Category: News

New software which offers scientists and researchers an easy way to analyse, model and visualise scientific datasets has been released by CSIRO. The free software, known as Workspace, is purpose-built for scientific applications and allows researchers to present their findings through stunning visualisations. Developed over the past eight years at CSIRO, Workspace has already been…

Just what is an author? It might seem like a silly question, and an academic dissection of the term may seem like a needlessly pedantic exercise. But the very variability of the concept means it isn’t a stable, fixed idea at all, but a shifting set of associations we have with notions about creativity, the…

Professor Carola Vinuesa from the John Curtin School of Medical Research has been awarded the inaugural CSL Young Florey Medal for her research into how the immune system produces antibodies to fight disease. “I’m very honoured and flattered,” said Professor Vinuesa. “I think it’s a reward not just for me, but for the many people…

A research centre exploring new technologies for improving crop yields to secure food supply has been launched at the Research School of Biology. The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Translational Photosynthesis seeks to increase yields of major crops such as wheat and rice by improving the way that plants capture the…

When it comes to matters of broad scientific consensus, I’m generally inclined to offer provisional assent. Like everyone else, I have to rely on the expertise of others in matters outside my ken, and in many cases, this rational appeal to authority is the best one can do without acquiring the relevant qualifications and years…

Here we are with new fascinating stories for this week. This time we plan to concentrate on mind and learning phenomena. You will see how new technologies affected our brains, how our mind stays stable during learning, what the point of mind games is and much more. So, please come with us and enjoy this…

Laser physicists have built a tractor beam that can repel and attract objects, using a hollow laser beam that is bright around the edges and dark in its centre. It is the first long-distance optical tractor beam and moved particles one fifth of a millimetre in diameter a distance of up to 20 centimetres, around…

CSIRO, St Vincent’s Hospital and Victorian biotech company Anatomics have joined together to carry out world-first surgery to implant a titanium-printed heel bone into a Melbourne man. Printed using CSIRO’s state-of-the-art Arcam 3D printer, the heel bone was implanted into 71-year-old Len Chandler, a builder from Rutherglen Victoria, who was facing amputation of the leg…

With college tuitions ballooning to the point of implosion, and free educational content proliferating online, the future of education is a scorching hot topic. So where are we heading? Coursera and Khan Academy? Video game-based curricula? Experience-driven microlearning? Or school buildings that moonlight as candy? So suggested one of the younger participants in a workshop…

Scientists have solved a long-standing mystery surrounding Australia’s only active volcanic area, in the country’s southeast. The research explains a volcanic region that has seen more than 400 volcanic events in the past four million years. The 500 kilometre long region stretches from Melbourne to the South Australian town of Mount Gambier, which surrounds a…

The sixth session of the Conference of the parties (COP6) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) concluded recently in Moscow. Several landmark decisions were adopted in the course of the six-day session, regarded as one of the most successful in the WHO FCTC’s history. In her opening speech, WHO Director-General Dr Margaret…

Scientists have found evidence for a huge mountain range that sustained an explosion of life on Earth 600 million years ago. The mountain range was similar in scale to the Himalayas and spanned at least 2,500 kilometres of modern west Africa and northeast Brazil, which at that time were part of the supercontinent Gondwana. “Just…

New Sunday, new editor’s choices! In comparison with the previous one, which brought us heaps of Nobel awards, this one seems as quite peaceful and usual. But, is it? Throughout today’s selection, we will hear more about the future of Mars One project, we will also get familiar with the cyber threats of the coming…

Winning a Nobel Prize has its perks. When you talk, people listen. And you end up doing a lot of talking. And travelling. Reflecting on how the Nobel Prize changed his life, Walter Gilbert (1980 winner in Chemistry) commented, “You can find yourself spending years travelling and talking right after winning.” And what if you…