Archive for the ‘Science & nature’ Category

Forty-year mystery of Mars solved

A team of geophysicists has solved a 40-year-old mystery about Mars / NASA image Source: NASA A team of geophysicists has solved a 40-year-old mystery about Mars / NASA image Source: NASA Prev  of 2 Next ASTRONOMERS said they could explain a nearly four-decade-old enigma surrounding rugged troughs and a chasm in the northern ice cap […]

Magnetic discs could kill cancer

TINY magnetic discs just a millionth of a metre in diameter could be used to kill cancer cells, according to a study. Laboratory tests found the so-called “nanodiscs”, around 60 billionths of a metre thick, could be used to disrupt the membranes of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct. The discs are made from an […]

Earth days ‘shortened’ by earthquake

Please install the latest Flash player [To view Flash please enable JavaScript and Flash.] A Google Earth image of Chile, where a massive earthquake has affected the Earth’s axis / Google Earth Source: Supplied THE earthquake that has killed over 700 Chileans and displaced over two million more has now caused our days to be […]

Invisible star shooting comets at Earth

The dinosaurs may have died because an invisible brown dwarf star is throwing snowballs at us / AFP Source: AFP AN invisible star responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs may be circling the Sun and causing comets to bombard the Earth, scientists said. The brown dwarf – up to five times the size of Jupiter […]

Look out! It’s the end of the world

How Sydney could look if the world ended in 2012. Picture: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Source: Supplied How Bondi Beach could look if the world ended in 2012. Picture: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Source: Supplied How Sydney, and the iconic Opera House, could look if the world ended in 2012. Picture: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment […]

Jesus returns for Last Supper upsize

An academic says food portion sizes have grown by biblical proportions, as shown by the painting of the Last Supper / AP Source: AP WE’VE been overeating our way through ever-larger portions over the past 1000 years, a US study revealed after studying more than 50 paintings of the Biblical Last Supper. The study, by […]

Colonise space or else face ‘extinction’

Stephen Hawking says to a mathematician, the possibility of alien life is a “perfectly rational” concept / AP Source: AP MANKIND must look to colonize outer space within the next century or it will become extinct, renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking warned the Big Think website yesterday. Professor Hawking said the human race is entering […]

Boffins focus on first invisibility cloak

Alan Rickman, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe wear capes in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but how do you show a picture of something invisible? Source: News Limited US-based scientists claim to have reached a significant milestone in their efforts to create the world’s first invisibility cloak. Researchers at Boston University and Tufts […]

Volcano: we’re 3000 years overdue

A scientist warns Australia is due a volcanic explosion with hundreds of volcanoes potentially due to erupt/ AP Source: AP AS if bushfires, drought and floods aren’t enough, Australians have now been warned to watch out for volcanoes. A scientist has warned an eruption is “well overdue” and says there are hundreds of volcanoes that could […]

Sting-free honey bee gets federal funding

THE winners of this year’s Australian Research Council’s competitive grants scheme have been announced, with 1145 projects to receive $394 million. The Federal Government will hand out $760,000 to the University of New South Wales to research the effects of parents providing alcohol to children. The Australian National University will receive $347,000 to study the […]

Chimps prove grief not just for humans

Chimps line up to watch as Dorothy, who died of heart failure, is wheeled away / Picture: Monica Szczupider UNITED in what appears to be deep and profound grief, more than a dozen chimpanzees stand in silence as the body of one of their own is wheeled past. This extraordinary scene took place at the […]

Vaccine woes as whooping cough mutates

THE bacteria that causes whooping cough in Australia has mutated, scientists have warned, eroding the protection provided by the vaccine now given to children. Researchers from the University of New South Wales have identified significant changes in the two most common strains of the Bordetella pertussis bacteria, which they also traced back to events in […]

Volcanic vent could hold clues to life

A volcanic vent 5km below the surface of the Caribbean could hold the secret to how life formed on Earth / AP Source: AP SCIENTISTS using a remote-controlled submarine have discovered the world’s deepest known volcanic vent and say the super-heated waters inside could contain undiscovered marine species and perhaps even clues to the origin […]

Tibetans may be the fastest evolving race

TIBETANS may have undergone one of the fastest bouts of human evolution on record – Those having genes that allow them to thrive at high altitudes and low oxygen levels rose from 10 percent of the population to 90 percent in less than 3,000 years, a paper in the journal Science reports. One genetic variant, […]

Chickens aren’t bird-brains after all

Researchers believe chickens have their own language and Machiavellian tendencies like humans. Picture: Matt Turner Source: AdelaideNow PRIZE-winning research has found chickens speak their own language and have Machiavellian tendencies like humans. A study by Macquarie University’s Doctor Lynn Smith and Professor Chris Evans portrays chickens as social and intelligent creatures which adjust what they […]

Is Bear Grylls ‘afraid’ of crocodiles?

Set to be a hit … Bear Grylls’ Man vs Wild, first shown on the Discovery Channel on Foxtel, is proving successful for SBS. SURVIVALIST Bear Grylls has endured some of the most dangerous terrains in the world filming his Discovery Channel show, “Man vs. Wild,” but his second trip to Australia, which aired in […]

Female snails growing penises

FEMALE marine snails living off the Perth coast are growing male sex organs on their heads after exposure to the chemical TBT, according to local researchers. Curtin University researchers have revealed the snails are suffering from imposex, a condition that involves the development of a second sex organ after being exposed to the chemical. Unlike […]

Bones of 1.9m year-old boy found

Fossilised bones of the 1.9 million-year-old boy found in a South African cave. Picture: Kym Smith Source: The Daily Telegraph HE WAS probably 12 years old when he died, weighed about 30kg, would have been no taller than 1.2m – and lived 1.9 million years ago. This is Australopithecus sediba, a new species of hominid […]

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