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SpaceX’s Starship Super Heavy rocket has another notch in its belt, following the successful capture of the booster by the “chopstick” arms of a metal tower. The reusable rocket booster returned to the launchpad 7 minutes after launch, where it was caught by the Mechazilla tower. The successful launch is the fifth test flight of […]

Endometriosis is a painful and very common condition, but it’s difficult to diagnose, sometimes taking years. A team of US researchers think that it may one day be possible to diagnose endometriosis more quickly and easily with a stool test. They’ve published a study in Med, which found that women with endometriosis had key differences […]

Hydrogen vehicles emit no carbon: their combustion engines rely on H2 alone. This has made them a promising option for zero-emissions heavy vehicles. But, like petrol cars, current hydrogen engines can still emit polluting compounds called nitrogen oxides. A team in the US has figured out a way to stop hydrogen engines from releasing these […]

Octopus’ abilities which inspire films like Octopussy and Spider-Man are being replicated by science, with surprising results. In one lab in the US, scientists followed in the footsteps of Spider-Man’s archenemy Doctor Octopus by designing octopus-inspired adhesive to augment human abilities. And in a lab across the seas in China, scientists have created a soft […]

In 2023, almost a year’s worth of rain fell over ten days in parts of northwestern Australia, leading to catastrophic flooding in the town of Fitzroy Crossing and surrounds. The rainfall was linked to a tropical cyclone, but there were also lesser-known forces at work: huge, planet-scale oscillations called atmospheric waves which bring heavy rain […]

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft have given a unique view of Uranus as they simultaneously set their sights on the 7th planet from the Sun. The results will help in future studies of similar gas giant planets around other stars. Hubble is in a low-Earth orbit. It trained its high-resolution camera on […]

US scientists have created their own version of Peter Parker’s iconic web fluid. The silk fibre liquid can be shot out of device and immediately solidifies once exposed to air. It forms a string that can stick to and lift objects more than 80 times their weight. “If you look at nature, you will find that […]

The Komodo dragon is an impressive and fearsome sight. Measuring 2.5m long and weighing more than 80kg, it is the largest lizard in the world. An apex predator, its lumbering gait bellies its speed when it attacks prey. There are only around 1,300 adult “land crocodiles” (as it is known to locals) left in the […]

Two new species have been identified from fossils found at the Hell Creek Formation in the northern US. The ancient bones belong to the oldest predatory birds ever found. Hell Creek is famous for its fossils of some of the most beloved dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rexand Triceratops horridus. These creatures lived right at the end […]

DNA extracted from between the teeth of 2 Kenyan lion specimens from the 1890s shows that the animals ate humans, as well as giraffes and wildebeests. The pair of male lions were dubbed the “Tsavo Man-Eaters” and are thought to have eaten dozens of people, including workers on the Kenya-Uganda railway in the late 19th […]

Scientists are revealing new details at a cave site in northeastern Laos which contains some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. Tam Pà Ling cave has been studied for the past 14 years. Human fossils were deposited at the site 86,000–30,000 years ago. At the time, Homo sapiens wasn’t the […]

This week Professor Matthew Bailes won the Prime Minister’s 2024 Prize for Science for his ground-breaking work on gravitational waves and fast radio bursts. Two years ago Bailes talked to our reporter Graem Sims, explaining his excitement about the growing understanding about the value of radio waves. A lot of undergraduate physics is taught using […]

The motion of falling snowflakes can be used to help predict precipitation, according to a new study. The research, which modelled 3D-printed ice crystals falling in glycerine, could be used to improve weather and cloud predictions. The study is published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. Modelled falling snowflakes. Credit: Stout et al., 2024, Atmospheric Chemistry […]

A breakdancer who had been headspinning for more than 19 years developed a growth on his scalp that needed surgical removal. The man, who is in his early 30s, has recovered well from the surgery according to Danish doctors. They’ve published a paper in BMJ Case Reports. The researchers say the case “underscores the importance […]

Chris Gibson is a Senior Professor in the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities at the University of Wollongong. For his ARC Fellowship, he is investigating how decarbonisation impacts Australian regions. Professor Chris Gibson: finding a truce in the climate wars. Decarbonisation and energy transition are at the sharp edge of a hot political battle. […]

The printing press – and a particular manual it printed – played a big role in early modern witch trials, according to a fascinating new study. Between 1450 and 1750, some 90,000 people were put on trial for being witches across Europe.  About 45,000 of these people were executed. Reasons for the fervour of this […]

When you’re pregnant, most guidelines recommend keeping caffeine intake to roughly 200mg (or 1 espresso) per day. But the evidence on coffee and pregnancy is still contested. A new study hasn’t found any strong links between coffee drinking during pregnancy and child brain development. The study, done on a Norwegian cohort, is published in Psychological […]

A trio of scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work using computing and artificial intelligence to unlock the secrets of protein structure. “One of the discoveries being recognised this year concerns the construction of spectacular proteins,” says Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry. “The other is […]

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) has announced the immediate cancellation of the controversial herbicide chlorthal dimethyl, also known as Dacthal or DCPA. The cancellation follows evidence that chlorthal dimethyl can cause damage to the development of unborn babies. The herbicide is currently used in 12 products in Australia, all of which are […]

Evidence is mounting that Uranus moon Ariel may be the latest world found to have, or once have had, a subsurface ocean, scientists have revealed at a meeting in Idaho in the US today. If so, that brings to at least 10 the number of such worlds identified as such since NASA announced its astrobiology […]

In a field 40km down the road from Warrnambool in Western Victoria, scientists are beginning the next stage of a long-term carbon storage project. The Otway International Test Centre, run by the CO2CRC, has been injecting carbon dioxide into the ground for 20 years. This month, it’s starting Stage 4 of the research, pumping 15,000  tonnes […]

The worlds of physics and computer science are abuzz as this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to two trailblazers in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies. John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton share the prize. Hopfield, an emeritus professor at Princeton University in the US, invented in 1982 an artificial network that can […]

Your closest biodiversity hotspot could be found no further than the bathroom. According to new research in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, showerheads and toothbrushes are home to a diverse community of viruses – most of which are currently unknown to science. “The number of viruses that we found is absolutely wild,” says Erica M. […]

NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new details in Mars’s Gale crater which helps explain how the Red Planet went from one with a climate with liquid water to the inhospitable place it is today. It may help scientists determine if there ever was life on Mars. Evidence gained by rovers on Mars makes the pretty […]