Palaeontology has gone high-tech: no more wax and plaster-cast models. Instead, 3D data from computed tomography (CT) scans is overturning long-held views of how the earliest land animals moved.
Research…
Chief Scientist Ian Chubb's report, released today, presents some serious concerns for the future of Australian science.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Chief Scientist Ian Chubb’s Health of Australian Science report, launched today at the National Press Club, starts on an optimistic note. Australian science is generally in good health: school students…
There are concerns about the take-up of science subjects by students.
Ahd Photography
The Office of the Chief Scientist today releases the Health of Australian Science report and it’s an intriguing read.
The report was compiled to help the office and the public understand the current state…
How can consumers get what they want on an NBN-enabled Australia without getting wires crossed?
NBNCO
Unless you’ve been boycotting all forms of media in the past five years, you’ll be aware that the National Broadband Network (NBN) is well and truly on its way.
For some of us the NBN is already here…
Google could face fines if it doesn't address alleged anti-competitive practices.
mark knol
The European Commission (EC) has given Google “a matter of weeks” to address concerns the American search giant has “abused a dominant market position”.
The announcement overnight (AEST) follows an 18…
An LED light-trail shows a self-guiding bullet correcting its trajectory mid-flight.
Sandia National Laboratories
At the beginning of this year Sandia Labs in the United States announced it had patented a design for a self-guided bullet that could help soldiers at war. The technology is expected to prevent the need…
The global push to detect gravitational waves could provide an enormous return for science.
Wikimedia Commons
Albert Einstein made an executive decision to revolutionise our understanding of gravity in a paper published in 1916. Nearly 100 years on, a key prediction of Einstein’s theory has eluded direct detection…
Semantic search is about recognising the meaning of words, not just the words themselves.
Chris P Jobling
Late last week, Google representatives unveiled a significant enhancement to the company’s ubiquitous search engine. They’re calling it the “Knowledge Graph” and claiming it will support “more intelligent…
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stands in front of a Falcon 9 rocket at SpaceX's launch site in Florida.
SpaceX
Late tomorrow evening (AEST), all going well, a Falcon 9 rocket will lift-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A few days after launch the craft will rendezvous in low-Earth orbit with the International Space…
A new study has shown better-than-chance recognition of gay people by participants.
Official U.S. Navy Imagery
In the last few years, several laboratory studies have shown that, to some extent, we can tell whether someone is gay or straight, just by glimpsing their face.
When asked to categorise male and female…
Is Australia's standing among OECD countries of national value, or apples and oranges?
japi14
By Rod Lamberts, Australian National University and Will J Grant, Australian National University
How well does Australia’s science, research and innovation system perform compared to other developed nations?
The Office of Australia’s Chief Scientist has just released a report addressing this question…
A woman drinks using a robotic arm, something she hasn't been able to do with her own arms for 15 years.
Nature
The world of brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a new posterchild. A study on people with tetraplegia, published in Nature, has shown participants were able to control a robotic arm and hand over a broad…
Despite being considered a scientific taboo in the past, the study of consciousness is slowly gaining momentum.
emmakate deuchars
Until 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting…
Syria crisis: the violence mapped by the UN
FreedomHouse
Web 2.0 tools and mobile technologies have lowered the barriers not just for people to access the internet but to create and share content. Through open-source, collaborative programs such as wikis, the…
Nations half the size of Australia spend more on scientific research, have higher employment levels for scientists, and greater appeal to foreign investors, according to a report on Australia’s global…
Where there's mineral wealth, people always follow.
MGM
As history has repeatedly shown, where there are valuable minerals to be unearthed, adventurous humans will arrive in droves – even if it means battling extreme conditions and risking life and limb.
So…
Female wasp spiders often eat their mate straight after intercourse.
Wikimedia Commons
When it comes to selecting a mate, females are traditionally thought of as the choosy sex; males, meanwhile, aren’t thought to be particularly picky.
This makes sense for many species – the sex that invests…
Is aversion and/or attraction to red a biological or cultural construct?
Yogurinha Borova
Colour is an extraordinary motivator. We sensibly caution against waving a red rag to a bull to avoid provocation – worthy but curious advice, since bulls cannot distinguish red from other colours.
We…
Society as we know it may depend on lies more than we realise.
ireland :)
Recent research in residential aged care by Anthony Tuckett from the University of Queensland has illustrated that, in some instances, lying is not only necessary, it’s actually virtuous. It is a complex…
You want the truth? You can't handle the … wait: it's actually quite simple.
Daveblog
Calling something a “scientific truth” is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it carries a kind of epistemic (how we know) credibility, a quality assurance that a truth has been arrived at in an understandable…
Will opening the door to region-specific content invoke the ire of rights holders?
AZRainman
The launch of a new internet service provider (ISP) in New Zealand isn’t something that would normally be worth mentioning.
But the launch of FYX (pronounced “fix”) by established online services provider…
Short urls serve a purpose for users and their creators alike.
Mexicanwave
With each passing day commercial interests seem to find new ways to harness the tools on which the web was built.
Policy initiatives such as the US’s now-defunct SOPA and in-progress CISPA now involve…
What part do superstition and inconsistency play in contemporary genetic research?
DNA Art Online
By David Wilson, Technical University of Braunschweig
I’ve been an ecologist in Australia for the last ten years, working for both government agencies and as a university researcher. Over this time, funding for fieldwork has been increasingly hard to secure…
Could hacking Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant lead to a fruitful career?
Hegemony77 doll clothes
As reported late last week, Facebook is encouraging hackers to try hacking its security systems to find weaknesses.
Those who succeed will receive a reward of US$500 or more and have their name added…
Should cannabis to be considered a "performance-enhancing" drug by the World Anti-Doping Agency?
pietroizzo
It has been widely reported that representatives from a group of Australian sporting codes – including athletics, cricket, rugby league and Australian Rules Football – met with the director-general of…
