Blog

Written by Beth Askham Emotions can run high in the twitterverse. Tweets about feelings can now be mapped to find the mood of a city, nation or area. An online tool called We Feel, developed by CSIRO researchers, scans up to 32 000 tweets per minute. It recognises a range of words to judge how […]

Written by Celia Berrell A one-kilometre single thread each silkworm spins as a cocoon bed. That protein-filled strand, untangled and long, makes fine-woven fabrics so light, yet strong. Surgery too has discovered silk’s riches. Incredibly thin for dissolvable stitches.

Written by Sarah Kellett On Saturn’s largest moon, the hills are named after hobbits and elves, and the lakes after lakes on Earth. Titan is, in many ways, the most Earth-like world we’ve ever found.

Written by Sarah Kellett Humans produce a lot of waste, from flushing toilets to mining metals, like the copper in electrical wires that power computers, phones and tablets. To clean up our act, a new way to purify contaminated wastewater from mines has been developed by CSIRO scientists.

Written by Sarah Kellett A whispering gallery of light has made the world’s most sensitive thermometer yet.

Written by Sarah Kellett Cross-species communication between citrus plants, bacteria, jumping plant lice and wasps begins with a fresh, minty smell.

Written by Sarah Kellett The eyes have it. Bright, colourful butterflies and birds easily catch our attention. But to visualise bacteria, we need to get creative, and combine art and science.

Written by Sarah Kellett Our Sun has a neighbour, and it’s as cold as the North Pole. An invisible brown dwarf has been found a mere 7.2 light years away, by space telescopes searching in the infrared.

Written by Michele Weber Coral reefs have much in common with rainforests: both are full of life, but are low in nutrients. How is that possible? As far as a coral reef goes, it’s because marine sponges produce waste that contains food that other reef animals can eat.

Written by Sarah Kellett The way a moth’s eyes have adapted to darkness may help us stop glare from the Sun. Despite their tendency to circle light bulbs, moths have eyes that are designed for darkness. Each eye has a bumpy pattern that stops light reflecting off the surface, possibly helping the moth see in […]