Science & Environment
Prescribing a ‘dose of nature’ delivers health budget savings
Researchers find It can pay to look after nature with each visit to a national park saving the health system almost $100.
Science & Environment
Bird flu ‘panic’: Dire advice to pet owners not to release exotic birds into Aussie bush
Authorities are warning that one of Australian’s most popular pets – the rose-ringed parakeet – could become our next “extreme” pest.
Nature & Wildlife
Moonstruck: How lunar light influences animal behaviour
Lunar animal research is receiving the technological and methodological breakthroughs necessary for the next wave of intriguing findings.
Space
A ringed planet Earth?
Ask almost anyone which planet has rings around it, and you’ll get the answer “Saturn”, especially if they’ve ever viewed it through a telescope. But not many people know that the other gas giants in our Solar System – Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune – also have rings, although they’re much fainter than those of Saturn.
News
A helping (robotic) hand for coral
In a world-first, CSIRO scientists have developed a soft robotic ‘hand’ to assist coral propagation efforts in laboratories.
Nature & Wildlife
Skink on the brink
It’s difficult to locate an animal small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. But these Monash University researchers gave everything to their search – and found not one, but 23 critically-endangered long sunskinks.
Science & Environment
Formidable fire ants
The fight is on to stop one of Australia’s smallest but most aggressive invasive species.
Opinion & Analysis
OPINION: The nature target shortfalls of COP16
The recent COP16 biodiversity conference in Colombia was a chance to check on targets aimed at rescuing the world’s threatened plants and animals. There were some successes but, ultimately, it did not deliver all that was hoped for, writes Dr James Fitzsimons.
Land
A $13 billion, 30-year flop: Landmark report argues stark failure to halt Murray-Darling river system decline
Some A$13 billion in taxpayer dollars and 30 years of policy reform have failed to arrest the devastating decline in the health of Australia’s most important river system, researchers argue.
Nature & Wildlife
Using cane toads to destroy cane toads: how ‘Peter Pan’ tadpoles are keeping these pests from ever growing up
Researchers from Sydney’s Macquarie University have discovered cane toad tadpoles are cannibalistic and can help stop the spread of their fellow toads if they remain in their pre-metamorphosis state.