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A long term and well funded project to reduce the incidence of eye disease in Indigenous communities is having significant impact, with a forecast that one devastating illness will soon be all but eliminated. Preventable vision problems, such as trachoma and cataracts, affect Indigenous people aged 40 and over at much higher rates than non-Indigenous […]

Scientists have come up with a new theory to explain why the 10th brightest star in the sky, Betelgeuse, has been dimming and generally acting oddly in recent years. The new study suggests the red supergiant star has a companion – lovingly called its “Betelbuddy”. Between November 2019 and March 2020, Betelgeuse visibly dimmed. Some […]

Elephant fossils from 300,000–400,000 years ago bear the marks of the earliest signs of ancient humans butchering animals in the Indian subcontinent. The fossils were discovered near the Kashmir town Pampore (also known as Pampar, Panpar) in the foothills of the Himalayas in 2000. The identity of the elephant species and the interaction with ancient […]

A US study has found men who are more concerned about seeming masculine are less likely to forgive transgressions at work. The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. According to the researchers, there’s evidence that men are generally less forgiving than women, and people who forgive more frequently tend to have […]

As part of the Ultramarine project we are diving into our archives and republishing some paid content for free. This long read was originally published in issue 97 of Cosmos print magazine, in December 2022. You can read more amazing long reads if you subscribe now. In a remote archipelago off Australia’s Top End, scientists and Indigenous rangers are […]

Around 3.26 billion years ago, an enormous meteorite slammed into Earth and surprisingly created conditions for some early lifeforms to flourish. Evidence of these lucky lifeforms was discovered and described by early-Earth geologists publishing in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The meteorite, inconspicuously named “S2”, was up to 200 times larger […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have the potential to transform the way healthcare is delivered, but there are also unique challenges to adopting AI technologies ethically and responsibly. AI Ethicist Dr Melissa McCradden, the AI Director of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Network (WCHN) in South Australia says machine learning is exceptionally good at […]

Marine biologists have challenged the claim that lack of food is driving a population crash in killer whales in the Pacific Ocean saying boat noise may be the issue. Killer whales (Orcinus orca) frequent the waters of British Columbia and feed on Chinook salmon. Researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada used echosounder […]

Drying climates spell danger for amphibian species already on the decline. New research shows that global warming of 2°C would result in 6.6% of habitats crucial for frogs and toads dry up. A temperature rise of 4°C could see 33% of frog habitats become arid. The new paper, published in Nature Climate Change, focuses on […]

Australians are set to have stricter guidelines on PFAS “forever chemicals” in their water, after a review by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). The council has published new draft recommendations for the concentrations of PFAS in drinking water. The new thresholds are significantly lower than those set in 2018, during the last […]

An extremely well-preserved sawfly fossil dating to 11–16 million years ago has been found in central New South Wales. The specimen is an extinct species described for the first time in the journal Systematic Entomology. It was discovered at McGraths Flat near the town of Gulgong, more than 200km northwest of Sydney. McGraths Flat is […]

Many Australians now sell solar power generated on their rooftops into the grid on sunny days. In a handful of years, it may be possible to do the same thing when it’s dark – with the help of an electric vehicle (EV). Nascent vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology operates around the idea of EVs with bi-directional chargers: […]

Researchers have detailed the 4 common ways cancers can become less susceptible to the drugs used to treat them. They say it could help tackle drug-resistant cancer and identify new targets for drug development. The new research is detailed in a Nature Genetics study.  “Before this  it has been difficult to get a large-scale understanding […]

Putting meat on people’s plates is a significant contributor to global warming. Not only is livestock production highly water and land-intensive, methane emissions from meat production in 2023 accounted for 36 percent of total methane emissions worldwide. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is 80 percent more potent than carbon dioxide. Livestock farming also drives up antimicrobial resistance and […]

A new study has revealed that some quasars were surprisingly alone in the early universe, confounding astronomers. Quasars are the extremely bright core of a galaxy which hosts an active supermassive black hole. As the black hole draws in surrounding gas and dust, it releases a tremendous amount of energy. That quasars have been found […]

Scientists have fused a diamond to a sapphire. And to silicon, lithium, and a few other materials. This chemically difficult feat isn’t for jewellery – instead, it could be part of next-generation quantum technology. The researchers have published their achievement in Nature Communications. Diamond is made from carbon atoms arranged in a highly regular crystalline […]

As part of the Ultramarine project we are diving into our archives and republishing some paid content for free. This long read was originally published in issue 96 of Cosmos print magazine, in September 2022. You can read more amazing long reads if you subscribe now. You can also listen to this story.  The nautilus’s lineage made […]

As part of the Ultramarine project we are diving into our archives and republishing some paid content for free. In the September 2022 Cosmos print magazine, Kate Evans looked at how the nautilus’s lineage made it through all five of Earth’s previous mass extinctions and asked can it survive the Anthropocene. We recorded an audio version of the […]

Ever found yourself unable to resist checking out a social media notification? Or sending a random picture just to keep a Snapchat “streak” going? Or simply getting stuck staring at YouTube because it auto-played yet another cute cat video? If so, you’re far from alone. And if we adults can’t resist such digital temptations, how […]

The time taken for ecosystems to respond to the effects of climate change can vary, but a new study shows that, for grasslands that biodiversity change can happen in almost real time. “Climate change does have consequences for our ecosystems. It’s going to come sooner or later,” says Yiluan Song, a postdoctoral fellow at the […]

Listening to music might help patients recover from surgery, according to a new meta-analysis. The study, which is being presented at the American College of Surgeons 2024 Clinical Congress this weekend, found listening to music on a speaker or headphones could improve recovery. A team from California Northstate University, USA, analysed 35 previously published studies […]

The late Jack Karlson famously defined democracy – and a few other things – during his arrest in 1991. But how does everyone else define it? In fact, citizens of very politically and culturally divergent countries still have a similar belief in the meaning of democracy, according to a new study. The study, published in […]

Work is progressing on the Giant Magellan Telescope, which, when built, will be the largest on Earth. The latest progress report on the consortium’s website says the team has successfully installed the primary mirror into a support system prototype. Barbara Fischer, the primary mirror subsystem manager for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) says the primary […]

Athletics records are generally a matter of incremental improvement. It took 18 years, for example, for a succession of six Swedish, British, Australian, and New Zealand runners to whittle the world record for the mile down from 4:01.6 to 3:54.4—a process in which the biggest single gain, 2 seconds, was achieved by Roger Bannister when […]