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Earlier this year, South Australia’s wheat growers in the Yorke Peninsula had one of the worst mouse plagues on record. Thousands of mice ate seeds that had been sown by farmers. The areas to the south and east of Australia are the worst places in the world for mouse plagues.

Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator, arrived on Tuesday to its home port of Hobart. The ship will soon take scientists and high-tech equipment to the watery parts of the world; to measure the weather, take samples from the sea floor and study marine life.

Written by Sarah Kellett Little penguins spend their days finding food at sea. With the help of location-tracking devices, researchers have found out that the smallest species of penguin tends to travel the sea in groups, and may dive at the same time while hunting fish.

Written by Sarah Kellett The largest outbreak of Ebola ever recorded is happening in West Africa. Since February this year, more than 1000 people have been killed by the Ebola virus. Last week, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

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 Sarah Kellett Can we power our homes with the process that powers stars? Nuclear fusion offers to do just that, and scientists are looking for ways to harness this energy with experiments that run hotter than the Sun.

Written by Sarah Kellett Wheat is Australia’s main winter crop. Sown in autumn and harvested in spring or summer, it provides us with flour to make our daily bread. We eat wheat as toast with vegemite, or sandwiches for lunch. But wheat is not for everyone

Written by Sarah Kellett 3D printers can create toys, bicycle parts and models of dinosaur bones. Bioprinters are 3D printers with a difference. They can actually print structures containing living cells, the same kind of cells that make up the human body!

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.