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13 Sep 2021

Move over magpies: are cuckoos the meanest bird?

Since it’s Bad Bird Season, we ask cuckoo apologist - sorry, cuckoo expert - Professor Naomi Langmore to explain how it could possibly be that the cuckoo doesn’t mean to be mean, when it sure looks like it does.

Two galahs in a eucalypt hollow

23 Aug 2021

Get up close and personal with a local tree this lockdown

PhD student Cara Parsons is calling for citizen scientists to collect data on mature eucalypts as part of her research into the dangers of falling branches.

Dr Noelia Martinez Rey is standing inside the ruins of a telescope destroyed by bushfire.

13 Aug 2021

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how wonderfully artificial you are

Dr Noelia Martinez Rey creates artificial stars in space using lasers to correct for the twinkling effect of atmospheric turbulence. “When you see a star twinkle, that twinkle is created by turbulence in our atmosphere,” she explains.

Illustration of a supernova explosion

5 Aug 2021

World-first look at earliest moments of supernova explosion

In a world-first, astronomers at The Australian National University (ANU), working with NASA and an international team of researchers, have captured the first moments of a supernova - the explosive death of stars.

13 Jul 2021

‘Environmental accounting’ could revolutionise nature conservation, but Australia has squandered its potential

Let’s say a new irrigation scheme is proposed and all the land it’ll take up needs to be cleared — trees felled, soil upturned, and habitats destroyed. Water will also have to be allocated. Would the economic gain of the scheme outweigh the damage to the environment?

Professor Yun Liu, Professor Sharon Friel and Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths.

8 Jul 2021

ANU researchers win nation’s most prestigious funding award

Galaxies, building health equity and “crystal chemistry” is the focus of three major research projects at The Australian National University (ANU) receiving more than $9.7 million in Government funding.

22 Jun 2021

Dust from exploding stars is raining down on Earth. I hunt it to learn how the elements were made

It is all around us. Every day in our lives we are in contact with it. In fact, we are made from it: ancient stardust.

18 Jun 2021

Seeing the invisible: tiny crystal films could make night vision an everyday reality

Night vision goggles, infrared cameras and other similar devices detect infrared light reflected from objects or rather detect infrared light emitted from objects in the form of heat.