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An unassuming little mammal which lived 65 million years ago, just after the extinction of the dinosaurs, has been identified as the ancestor of all modern hoofed animals. Its descendants include cows, deer and pigs. Militocodon lydae was discovered in the US state of Colorado. At between 270 and 450 grams, the animal would have […]

An international team has produced the world’s purest silicon, which could bring quantum computers much closer to reality. “What we’ve been able to do is effectively create a critical ‘brick’ needed to construct a silicon-based quantum computer,” says University of Manchester professor Richard Curry, a co-supervisor of the project. “It’s a crucial step to making […]

The world’s longest running solar car race is to overhaul its rulebook and increase the difficulty of the challenge. The World Solar Challenge is a two-yearly event that pitches custom made solar cars against each other in a ‘race’ over more than 3,000km between Darwin and Adelaide in Australia, with only solar energy to power […]

Coffee lovers rejoice – canny researchers have developed a way to bring you cold brew coffee in three minutes! It normally takes 12 to 24 hours to fully steep grounds and allow the flavours to be extracted. But a team from the University of NSW school of chemical engineering, led by Dr Francisco Trujillo has […]

By Claire Jordan-Peters An Australian energy company is teaming up with the CSIRO to work out if hydrogen can be safely stored underground in depleted gas fields in Victoria. Lochard Energy’s H2RESTORE project is investigating the opportunity to use its existing gas fields for underground hydrogen storage, which is described as: “to shift low carbon […]

Physicists have managed to arrange atoms 10 times closer than standard methods can. Having atoms in such close proximity is key for technologies such as quantum simulators. In studying quantum phenomena, proximity is vital. Interactions between atoms are stronger when they are closer together. Quantum simulators, used to model and answer questions about real systems, […]

In 2023, an exoplanet made international headlines because James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations suggested that the planet has a “biosignature” – signs of gas in its atmosphere produced by “life.” A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters pricks a hole in this hypothesis. K2-18b is a planet orbiting a star more than […]

Preventing the rise of the next coronavirus pandemic or epidemic could depend on creative developments in vaccine technology. And now a trans-Atlantic research group has developed a vaccine it says trains the body’s immune response against at least 8 known coronaviruses and potentially many more. Led by Cambridge University with contributions from researchers at Oxford […]

China’s latest quest to sample and analyse material from the Moon is underway.   But unlike previous lunar voyages, the Chang’e 6 mission – launched at 5:27pm local time on Friday – aims to become just the second time a spacecraft has set down on the far side of the Moon, and the first to return […]

Astronomers see “Cloverleaf” in new light In 2021, astronomers discovered enormous circular radio features around some galaxies. Since then, the origin of these structures, collectively known as ORCs (odd radio circles), has remained unknown. Now, new X-ray observations of an ORC dubbed the Cloverleaf suggest it was created by merging groups of galaxies. The findings are […]

A planet in a binary star system has been found by a team of astronomers working with citizen scientists. The Neptune-sized planet TOI 4633 c, nicknamed Percival, orbits around a pair of stars about 309 light-years away from Earth. It was first spotted by citizen scientists who were going through data collected by NASA’s Transiting […]

Children conceived by IVF have no overall increased risk of childhood cancer, according to a large study of over 8.5 million children, 260,000 of whom had been born using medically assisted reproduction. However, the study did find that there was a slightly higher risk of leukaemia among those born by fresh or frozen embryo transfer. […]

A study of nearly 6,000 children and young adults in the US has found Long COVID symptoms vary among different age groups, potentially giving new tools to doctors to help diagnose and manage the syndrome more effectively. The findings will be presented at a meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Toronto this week  by […]

By M.V. Ramana and Sophie Groll The nuclear industry has been offering so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) as an alternative to large reactors as a possible solution to climate change. SMRs are defined as nuclear reactors with a power output of less than 300 megawatts of electricity, compared to the typically 1000 to 1,500 megawatts power capacity […]

Complex life on Earth may have emerged more than 541 million years ago due to strange fluctuations in the planet’s unique magnetic field. Unlike its 3 closest rocky planets, Earth produces a magnetosphere thanks to convective interactions in the planet’s iron core layers. This generates huge electrical currents that extend beyond the crust and form […]

A quiet moment in a bar has led two researchers to study how alcohol tastes at different temperatures. No, this is real science. “Two years ago, Xiaotao Yang and I were drinking beer together. He had just finished his doctorate degree thesis and asked me, ‘what should we do next?’” says Lei Jiang, lead author […]

By Christian Brakenridge People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall health and getting good sleep is imperative. However, if exercise in the evening may disrupt our sleep, or make us feel the need to be more sedentary to recover, a key […]

Genetic evidence from long-dead squirrels has re-written our understanding of the history of leprosy. New archaeological evidence from the medieval city of Winchester shows that English red squirrels were once infected with strains of Mycobacterium leprae, which causes leprosy in people. “The history of leprosy is far more complex than previously thought,” says Verena Schuenemann […]

An audit of NASA’s readiness for the Artemis II mission – which will put astronauts into orbit around the Moon – has found critical issues with the US space agency’s 2022 test flight. The Artemis I mission was an uncrewed test flight of the Orion spacecraft, which inserted the module into lunar orbit before splashing […]

With the world fast burning through the global carbon budget, efforts by nations to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are falling well short of what’s needed to keep the preferred target of the Paris Climate Agreement alive. An analysis led by Berlin-based Mercator Research Institute (MCC) involving European, UK and US-based scientists released today […]

A large Chinese study has re-affirmed growing evidence that genetics and not birth asphyxia is often responsible for cerebral palsy. “Birth asphyxia is a label that’s never been proven,” says Alastair MacLennan AO, Head of the Australian Collaborative Cerebral Palsy Research Group at the Robinson Research Institute at University of Adelaide, and co-author of the […]

A big, long term Australian study has contributed to the growing evidence of the benefits of maintaining or adopting an active lifestyle in mid-age. The study of more than 11,000 Australian women has found those who consistently meet the World Health Organization (WHO) physical activity guidelines throughout middle age have significantly higher health-related quality of […]

DNA research on Papua New Guinea’s lowlanders and highlanders shows how populations facing unique challenges have distinct genetic adaptations. New data collected by the Papuan Past project presents whole-genome sequences from highlanders and lowlanders on Papua New Guinea (PNG). The findings are presented in a paper published in Nature Communications. PNG has a wide range […]

Neuroscientists have published a report of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in a former top-flight New Zealand rugby league player. The 2021 death was – chronologically – the first case of a Kiwi ex-pro Rugby League player to have been diagnosed with the disease. Billy Guyton, a NZ rugby union player, died in May 2023 and was […]