Science

Shutterstock This year, Qantas announced two plans in direct conflict. In March, Australia's largest airline group went public with the admirable goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and a 25% reduction by 2030 by using new clean fuels, boosti...

Fabrice Demeter (University of Copenhagen / CNRS Paris) , Author provided What do a finger bone and some teeth found in the frigid Denisova Cave in Siberia's Altai mountains have in common with fossils from the balmy hills of tropical northern Laos? N...

Room for any more at NATO? Not according to Turkey's president. Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images After decades of neutrality, the two Scandinavian states that have to date remained out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have reacted to R...

Getty Images Until now, the government's approach to climate action has largely been about getting the policy architecture right. This work is vital, but it's more about rearranging possible futures, less about emissions reductions in the near ter...

A protein called ZNG1 helps cells make use of zinc when stores of this essential nutrient are running low. bagi1998/E+ via Getty Images All living things, including people, need zinc in their diets. Getting too little of this essential metal can impair gr...

Before the pandemic, an intergenerational tea party wouldn't have seemed a risky proposition. fotostorm/E+ via Getty Images "How risky is being indoors with our 10-year-old granddaughter without masks? We have plans to have birthday tea together. ...

Lake Powell's water level has been falling amid a two-decade drought. The white 'bathtub ring' on the canyon walls marks the decline. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images The water in Lake Powell, one of the nation's largest reservoirs, has fallen...

Decomposers at work: Shelf fungi feeding on a rotting log. Craig Joiner/Loop Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images It's no secret that Earth's biodiversity is at risk. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature , ...

A woman and her child seek help from CASA, an immigrants rights group, in Maryland in 2019. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images About 45 million Americans are immigrants , a near-record 14% of the population. Among them are, according to govern...

Queensland residents are facing yet another arduous clean-up after floods inundated roads and towns last week. In the current La Nia period, from November 2021 to present, at least 41 people have died (including three missing presumed dead) from floods ac...

Getty If a week is a long time in politics, three years is an eternity. Since the 2019 election, Australia has endured devastating megafires and unprecedented floods. Meanwhile, news of extreme weather such as India and Pakistan's horrific heatwaves h...

Shutterstock Energy is the double-edged sword at the root of the climate crisis. Cheap energy has improved lives and underpinned massive economic growth. But because most of it comes from burning hydrocarbon fuels, we're now left with a legacy of high...

Shutterstock When people hear the term "accessibility" in the context of disability, most will see images of ramps, automatic doors, elevators, or tactile paving (textured ground which helps vision impaired people navigate public spaces). These ar...

When does a 'clash' become an 'assault'? AP Photo/Maya Levin Israeli police attacked mourners carrying the coffin of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on May 13, 2022, beating pallbearers with batons and kicking them ...

Apps for tracking reproductive health are convenient, but the data they collect could be used against you. Tarik Kizilkaya/iStock via Getty Images When the draft of a Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to the press, many of ...

The death of Savita Halappanavar in an Irish hospital in 2012 after she was denied an abortion during a miscarriage caused outrage across Ireland. AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade , the 1973 decision that legalized...

The death of Savita Halappanavar in an Irish hospital in 2012 after she was denied an abortion during a miscarriage caused outrage across Ireland. AP Photo/Shawn Pogatchnik If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade , the 1973 decision that legalized...

Ione Quigley of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe during a ceremony in Carlisle, Pa., on July 14, 2021, marking the return to tribal lands in South Dakota of disinterred remains of nine Native American children who died more than a century ago while attending a gov...

An artist's concept of an astronaut walking on Mars. But what would happen if the astronaut weren't wearing a space helmet? cokada/E+ via Getty Images Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expe...

Shutterstock The animals and plants at risk of extinction finally made it onto the political agenda last week, as Labor and the Greens launched biodiversity policies ahead of the federal election. Labor's policies included new funding for the Great Ba...

Labor might be leading in the national polls, but a hung parliament after the May 21 election remains a distinct possibility. So-called "teal" independents, whose blue conservatism is tinged with green concern for climate change, may well join Gre...

Shutterstock Like Earth, planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mars, asteroids and comets contain substantial deposits of valuable resources. This has caught the attention of both researchers and industry, with hopes of one day mining them to support a space...

Racial hatred is a factor in 13% of mass shootings at grocery stores. John Normile/Getty Images An apparently racially motivated attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, resulted in 10 deaths on May 14, 2022, with the teenage suspect allegedly target...

Racial hatred is a factor in 13% of mass shootings at grocery stores. John Normile/Getty Images An apparently racially motivated attack at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, resulted in 10 deaths on May 14, 2022, with the teenage suspect allegedly target...

Will House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy attempt to defy subpoena? Drew Angerer/Getty Images An attempt to force five Republican lawmakers into providing information to the House panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is unlikely to end with the ...

