Birds are some of the brainiest creatures on earth, while their direct ancestors - the dinosaurs - are often stereotyped as dull and doomed. But a new study published today in Nature challenges this notion…
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Science + Tech – Articles, Analysis, Comment
Displaying 5326 - 5350 of 6591 articles
It’s official: Australia isn’t the “lucky country” in the IT sector. Consumers, government and industry down under are charged typically 50% more for software and hardware compared to their American counterparts…
Want to win a Nobel prize? You might increase your chances by eating more chocolate, according to a letter in Nature last Thursday. The research, which outlines a survey of chocolate consumption of 23…
Recently retired professional cyclist Stuart O’Grady is the latest elite Australian sportsperson to confess publicly to doping during his career. He admitted last week to using the banned blood oxygen…
Helium demand is rapidly outpacing supply, cheap helium is gone forever and rationing is inevitable. More disturbingly is that a global helium supply crisis is looming this year. The fact is that the US…
You’re probably already familiar with face recognition technology through security surveillance or Facebook photo tagging, but the next person you see wearing Google Glass may well be using it too - despite…
Earlier this week on The Conversation, Morgan Tear wrote a terrific article calling into question the supposed negative effect of videogame violence on players’ behaviour. And I would argue we could use…
It’s a fact of life for anyone boarding a plane: all electronic devices need to be turned off during take-off and landing. Most airlines have had this rule in place for more than a decade now, even though…
We all know someone who gets the jitters when they have to make a speech, or breaks out in a cold sweat at the mere thought of being in an enclosed space. That person might even be you. But do you know…
Science is knowledge gained from reproducible observations or experiments. Yet in a commentary in Nature in May last year, researchers from biotechnology company Amgen reported that the findings in 90…
Since first being detected in Brisbane, Queensland, in 2001, red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) have shown themselves to be an extremely damaging invasive pest, affecting agricultural crops, native…
Why is science not delivered as part of our routine news bulletins in the same way as, say, business and sport? Enter a group from the University of Queensland, who yesterday posted an open letter to radio…
The debate over the impact of playing violent videogames on aggressive attitudes and behaviour is a long and heated one. Based on my research, I would argue the link is not as straightforward as A + B…
When the email notice for The Weekend Conversation landed on Saturday, I was intrigued and slightly startled by the opening teaser from the site’s Science + Technology editor, Paul Dalgarno. He got one…
Shakespeare’s plays and cancer: two seemingly unrelated topics with an underlying common thread. The techniques that computational linguistics and computer scientists use to analyse the Bard’s works are…
Perhaps the only positive note that can be sounded on the Australian science literacy survey results, released on Wednesday by the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), is they are somewhat better than…
Imagine you’re on a spaceship with engine trouble. Your captain knows she must land the ship for repairs. The navigator identifies two viable planets that could do the job. Little is known of either, other…
Professional cyclists, such as those riding in this year’s Tour de France, have repeated the same circular pedalling action countless times. But does this mean they’ve developed a more effective pedalling…
Broadband – in the shape of the National Broadband Network (NBN) – remains a key point of difference between Labor and the Coalition’s policies going into the federal election. Our politicians are not…
Guess what: Australians have spent the last three years getting a little bit dumber. Well, at least according to the Australian Academy of Science, we’ve lost touch with a few key basic facts. Repeating…
American sprinter Tyson Gay and former 100m world record-holder Jamaican Asafa Powell are reported to be among six athletes to test positive for a banned substance: oxilofrine. But what is this drug that…
Modern Tour de France riders compete as part of a professional cycling team, with support staff who work to ensure that each individual’s nutritional needs are met. Under such circumstances – as we wrote…
Hot on the heels of data analyst whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations about the existence of the PRISM electronic surveillance program operated by the United States’ National Security Agency since…
Dinosaurs were the largest animals to ever walk Earth, and they ruled the planet for more than 160 million years. The long-necked Argentinosaurus, with back vertebrae almost two metres high, possibly grew…
Imagine this scenario: after a long day of work, you settle in a train seat, rest your head against the window and close your eyes for a well-earned nap - only instead of the soothing clickety-clack vibrations…