Today’s story picks

Kangaroos a high point in evolution

People who live outside Australia often regard kangaroos as strange, specialised, relic animals. Not so, says palaeontologist Dr Ben Kear at La Trobe University in Melbourne. They represent a high point in mammal evolution, he says, a generalised body plan that has adapted to a wide [...]

Read the full article →

From Roman nanocrystals to new gold catalysts

Two thousand years ago Roman glass blowers used gold nanocrystals to create vases with brilliant colours ranging from red to purple. Today, gold nanocrystals are being used as catalysts in chemical reactions and may even become high-density data storage devices. Gold nanocrystals aren’t gold in colour. [...]

Read the full article →

Vaccine hope for shellfish allergies

A new oral vaccine against shellfish allergies is being developed by researchers at RMIT University. Assoc. Prof. Andreas Lopata and his team in RMIT’s School of Applied Sciences are working to help find a different method for vaccination against the potentially deadly allergy. “We want to create [...]

Read the full article →

Erosion and dams threaten barramundi and prawn fisheries

Kilometre-wide erosion gullies eating their way across Australia’s northern landscape are proving likely culprits as the main source of the sediments that are flushed into the Gulf of Carpentaria each year, possibly smothering prawn and barramundi breeding and rearing habitats. Researchers involved in the Tropical Rivers [...]

Read the full article →


You can also sample the stories by: