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An immersive Antarctic experience with Scenic Eclipse By Ian Connellan There are a few birdlife guarantees in life. Seagulls at Bondi Beach. Pigeons in New York (or London, or Melbourne, or Venice). Blue-footed boobies in the Galápagos Islands. And, should you happen to visit Antarctica, penguins. It’s a little hard to imagine until you experience […]

More than 1,000 species of bony fishes make sounds to communicate with each other, but scientists thought sharks were the strong, silent type. Now, that reputation has been blown straight out of the water, with the first ever documented case of a shark deliberately producing sound. The New Zealand rigs (Mustelus lenticulatus) made clicking sounds […]

Regent honeyeaters, endemic to southeastern Australia, are keeping their genetic diversity despite population collapse over the past century, according to new research. The study is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Regent honeyeaters (Anthochaera Phrygia) are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. “The species […]

People who live in coastal cities all across the world might not always be aware of the extent of scientific research going on around – and under – them, to preserve waterways for humans and animals alike. For example, it’s been a big week for South Australian oceans – from the installation of high-tech buoys, […]

Astronomers have found radio signals from hot gas surrounding a supermassive black hole. The discovery could help reveal hidden black holes across the universe. The black hole in question is 12.9 billion light-years away. Its light has reached Earth from a time when the universe was just 800 million years old. The new research, published […]

As countries around the globe work towards transitioning all facets of their economies to net zero emissions, engineers from the University of Southern California in the US have devised a new method to take carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere and convert it into durable and fire-resistant building materials.  The manufacturing of building materials and […]

A baby hummingbird that looks like a dangerous caterpillar has been found in the rainforests of Panama. The newly hatched bird had long, fluffy feathers all down its back – which had never been seen before on baby hummingbirds. These feathers visually mimic the hairs of some caterpillar species, which can cause painful skin reactions, […]

New research has shown how carbon-neutral aviation fuel can be made more efficiently. The development has been welcomed as attempts are being made to reduce the carbon emissions of the aviation sector. But experts say it could be a while before these “eco-fuels” or “e-fuels” – synthetic aviation fuels produced from fossil-free electricity and recycled […]

The beaches of Aotearoa New Zealand were once jam-packed with southern elephant seals, according to new research that reveals how the species has moved over thousands of years. “At the time of human arrival in New Zealand, you would be hard-pressed to find room on the beaches, with fur seals on the rocky headlands, prehistoric sealions […]

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used because they are efficient and long lasting. But they can be disastrous when something goes wrong, and the battery catches fire or explodes. A new sensor that could solve the problem of overheating lithium-ion batteries is described in a paper published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Damaged […]

The oceans, the nearest things to perpetual motion, are being increasingly explored for energy potential as we shed fossil fuel dependency. Now a team in Florida has released a comprehensive global map of potential ocean energy locations around the world and show how ocean current turbines could tap that power. Out in the Bass Strait […]

Globally, a climate or extreme weather-related disaster has been recorded every day for the past 50 years, resulting in an average of 115 deaths and US$202 million in losses. Aside from increasing concerns about how to pay for recovery, there are also issues about rebuilding to avoid future losses. In advanced economies there is an assumption that insurance […]

JADES-GS-z14-0 is the most distant confirmed galaxy ever found. New observations from 2 different teams of astronomers shows that the galaxy has oxygen, making scientists rethink (again!) how galaxies formed in the early universe. The ancient galaxy was first discovered last year by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Its light took more than 13.4 billion […]

If quantum computers are to fulfill the promise of solving problems faster or which are too complex for classical supercomputers, then quantum information needs to be communicated between multiple processors. Modern computers have different interconnected components such as a memory chip, a Central Processing Unit and a General Processing Unit. These need to communicate for […]

A new study from Arizona State University in the US has uncovered another hidden health hazard in illicit cannabis.   When investigating cannabis seized in Arizona and California the researchers found that 16% of cannabis samples were contaminated with the soil fungi Fusarium — fungal toxins that exceed safety limits for agricultural products. After further […]

Research has found that many terrorism groups with differing ideological motivations share common ground in targeting LGBTQ+ communities. A study led by extremism expert Dr Jared Dmello, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Social Sciences, found that groups with contrasting ideologies — from Islamic extremist organisations to far-right terrorist groups — overlap in their […]

If scientists could create a sustained nuclear fusion reaction it would revolutionise the way we produce energy – day or night, rain or shine, sans carbon emissions. Among the myriad challenges facing physicists trying to make it a reality is the process of isolating lithium-6, an isotope essential to producing the fuel which is used […]

Scientists in Saudi Arabia have developed a new coating for streetlights which they believe will reduce energy lost as heat, making the lamps more efficient. The research is published in the Springer journal Light: Science & Applications. Streetlights are a particularly big burden on the city councils and municipalities. Streetlighting accounts for about 1–3% of […]

New analysis linking dinosaurs and Sonic the Hedgehog might explain how “proto-feathers” became the complex appendages, bird feathers. It’s widely accepted that birds are dinosaurs. Modern feathered friends are the evolutionary descendants of the family of dinosaurs known as theropods – bipedal dinosaurs which includes Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex. But when, how and why feathers […]

A mother-child intervention program aimed at healing psychological trauma in war-affected Ukrainian children has shown promising results, with three-quarters of participants experiencing improved mental health, according to a new study published in Global Health.  The organisation behind the camps hopes the experience will inform trauma recovery efforts in other war-torn regions. The war in Ukraine […]

A fascinating piece of research might have revealed that our brains are memorising the earliest times of our lives, but the memories have been packed away and just can’t be accessed. The inability to remember our first few years of life, a phenomenon termed “infantile amnesia” by psychologist Sigmund Freud, has fascinated neuroscientists for more […]

More than 11 years after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, the Malaysian government has approved a new search for the missing debris of the aircraft. Malaysia announced the push for a renewed search last year, ten years after the tragedy that claimed the lives of 239 people. Seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity, which […]

Earlier this week, reports emerged that a scientist at South Africa’s SANAE IV Antarctic research base had accused a colleague of physical assault. We research Antarctic governance and crime in isolated, confined and extreme environments such as Antarctic and space stations. Rebecca specifically investigates how station cultures evolve in isolation and what factors significantly influence […]

Xenotransplantation, taking the organs, tissues or cells from one species and transplanting them into another, is rapidly approaching reality as an alternative treatment for many end-stage diseases. Dramatic advances have been seen over the last few years, with several patients successfully receiving transgenic pig heart transplants and the success of several kidney transplant patients in […]