Biology
‘Superpower’ bacteria discovered in Antarctica
Bacteria discovered in the deep south have genes that give them antiobiotic and antimicrobial resistance and could spread out from polar regions.
- by Fabian Cambero
Latest
Vanilla not so boring after all - it’s the world’s top smell
From hunter-gatherers to city dwellers, study shows that all groups like and dislike the same scents.
- by Joe Pinkstone
Professor’s pandemic project rewrites origin of mysterious monotremes
Some people baked bread or wrote during the pandemic lockdown. Scientist Tim Flannery cleared up the origins of some of Australia’s most iconic species.
- by Stuart Layt
Dead as a dodo ... but maybe not for much longer
Genome sequencing tests suggest the extinct flightless bird could be brought back to life, say scientists.
- by Sarah Knapton
After counting Earth’s trees, scientists say thousands more species to be discovered
Researchers have unveiled the world’s largest forest database, showing that 2000 more species of tree are to be discovered across Australia and Oceania alone.
- by Will Dunham
Scientists discover the reason why whales don’t choke
It has long been a mystery how lunge feeding whales draw in huge quantities prey-filled water without flooding their respiratory tracts.
- by Sam Jones
Serial guinea pigs: Big bucks luring WA uni students to drug trials
University students are being enticed to earn quick cash and help advance medical science by being a human guinea pig for pharmaceutical companies trialling new drugs. But it’s not just the money that drives them to sign up.
- by Sarah Brookes
Pig’s kidney attached to human patient in scientific breakthrough
It is hoped the major advance could eventually help alleviate a dire shortage of human organs for transplant.
- by Nancy Lapid
What Trevor Lambkin found after 40 years of looking for butterflies
Trevor Lambkin has been travelling to the Torres Strait for nearly 40 years to catalogue butterflies. What he has found is an ecosystem at serious risk from climate change.
- by Stuart Layt
Scientists successfully stop dengue spread through mosquitoes
Scientists have shown the success of a method of suppressing the population of mosquitoes which spread tropical diseases like dengue fever, leading to hopes of halting the spread of the deadly illnesses.
- by Stuart Layt
Analysis
Feminism
Why people are up in arms about The Lancet’s ‘bodies with vaginas’ cover
The medical journal’s choice of words was meant to be inclusive but merely highlighted how language has become a battleground.
- by Karl Quinn