Blog

By Michelle Wheeler Summer scorcher and no air-con? Dunking your feet in water can make the heat more bearable, Aussie research suggests. Sponging yourself all over is even better, and has the added benefit of lowering your heart rate.

Have you ever wondered why many old paintings are so shiny? It’s not the paint they used – it’s a varnish that’s applied on top of the paint. These chemicals are designed to enhance and protect precious artworks. And CSIRO just formulated a new varnish that’s taking the art world by storm!

Imagine you’re at university, doing a maths quiz, with a calculator provided. The problem you’re tasked with reads, “Your grandmother was born in 1942, how old was she in 1994?” You think for a moment and realise it’s a subtraction problem. Into your calculator, you type “1994 – 1942”, and then triumphantly, you record the […]

If you’re a bit of a germophobe, we have bad news for you. There are a lot of Australians who aren’t washing their hands nearly enough. That’s the conclusion of new research from the Food Safety Information Council.

It’s spring, and in many areas of Australia that means it’s magpie swooping season. But next time you’re ducking an angry bird, be thankful you live now and not 90 million years ago. Back then, the swooping might have come from something much larger.

By Andrea Wild and Bryan Lessard Insect populations boom during warmer and wetter months. But have you ever wondered where they go during winter?

Double Helix magazine is packed with news, facts, fun experiments and giveaways, perfect for enquiring minds. Editor of the magazine, Jasmine Fellows, takes us behind the scenes to explain how they create each issue.

People have been dreaming of flying cars for more than a century, and they’re almost here. There are plans to test a flying taxi from Melbourne airport as soon as next year. Flying cars are quick and oh-so-cool, but are they good for the planet?

Is there a chemical element you love the most? To celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table in 2019, Double Helix is running a poetry competition for school-aged students with support from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). Meet our chemistry expert and competition judge, Michelle Neil!

Have you ever wished you had superhuman reflexes? In a simple but effective experiment, scientists from Sony Computer Science Laboratories and the University of Chicago used electrodes to improve people’s reaction times.