Harvesting soybeans in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Brazil exports soybeans and uses them domestically to make animal feed and biodiesel. Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images CC BY-ND Rising competition for many of the world's important crops is sending incr...

As many European countries welcome Ukrainians fleeing war, recent charges against a migrant advocate in Rome offer a reminder that popular anti-migration sentiments persist across Europe. Andrea Costa, the president of Rome-based migration nonprofit Baoba...

Most women helped by these charities are in their 20s. Damir Khabirov/iStock via Getty Images Plus Donations to abortion funds are reportedly surging following the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court abortion decision that signaled the imminent end of lega...

Creativity is among the most in-demand skills in the workplace . It's not surprising that top multinational companies are looking to hire inventive thinkers: Research shows that creativity can drive innovation and resilience in organizations . Tech gi...

Shutterstock Before you squash or poison the next slug or snail you see in your garden, consider this: The British Royal Horticultural Society no longer classifies these gastropods as pests. Why on earth would a leading gardening organisation do that, you...

This image shows Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. EHT Collaboration , CC BY-SA On May 12, 2022, astronomers on the Event Horizon Telescope team released an image of a black hole called Sagittarius A* that lies at the c...

Getty Images Widespread coral bleaching has now occurred on the Great Barrier Reef for the fourth time in seven years. As the world has heated up more and more, there's less and less chance for corals to recover. This year, the Morrison government ann...

Oksana Maksymova/Shutterstock Though oysters may be brainless bivalves, they can "hear" and swim towards attractive sounds of the sea. We played the crackling sound of snapping shrimp, which indicates a healthy reef, to baby oysters using underwat...

After great popularity, the idea of power poses came under fire. Choreograph/iStock via Getty Images Plus If you stand like Wonder Woman or Superman, will you feel stronger? Will you actually be stronger? Psychology researchers have investigated these que...

When trees burn, all the carbon they have stored goes back into the atmosphere. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images When people talk about ways to slow climate change, they often mention trees , and for good reason. Forests take up a large amount of th...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is introduced to the US Congress by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on March 16, 2022 in Washington, DC. J. Scott Applewhite-Pool/Getty Images Russia's invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines since late Fe...

The white 'bathtub ring' around Lake Mead, shown on Jan. 11, 2022, is roughly 160 feet high and reflects falling water levels. George Rose/Getty Images Journalists reporting on the status and future of the Colorado River are increasingly using the...

A family in northern Siberia watches -- but decides not to hunt -- a musk ox that wandered into the area where they live. John Ziker , Author provided Twenty-five years ago, when I was a young anthropologist working in northern Siberia , the Indigenous hu...

Science makes pleasure. Billy Burdette/EyeEm via Getty Images The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea When companies say a product meant for pleasure was developed using science, consumers are less likely to buy it...

Environmental scientists see flora, fauna and phenomena the rest of us rarely do. In this series, we've invited them to share their unique photos from the field . Extreme storms can cause devastating erosion and leave beachfront houses teetering on cl...

shutterstock Shutterstock This federal election campaign has involved very little discussion of environmental or natural resource policies, other than mining. An exception is a A$220 million Morrison government pledge for the forestry industry. The money ...

Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA Machine learning and other artificial intelligence (AI) methods have had immense success with scientific and technical tasks such as predicting how protein molecules fold and recognising faces in a crowd. However, the applicat...

Shutterstock Cost of living is a major focus in this election campaign, and yet political leaders have been unacceptably silent on the disproportionate impact of climate change on Australians with low incomes. This is particularly true for Western Sydney ...

Martin Whiting , Author provided Invasive species offer a rare research opportunity, as they often colonise new environments very different to their native habitat. One such species is the Jackson's three-horned chameleon ( Triocerus j. xantholophus )...

Politics is the Marcos family business. Ezra Acayan/Getty Images Some 36 years after the People Power Revolution restored democracy to the Philippines, a member of perhaps the most brutal and corrupt political dynasties in the nation's memory is set t...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters ahead of a vote on abortion rights. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on May 11, 2022 , on a bill that would enshrine the right to an abortion into law. The Democrats&...

A protestor holds a sign reading 'White Privilege Is The Problem' at a rally against policy brutality and racial injustice in New York on Sept. 5, 2020. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images A wide variety of historical , economic and cultura...

There is a U.S. flag on the Moon, but in the future, countries may start to turn access to the Moon and asteroids into serious wealth. NASA/Neil A. Armstrong Satellites help run the internet and television and are central to the Global Positioning System....

A Ukrainian soldier is seen at a Ukrainian front line in Donbass, Ukraine, on April 11, 2022. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, many observers looked at Russia's overwhelmin...

Trust in other people and in public institutions is one key predictor of happiness. Universal Images Group via Getty Images Human beings are social animals . This means, almost as a matter of logical necessity, that humans' quality of life is largely ...