History & Culture Meet the prehistoric sea scorpions that once terrorised Australia …Paleozoic oceans, you may have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to find one of the most fearsome of these extinct arthropods: the sea scorpions, Eurypterida. Our new research, published in…
Nature & Wildlife How we can save the weird parrot Kakapo …of edible fruit or seeds. Our research suggests that the birds’ breeding success depends on oestrogen-like hormones (phytoestrogens) found in these native plants. Kakapo are so rare that each bird…
Nature & Wildlife How much plastic does it take to kill a turtle? …Research Scientist at the CSIRO; Kathy Ann Townsend is a Lecturer in Animal Ecology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, and Qamar Schuyler is a Research Scientist at Oceans…
News Spiders customise webs based on diet DEPENDING ON THEIR nutrient needs, spiders can customise their webs to catch different types of prey, new research suggests. Spider webs are specialised tools for catching prey and each species…
Nature & Wildlife Clear-cutting koala country …the survey work, which, Dean explains, include broad-area habitat searches, acoustic wildlife monitoring and, most recently, thermal drone imaging to help better understand how wildlife populations respond to timber harvesting…
Ancient earthquakes point to modern dangers …North Island. The research was presented in September at the European Science Foundation Conference, held in Austria. Finding faults Using sonar to scan layers underneath sea floor, the scientists have…
Nature & Wildlife Sixteen-year-long study reveals secret lives of purple-crowned fairy-wrens …secret lives of these elusive birds as part of a 16-year research collaboration with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. The research project, which closely monitors a 15 kilometre stretch of land…
Sleep: we need it and we still don't know why …important for memory consolidation, and the flip side, forgetting,” says Associate Professor Kurt Lushington, director of the Centre for Sleep Research at the University of South Australia. “You need to…
Biodiversity Biodiversity hotspot in WA explained RESEARCH INTO THE birds and mammals that pollinate banksias and eucalypts in south-west Western Australia is challenging existing theories on the region’s enormous biodiversity. The Southwest Australia Ecoregion is a…
News Plants can learn new tricks THEY MAY LOOK BENIGN, but plants are much more intelligent than we think. New Australian research has shown that plants are capable of learning new tricks. The Mimosa pudica, known…
