AI heavyweights call for end to ‘superintelligence’ research
I have worked in AI for more than three decades, including with pioneers such as John…
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Should humans colonise space? We asked 5 experts
For roughly 4.5 billion years, the Moon has kept Earth company. In the much shorter span…
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Worried about turning 60? Science says that’s when many of us actually peak
As your youth fades further into the past, you may start to fear growing older. But…
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And then there were none: Australia’s only shrew declared extinct
For many years the Christmas Island shrew prospered. When European naturalists first visited Christmas Island in…
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Termite farmers fine-tune their weed control
Odontotermes obesus is one of the termite species that grows fungi, called Termitomyces, in their mounds….
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What’s the difference between moths and butterflies? Look at their antennae
As the weather starts to warm in Australia, you might notice the pleasant flutter of butterflies…
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Birds all over the world use the same sound to warn of threats
Language enables us to connect with each other and coordinate to achieve incredible feats. Our ability…
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Many animals can reshape and shed their teeth – and now scientists have traced this ability back 380 million years
The first evidence of teeth in any vertebrate (back-boned animal) is in primitive armoured fishes called…
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Warn, hide or stand out? How colour in the animal world is a battle for survival
The animal world is incredibly colourful, and behind this colour palette is a constant game of…
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Fish ‘fingerprints’ in the ocean reveal which species are moving homes due to climate change
Species across the planet are on the move. Climate change has already caused more than 12,000…
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How do flowers know it’s spring? A botanist explains
So most plants measure day length using a green pigment called phytochrome (literally plant colour). This…
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Australia has some new marsupial species – but they’re already extinct
You are probably familiar with kangaroos. Wallabies too, and most likely quokkas as well. Less famous…
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Research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed
DOI: Archaeometry, 2025. 10.1111/arcm.70030 (About DOIs). DOI: Journal of Medieval History, 2025. 10.1080/03044181.2025.2546884 (About DOIs). Snails…
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See Earth’s seasons in all their complexity in a new animated map
The annual clock of the seasons – winter, spring, summer, autumn – is often taken as…
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The discovery of an extinct shelduck highlights the rich ancient biodiversity of the remote Rēkohu Chatham Islands
Islands are natural laboratories where evolution can run rampant as plants and animals adapt to new…
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Whales and dolphins regularly hang out with each other – new study
As the annual humpback whale migration is underway with thousands of whales passing by the Australian…
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Rewilding leopard sharks in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago | 101 East #shorts
Leopard sharks were once abundant in the waters of Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, but commercial fishing…
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This stone tool is over 1 million years old. How did its maker get to Sulawesi without a boat?
Our discovery also leads us to wonder what might have happened to Homo erectus on the…
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An underwater observatory keeping the pulse of the Southern Ocean for nearly 30 years yields fresh results
In a world affected by climate change, the Southern Ocean plays an outsized role. It absorbs…
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Five arms, no heart and a global family: what DNA revealed about the weird deep-sea world of brittle stars
You may have read that the deep sea is a very different environment from the land…
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Birds use hidden black and white feathers to make themselves more colourful
Birds are perhaps the most colourful group of animals, bringing a splash of colour to the…
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New study peers beneath the skin of iconic lizards to find ‘chainmail’ bone plates – and lots of them
Monitor lizards, also known in Australia as goannas, are some of the most iconic reptiles on…
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Scientists could be accidentally damaging fossils with a method we thought was safe
Fossils are invaluable archives of the past. They preserve details about living things from a few…
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The southern hemisphere is full of birds found nowhere else on Earth. Their importance has been overlooked
The snow petrel, a strikingly white bird with black eyes and a black bill, is one…
