Author: Editorial Board

Behind USA, Australia is the largest waste producer, per person, in the world. The average Australian citizen produces over 650 kg of waste per year, making a family of 4 produce enough waste to fill a three – bedroom house, from the floor to the ceiling! Annually, we contribute to over 18 million tonnes of…

“Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour,” could be still an actual description of our ability to predict asteroid threats to Earth. The sentence from the Bible (Matthew 25:13) sound like a reminder of a vast number of more than 1,500 currently potentially hazardous objects, floating in space, meandering around in…

Large numbers of kangaroos are threatening an endangered species and are eating some lizards out of house and home, new research has found. Australian National University (ANU) researcher Brett Howland has found large kangaroo numbers destroy the grassland habitats of reptiles. “When there are too many kangaroos, they over-graze grasslands until they are like a…

The number of people dying from malaria has fallen dramatically since 2000 and malaria cases are also steadily declining, according to the World malaria report 2014. Between 2000 and 2013, the malaria mortality rate decreased by 47% worldwide and by 54% in the WHO African Region – where about 90% of malaria deaths occur. New…

International scientists have carried out the most detailed study of how specialised body cells can be reprogrammed to be like cells from the early embryo. The findings are a major advance in stem cell science and could help usher in a new era of regenerative medicine, where a small sample of a patient’s cells could…

The ANU and CSIRO have joined forces in a new collaborative precinct to help build a sustainable future for the environment, agriculture and global food supplies. The National Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Precinct (NAESP) was launched by the Minister for Industry the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP. The NAESP will bring together the best research brains…

Nature announced that it will make all of its articles free to view, read, and annotate online. That applies to the historic science journal (launched in 1869) and to 48 other scientific journals in Macmillan’s Nature Publishing Group (NPG). Other titles include Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine and Nature Physics. But there are a whole lot…

An international team of scientists has discovered the earliest known engravings from human ancestors on a 400,000 year-old fossilised shell from Java. The discovery is the earliest known example of ancient humans deliberately creating pattern. “It rewrites human history,” said Dr Stephen Munro from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology. “This is the first time…

Swedish animator Erik Wernquist calls his short science fiction film, Wanderers, a speculative look at “humanity’s future expansion into the Solar System,” a “glimpse of the fantastic and beautiful nature that surrounds us on our neighboring worlds,” and “how it might appear to us if we were there.” The locations shown in Wanderers are all…

A new report by Deloitte Access Economics, commissioned by The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Canberra (UC), found the two leading institutions contributed more than $1.7 billion of activity to the ACT economy. The report underlines Canberra’s strength as a university town and demonstrates the importance of the higher education sector to…

America embarks on a long-lasting trip to Mars this Thursday. Orion’s maiden flight, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), slated to test spacecraft’s crucial systems is a critical first step on our journey to destinations beyond Earth never before visited by humans, like asteroids and Mars. “Everyone is very excited about this mission,” Stephanie Schierholz, NASA spokesperson…

Australia’s vast and complex land surface has been exposed in new ways thanks to the most comprehensive nation-wide digital maps of our soils and landscapes yet produced. The entire country is now represented as a digital grid with two billion ‘pixels’ that are about 90 by 90 metres, down to a depth of two metres…

Scientists have confirmed a new bird species found in the tropical rainforests on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The Sulawesi Streaked Flycatcher (Muscicapa sodhii) lives in the forest canopy of the rugged hills of Sulawesi, and has heavily streaked underparts and relatively short wings. Ding Li Yong, a PhD student at the Fenner School of…