A titanic eruption in our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, has sent shockwaves through the astronomical community here on Earth. NASA’s Swift satellite detected a flood of gamma rays at 21:15 UTC yesterday…
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It’s an exciting time to be doing statistics. You heard me – statistics: exciting. It often gets a bad rap, but stats is after all at the business end of the research process. When I’ve collaborated on…
A unique cutting-edge carbon fibre research facility Carbon Nexus officially opened at Deakin University in Geelong last week. It houses laboratories, a pilot scale carbon fibre line and a smaller single-tow…
Australia is to play a significant role in the quest for artificial life as it joins an international project to create the world’s first synthetic yeast, we can announce today. Under the leadership of…
Consciousness is one of the most fascinating and elusive phenomena we humans face. Every single one of us experiences it but it remains surprisingly poorly understood. That said, psychology, neuroscience…
Amid the intense discussion surrounding the release of the Australian government’s budget 2014-2015 one notable feature of the budget documents has seemingly gone unremarked by most commentators. The budget…
New research has shattered the idea that New Zealand’s iconic kiwi bird is a close relative of Australia’s emu. Instead, the kiwi has a closer connection with a giant flightless bird that was the stuff…
Across North America, Europe and Japan, skywatchers will be out in force this weekend with high hopes of catching a never-before-seen meteor shower. Predicted to peak this Saturday, May 24, the shower…
During a radio show yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott winked. In and of itself, this is hardly a newsworthy event. The context of the wink, though, appears to have made all the difference in making…
A soft and tender caress between two people can trigger a flood of emotions, and now we may have some idea why. Research [published in Neuron](http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(14%2900387-0…
How do organisations and their Information Technology departments rate when it comes to protecting themselves and their organisations against the ever present cyber risks and cybercrime? The answer is…
Apple and Google agreed last week to abandon mutual litigation over smartphone software and hardware patents. Yesterday the Korea Times reported that it appears likely Apple and Samsung will also reach…
Everyone loves to get close to a koala. They are an Australian icon and a major ecotourism attraction. A photo with a koala is a holiday must for many overseas visitors. But how well do these celebrity…
In many ways, Australia is defined by the oceans surrounding us. We have the world’s third largest ocean territory, most of our trade travels by sea, and we have vast offshore resources.
Observation is a cornerstone of science – we learn much about the universe and how it works just by looking at it. But observation can be a huge challenge. It’s easy to forget that human eyes allow us…
As the annual World Series of Poker gets rolling in Las Vegas later this month, hopeful competitors will be buying in and getting their poker faces on. But why is it such a challenge to recognise deception…
Oscar winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin seemed to have the perfect marriage until their “conscious uncoupling” earlier this year. Was the split destined to happen? What…
Victorian cyclists have achieved amazing success on the national and international stage, as I outlined last week. Victorian riders were the first Australians to compete in, win and wear the most prized…
NASA revealed today that the iconic Great Red Spot on Jupiter has shrunk to its smallest size ever – and astronomers have no idea why. The Great Red Spot is a giant anticyclone storm that has been raging…
Plastics comprise around 10% of solid waste in Australia. And while we can recycle certain types, there is a group of particularly stable plastics called thermosets, common in electronic devices, which…
The Abbott Government’s first federal budget has allocated funds for capital investment into the National Broadband Network (NBN) to continue up to 2017-18 but with a cap of A$29.5 billion. This falls…
How are stars formed? What are they made of? And what happens to them when they die? In this week’s TCTV, astrophysicist Akila Jeeson-Daniel explains the physics behind the balls of gas that light up the…
When the freshly-minted Prime Minister Tony Abbott declined for the first time since 1931 to appoint a science minister as part of his Cabinet in September last year, he did so having made an election…
Magnetars are stars that are incredibly dense, rapidly spinning, amazingly hot and – as their name suggests – are the most magnetic objects known in the universe. The magnetic field on the surface of a…
It’s hard to ignore the irony. The 2014 federal budget will “better target innovation and research funding to areas of national and strategic priority” but funding cuts of more than A$111 million to CSIRO…