Blog

Wherever you are in the world, you may have noticed a change in the weather. Over the course of a year, there are periodic changes in things like temperature, rainfall and the amount of daylight. These changes allow us to divide the year into seasons.

Diamonds hold a special place in our imagination: they’re valuable, extremely hard, and sometimes just really pretty. Chemically speaking, diamonds are simple – they’re carbon. Carbon is an important element. All living things are made of compounds that contain carbon. One property of carbon is its ability to form allotropes. Allotropes contain the same element, […]

Humans have been modifying their bodies for millennia. The 5000-year-old, freeze-dried remains of a man found in the Ötztal Alps of Europe was tattooed with lines. People from cultures around the world still mark their bodies with scars, stretch their lips and earlobes, or undergo painful ceremonies to adorn their bodies with symbols and markings.

Birds are an important part of many ecosystems. New Australian research shows that bird feathers could be used to measure just how healthy some ecosystems are.

Africa’s rhinoceros populations are under threat – only 5000 black rhinos and 20 000 white rhinos are left in the wild. A major cause in their decline is illegal hunting for their famous horns, used in ornamental weapons and traditional Chinese medicine.

Flowers have adaptations such as vivid colours and strong scents to attract bees. According to recent research, they might also have a more electric way of bringing all the bees to the yard.

A meteor caused quite a stir near Chelyabinsk in central Russia last week. While countless tiny meteors fly across Earth’s sky every day, this particular ‘shooting star’ was much more spectacular – video footage of the event shows a fireball streaking across the sky before exploding.

Written by Beth Askham The winners of this year’s BHP Billiton Science and Engineering Awards have been announced! The award ceremony wrapped up an exciting four days where the finalists traveled to Melbourne for a science camp they will never forget.

The graves of kings and emperors: pyramids in Egypt, terracotta armies in China and … a car park in England? A team from the University of Leicester announced they discovered the remains of King Richard III under a council car park.

Recent interviews with cyclist Lance Armstrong made headlines around the world. He admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France. Scientists have overcome many hurdles to develop the drug testing that underpins this revelation.