How does fake tan work, and why does it sometimes smell ‘biscuity’?
Real tans come from UV-triggered pigment production in living skin; that same UV exposure increases the…
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Honey bee hives have ‘living immune systems’ which defend against disease
Open a honey bee hive on a warm afternoon and the first thing you’ll notice is…
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We found the hidden force that created two chains of underwater volcanoes running side by side
Lord Howe Island sits about 600 kilometres off the New South Wales coast, a crescent of…
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Why nonalcoholic wine is so expensive
The nonalcoholic beverage industry is booming, with sales growing 20% every year since 2022. But even…
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Are nonalcoholic drinks worth it?
08/20/26 correction: the voiceover @ 4:58 should say “decreasing pressure to lower the boiling point of…
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Australia needs more people who think like scientists. Here’s what that means
How we think and feel about science develops from an early age – and we never…
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A volcano in the Philippines erupted two weeks ago. Here’s why scientists are still watching it closely
Two weeks ago, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded three distinct, short-lived explosions in…
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Microbes destroyed an ancient pterosaur’s wingbone, then preserved it for 100 million years
More than 100 million years ago, a flying reptile called a pterosaur flew over the oceans…
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500-million-year-old fossil helps fill a strange gap in our record of life on Earth
Roughly 500 million years ago, a strange event in the evolution of life on Earth seems…
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A meteor exploded in the sky above New South Wales. An astronomer explains where it might have come from
The speed of the fireball is one indicator of this – the faster an object is…
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Some technologies use accelerated natural processes to capture carbon – but can they store it durably?
Natural geological processes have been regulating Earth’s climate for millions of years. Accelerated versions of these…
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Tiny fossils found in 1.7 billion-year-old mud yield clues to the evolution of complex life
Stored in an open-air warehouse in tropical Darwin, Australia, are dozens of trays containing cylindrical cores…
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Ban ‘forever chemicals’ in uniforms and frying pans, MPs urge
“It’s staggering, they’re in so many products. A lot of the time, they’re put in from…
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We keep finding the raw material of DNA in asteroids—what’s it telling us?
On Monday, a paper announcing that all four DNA bases had been found on an asteroid…
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Oil, petrol, gasoline: a chemical engineer explains how crude turns into fuel
As the US–Israel war on Iran escalates, so too does the global oil crisis. The effective…
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Rising CO₂ levels are reflected in human blood. Scientists don’t know what it means
Humans evolved in an atmosphere containing roughly 200–300 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO₂)….
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3D-printed ‘ghost guns’ are not as untraceable as criminals think – new study
In one filament for example, we found signs of a compatibiliser – an additive that helps…
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AI is failing ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’. So what does that mean for machine intelligence?
How do you translate ancient Palmyrene script from a Roman tombstone? How many paired tendons are…
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Ancient African bedrock reveals the violent beginnings of life on our blue planet
You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA’s rovers….
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How do I make clear ice at home? A food scientist shares easy tips
When you splurge on a cocktail in a bar, the drink often comes with a slab…
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Who was Amelia Frank? The life of a forgotten physicist
In 1977, an American physicist named John H. Van Vleck won the Nobel prize for his…
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Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain – and the consequences could be global
If you ever find yourself on Macquarie Island – a narrow, wind-lashed ridge halfway between Tasmania…
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Mineral vs chemical sunscreens? Science shows the difference is smaller than you think
“Mineral-only” sunscreens are making huge inroads into the sunscreen market, driven by fears of “chemicals”, a…
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Neural network finds an enzyme that can break down polyurethane
You’ll often hear plastic pollution referred to as a problem. But the reality is that it’s…
