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By Mike McRae This activity uses water and food colouring to explore fluid systems. It’s a good idea to do this activity in a safe place outside, and to wear old clothes while you do it! Safety: This activity uses hot water, so younger scientists should ask an adult to help.  

Written by Beth Askham How can we predict extreme weather events like the Sydney storm in Australia last week? The wild storm that hit Sydney was the result of a weather system called an east coast low.

Written by Beth Askham Even though it has the cutest smile in the marsupial world, quokkas still need a good supply of food, water and rest spots to survive. The biggest population of these adorable marsupials live on Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth in Western Australia.

Written by Beth Askham Sometimes smelling like your environment is the best way to blend in and hide from predators. On the Great Barrier Reef, the harlequin filefish shelters in coral branches overnight. Researchers have found that these fish not only look like coral, they smell like it too.

Written by Julia Cleghorn Imagine you’re walking on your own through the forest, late at night, and suddenly stumble across a giant, hairy spider. Frightening thought? Best not to dwell on it too much then. It did happen, though, to an entomologist – and what better day to discuss it than Halloween!

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.

You may have heard a climate scientist talking about ‘parts per million’ or ppm. If you want to get a handle on what that means, and how much CO2 is in our atmosphere, you’ve come to the right place!

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 Neha Karl When waste isn’t disposed of carefully, it can find its way into rivers and oceans. This human made litter can be very harmful for marine animals, including sea turtles. There are seven threatened species of marine turtle and we have six of them here in Australia.

Written by Neha Karl Plants are a gift of nature. They provide food to eat, release oxygen into the air we breathe, and make our world a whole lot greener. And soon, they could be a supercharged source of energy! Just as plants grow and develop, so does technology.