Would you prefer a beer right now or a bottle of champagne next week? So begins an interesting new study published today in the journal PloS Biology. Of course these kinds of choices feature throughout…
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The international soccer community has been bitterly divided over the decision to award the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar: beyond appalling stories of the working conditions of immigrants building stadiums…
Last week, Melbourne City Council announced an action plan in the Council Plan 2013-17 to develop a strategy for free public Wi-Fi within the Melbourne CBD. Why is the council thinking of investing in…
Now that the US government is back in business, all “non-essential” services will resume. For 15 days we went without NASA’s full operation, US Antarctic research and federally-funded clinical studies…
In 1977, George Lucas’ Star Wars introduced us to R2-D2, an intelligent bot that embodied modern assistive robotics: he could anticipate needs and perform a number of tasks with minimal instruction. Almost…
Galaxies may look pretty and delicate, with their swirls of stars of many colours - but don’t be fooled. At the heart of every galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, including in our own Milky Way. Black…
A newly discovered 1.8 million-year-old skull from Eastern Europe has been pitched as disproving a decades-old paradigm in human evolution. Its discoverers claim the find sinks more than a dozen species…
The pursuit of everlasting life has traditionally been consigned to the realms of fantasy, science fiction or eccentric millionaires. But now, one of the world’s tech giants is behind the venture. Last…
Nandan Nilekani is one of Indian’s foremost entrepreneurs. He was co-founder of information technology company, Infosys, and is now Chair of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The Authority…
A sobering study published this month in Space Weather warns why we need to get better prepared for disruptive space weather events - particularly coronal mass ejections. The current solar maximum - a…
Wild bonobos, like all Great Apes, spend long childhoods with their mothers, learning the skills they need to function as socially and emotionally stable members of their community. But orphaned bonobos…
Each one of us is the complex product of nature and nurture, genes and environment. They combine in a myriad of complex ways during embryonic and postnatal development to sculpt our brains and bodies…
Printing food seems more like an idea based in Star Trek rather than in the average home. But recent advances in 3D printing (known formally as additive manufacturing) are driving the concept closer to…
Speed cameras - love them or (more likely) hate them, they’re here to stay. And as with most technologies, there is room for improvement - highlighted most recently when Wheels magazine sponsored a journalist…
The Philippines (also known as the rice-bowl of Southeast Asia) has become a test bed for genetically modified (GM) crops. Proponents argue GM grains and vegetables can improve the life of farmers and…
How masculine are you? This might seem a fairly simple question, especially if you’re asked to fill out a simple ten-question survey investigating traits such as “aggressive” and “forceful”. But it may…
How will future alien scientists know whether life existed in our solar system? One method may be to sift through the planetary debris left when our sun becomes a white dwarf. Astronomers are doing just…
Quantum mechanics, which aims to describe the nano-scale world around us, has already led to the development of many technologies ubiquitous in modern life, including broadband optical fibre communication…
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was yesterday jointly awarded to Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel for developing foundation computer software that chemists today use to investigate how…
Two documents released this week highlight divergent views among the community and politicians. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) yesterday sought to reinforce its legitimacy…
As Rod Lamberts reminded us here recently, when it comes to debates on genetically modified (GM) foods, arguing about the validity of the science is about as effective as descending to name calling. That’s…
If you’re thinking about planning a trip to Russia for the Winter Olympic Games in February next year, prepare to have every aspect of your communications monitored under “the most invasive and systematic…
We know buying clothes and accessories online carries a certain level of risk - what if the delivered product doesn’t fit or looks ridiculous? But thanks to research into augmented reality you could soon…
Imagine if you only had one shot at passing on your genes before you died. It happens more often in the natural world than you might expect: suicidal reproduction - where one or both sexes of a species…
You may have seen reports over the weekend about yet another instalment of the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance system - this time a set of slides focused on cracking the Tor network, a…