Science

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Science and Technology

I heard there's an aurora coming. How do I check?

by Dr Hannah Schunker, ARC Future Fellow in the School of Information and Physical Sciences (Physics)

Few sights in the night sky are as awe-inspiring as aurora. The vibrant dancing lights – usually seen close to the planet’s poles – are produced by a wind of charged particles streaming from the Sun into Earth’s atmosphere. The resulting disturbances are called geomagnetic storms.

Environment

Groundwater is heating up, threatening life below and above the surface

by Gabriel C Rau, Lecturer in Hydrogeology, School of Environmental and Life Sciences (University of Newcastle), Barret Kurylyk Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Coastal Water Resources (Dalhousie University), Dylan Irvine Outstanding Future Researcher - Northern Water Futures (Charles Darwin University) and Susanne Benz Freigeist Fellow, Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (IPF) (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)

Under your feet lies the world’s biggest reservoir. Groundwater makes up a whopping 97% of all usable freshwater.

Environment

Partnering to solve the Pacific plastics plight

by Penny Harnett

Microplastics are notoriously hard to detect but their impact is significant. How deep is the problem in the Pacific Ocean? Scientists from Australia and Samoa teamed up to find out.

Environment

The botanical imperialism of weeds and crops: how alien plant species on the First Fleet changed Australia

by Garritt Van Dyk - Lecturer at the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences (History)

Locally grown produce fills Australian shops, but almost all of these species were imported, as native as cane toads. Icons of Australian agriculture, like the Big Banana and Big Pineapple, proudly display the regions’ crops, but these are newcomers to the continent.

Environment

What has the Nobel Prize in Physics ever done for me?

by Karen Livesey

Each October, physics is in the news with the awarding of the Nobel Prize. The work acknowledged through this most prestigious award often seems far removed from our everyday lives, with prizes given for things like “optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms” and “elucidating the quantum structure of electroweak interactions”.

Our Communities

The ripple effect of drought

by Penny Harnett

Drought is like a creeping cancer. It insidiously infects communities. It spreads profound and multifaceted challenges that demand multidisciplinary treatment.

Environment

Why El Niño doesn’t mean certain drought

by Abraham Gibson, Danielle Verdon-Kidd

The Bureau of Meteorology released its latest climate driver update on Tuesday, saying the current La Niña has weakened and is “likely near its end”. Most climate models now point to neutral conditions – neither El Niño nor La Niña – through autumn and a trend towards El Niño in early spring

Our Communities

What Australia learned from recent devastating floods – and how New Zealand can apply those lessons now

by Iftekhar Ahmed

Australia and New Zealand have both faced a series of devastating floods triggered by climate change and the return of the La Niña weather pattern. So it makes sense that Australia has now sent disaster crews to help with the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Environment

‘Forever chemicals’ have made their way to farms. For now, levels in your food are low – but there’s no time to waste

by Ravi Naidu

They stop your food from sticking to the pan. They prevent stains in clothes and carpets. They help firefighting foam to extinguish fires. But the very thing that makes “forever chemicals” so useful also makes them dangerous.

Health and Wellbeing

Can chewing help manage stress, pain and appetite? Here’s what the science says

by Clare Collins

Ever feel a bit stressed or need a concentration boost? Research suggests one remedy may be right under your nose. Chewing has benefits for brain function, stress, anxiety, exam performance, pain perception, as well as hunger and food intake.

Health and Wellbeing

Nope, coffee won’t give you extra energy. It’ll just borrow a bit that you’ll pay for later

by Emma Beckett

Many of us want (or should I say need?) our morning coffee to give us our “get up and go”. Altogether, the people of the world drink more than two billion cups of coffee each day.

Environment

Photos from the field: our voyage investigating Australia’s submarine landslides and deep-marine canyons

by Hannah Power, Kendall Mollison, Michael Kinsela, Tom Hubble

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.

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