectives, experts say…
The international credibility of Australia’s universities is being undermined by the increase in the “pseudoscientific” health courses they offer, two academics have written in the latest edition of the…
The take-up of “enabling” science subjects such as mathematics, chemistry and physics has fallen behind the overall increase in science enrolments at universities over the past decade, according to a report…
Casual academics are deeply pessimistic about the prospect of ongoing employment, according to a study that shows only one in four are confident of taking on a continuing contract in the next five years…