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Medicine is famous for its jargon, and adults regularly have trouble interpreting it. That goes double for kids, according to a study in Pediatrics. The researchers found that children frequently misunderstand medical and hospital terms, with misconceptions ranging from cute to concerning. The researchers ran a study on children aged 4-12 at a state fair […]

Human-made materials – the “technosphere” – are a deep store of fossil carbon – and possibly a ticking time bomb. That’s according to a fascinating new study published in Cell Reports Sustainability. “We have no idea of how much carbon has been accumulated in the technosphere, how long it stays and what might happen to […]

Researchers have used a fibre-optic internet cable to perform quantum teleportation – while it simultaneously sent internet traffic. The feat, say the team, means that existing internet infrastructure could be used for quantum communication. They’ve published their findings in Optica. “This is incredibly exciting because nobody thought it was possible,” says lead researcher Professor Prem […]

Joint research involving satellites from the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have uncovered extreme thinning occurring across the Greenland Ice Sheet. Using the CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 satellites, scientists have provided the first measurements of how the thickness of the Greenland Ice Sheet has changed over 13 years from 2010 to 2023. Published in Geophysical […]

A new sunblock which protects the skin from UV rays also reduces heat from the sun, so you might feel like you’re enjoying a spring day – in summer. The sunscreen uses a process called radiative cooling to lower the surface temperature of bare skin. When tested in humid, hot outdoor conditions across two cities […]

Rocks from Mount Ashibetsu in Japan have revealed important information about an ancient global environmental crisis, which choked the oxygen from Earth’s oceans. The Ocean Anoxic Event 1a (OAE 1a) was one of the largest disruptions of the global carbon cycle and climate system in the past 200 million years. New research published in Science […]

Robots traversing lifting and guiding objects. Credit: Device, Yang and Won Nanoengineers have designed tiny magnetic robots that swarm together like ants to pick up objects many times their size or even form rafts to float on water. The researchers think they could be used to tackle difficult tasks in challenging environments, such as offering […]

A team of international astronomers has detected a massive black hole in the early universe that appears to be ‘napping’ or dormant, challenging the existing models of how black holes develop. The James Webb Space Telescope detected a black hole 400 million times the mass of our sun, making it one of the universe’s most […]

Scientists have figured out how to coax human stem cells to develop into the “notochord”, which plays a critical role in organising tissue in developing human embryos and later becomes the intervertebral discs of the spinal column. The UK team made pluripotent stem cells – which can turn into any cell of the body –  […]

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Muslims undertake the Hajj – the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca. In 2024, the pilgrimage took place in mid-June, the start of the Saudi summer. But this year, more than 1,300 pilgrims never made it home. Lethal heat combined with humidity proved deadly. Our new research shows the upper limits […]

Surgeons are better than other hospital staff when completing a dexterity-based children’s game, according to a new study. But, finds the study, they’re also more likely to swear while completing the game. The study has been published in the British Medical Journal’s special Christmas edition. Peer-reviewed studies from this edition have, in the past, yielded […]

In April 2021, tropical cyclones Seroja and Odette clashed in the southeastern Indian Ocean, just north-west of Australia, before finally merging completely. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology describes this interaction as rare: “Seroja produc[ed] torrential rainfall and devastating floods in parts of Indonesia and Timor Leste. Later, it interacted with Tropical Cyclone Odette via the […]

Researchers have developed a way to 3D-print a plastic which is cheap, recyclable, stretchable, and flexible. The plastic is made from a substance called a thermoplastic elastomer. The commercially available elastomer is made from several different long polymer molecules. This material can be heated into a liquid and reformed. As a solid, the different polymers […]

Evidence of widespread carnivorous behaviour among squirrels has been documented for the first time in a new study published in the Journal of Ethology.

A British survey has found that many women choosing medical abortions at home are unprepared for the severity of the pain, having been told it would be no more painful than period cramps. But the survey from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) an independent healthcare and abortion advice charity, revealed more than 40% of […]

As part of the Ultramarine project we are diving into our archives and republishing some paid content for free. In the September 2023 Cosmos print magazine, Prianka Srinivasan wrote about the village of Pang Pang in Vanuatu. Led for the first time by Indigenous archaeologists, a dig team at Pang Pang is tapping into the Pacific’s […]

“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 […]