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“I feel privileged to have had a career that put me in touch with deep geological time,” reflects James Johnson, the retiring CEO of Geoscience Australia in comments made at his valedictory speech on Thursday, December 12th at Old Parliament House in Canberra. “I think some familiarity with deep time brings a level of humility. […]

Astronomers have detected a binary star right near the supermassive black hole at the mysterious centre of our galaxy. The black hole, named Sagittarius A*, was thought to be too powerful to allow binary stars to form this close. But, despite its extreme gravitational pull, the pair of stars are managing to orbit each other […]

The question of whether an atmosphere exists around the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b has continued to challenge astronomers with the publication of a new study in the journal Nature Astronomy. The analysis of data on thermal infrared radiation (heat) emitted by the exoplanet, which was collected with MIRI (Mid-Infrared Imager) on the James Webb Space Telescope […]

As part of the Ultramarine project we are republishing some paid content for free. This long read was originally published in issue 101 of Cosmos print magazine, in December 2023. You can read more amazing long reads if you subscribe now. When your neighbour is struggling, the community rallies around them – even if that neighbour is a fish. […]

The annual aerial bird survey of rivers and wetlands across the Murray-Darling Basin in eastern Australia has revealed a sudden drop in waterbird numbers, species breeding, and wetland areas. Drier conditions over much of south-western and south-eastern Australia followed the record wet period of La Nina in 2020 to 2022, and has resulted in declines […]

Can you reach down and touch your toes without bending your knees? Can you reach both arms overhead? If these sound like a struggle, you may be lacking flexibility. Flexibility is the ability to move a joint to through its full range of motion. It helps you perform most sporting activities and may prevent muscle […]

Archaeologists are filling in gaps about Indigenous populations on coastal and island sites of Yorke Peninsula, west of South Australia’s capital Adelaide, putting likely habitation there 8000 years ago. A new study, published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, focussing on Point Pearce Peninsula/Burgiyana and Wardang Island/Waraldi, was done in collaboration with the […]

It’s a favourite adage of science bores (myself included): sharks are older than the rings of Saturn. But, according to a study in Nature Geoscience, it might not be true. Saturn’s rings could be a lot older than previously thought. Astronomers used to think that both Saturn and its rings formed more than 4 billion […]

Australian-led researchers conducing fascinating research have documented an unusual example of “helicopter parenting” performed by males and females of the spiny chromis damselfish. The findings have ramifications for the makeup of coral reef communities. “In the marine environment the care of fish eggs is common, but caring for the tiny larval fishes after they hatch […]

The remains of at least 37 people unearthed from the Early Bronze Age site of Charterhouse Warren in England have revealed the darker side of human prehistory. Recent analysis suggests the individuals were killed, butchered, and probably partly eaten before being thrown down a 15m-deep shaft. This is the largest-scale example of interpersonal violence from […]

BreastScreen Australia is to update its position on breast density reporting early in the new year. Advocates for breast cancer awareness are calling for a change in the National BreastScreen Australia program, saying breast density should be included in mammogram reporting in the upcoming policy and funding review. A spokesperson for the Department of Health […]

Inspiring kids to understand quantum mechanics relies on imaginative story-telling, if the recent “Cosmos Quantum Quest” is anything to go on. To acknowledge the UN International Year of Quantum Science and Technology the CSIRO’s kids’ online science newsletter, Double Helix Extra, with Cosmos and The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) challenged our readers to demonstrate […]

Zinc-sulphur batteries are a promising way to ease the strain on lithium: they have very high energy density, but are made of more sustainable materials. But for now, while researchers have been able to design small zinc-based batteries, it’s been difficult to make zinc-sulphur batteries capable of competing with large commercial batteries. These aqueous zinc […]

More than 95% of Australian animal species are invertebrates (animals without backbones – spiders, snails, insects, crabs, worms and others). There are at least 300,000 species of invertebrate in Australia. Of these, two-thirds are unknown to western science. This means there are huge gaps in our knowledge of Australia’s invertebrates. Our new study, published today […]

Distractions from using a mobile phone while driving can cause fatalities. Tackling the problem will require a multi-disciplinary approach. We have all come across this type of headline: “Fatal car crash — driver was using mobile” Mobiles have become indispensable, yet their impact on road safety remains insufficiently examined, particularly the distractions associated with maladaptive […]

Superflares are violent solar tantrums that release immense amounts of energy, more powerful than the largest solar flares observed from the Sun, within a very short period. Scientists are trying to discover if our Sun can generate superflares and, if so, how often they might happen. But interesting, and somewhat scary, newresearch, has now revealed […]

Botanists have discovered a species of lipstick vine unknown to science in the Philippines. They found the plant, and its bright flowers, after days of trekking with machetes through the Barangay Balbalasang rainforest on the island of Luzon. The trek was part of a joint expedition between University of the Philippines Los Baños and Oxford […]

A lack of scientific attention has left large gaps in understanding the lives and habitats one of Africa’s most iconic megaherbivores, the hippopotamus. A new database of African hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) populations across southern Africa has revealed holes in the data which show where hippos are present  with some areas lacking population estimates altogether. “Without […]

Physicists have observed a “quasiparticle” that has mass when moving one way, and no mass when headed in another direction. The quasiparticle was theorised 16 years ago, but this is the first time it’s been directly detected. Called a “semi-Dirac fermion”, the quasiparticle was found by accident while the team was studying other quasiparticles. “Imagine […]

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration has made more fascinating observations of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Messier 87 galaxy – M87*. “We were lucky to detect a gamma-ray flare from M87 during this EHT’s multi-wavelength campaign, ” says Giacomo Principe of the University of Trieste in Italy. “This marks the […]

The annual Geminid meteor shower is expected to light up Australian skies this weekend, peaking early Saturday morning. “It’s usually the best and brightest one of the year,” University of Sydney astrophysicist Dr Laura Driessen told Cosmos. “Rather than leftovers from a comet, it’s leftovers from an asteroid. So, they’re nice, big pieces that are […]

In a big day for planetary science, scientists have announced major news regarding the exploration of two different worlds in our solar system: Mars, and Jupiter’s moon Io. The findings from Io resolve one longstanding mystery…and create a new one.  When NASA’s two Voyager spacecraft visited Jupiter in 1979, scientists were stunned to discover that […]

Most non-African people today inherit 1-2% ancestry from Neanderthals, and researchers have long searched for clues about when our ancient ancestors were interbreeding with Neanderthals. Now 2 studies have independently dated the interbreeding to about 47,000 years ago. A study in Nature analysed the genomes of 7 Homo sapiens that lived about 45,000 years ago in what […]

A new gene therapy may give hope to the more than 64 million people living with heart failure worldwide. Robin Shaw, director of the Nora Eccles Harrison Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute (CVRTI) at the University of Utah says: “In the history of heart failure research, we have not seen efficacy like this.” Current treatment options […]