How the natural 'glazes' on the walls of Kimberley rock shelters help reveal the world the artists lived in

The Kimberley region is host to Australia's oldest known rock paintings. But people were carving engravings into some of these rocks before they were creating paintings.

Why trauma-sensitive teaching matters even more in 2021

This month, students and teachers across the country are returning to classrooms amid an ongoing pandemic. Many have spent the past year dealing with illness, economic hardship, virtual and disrupted learning, racial unrest and more. Some have lost parents, caregivers or loved ones.

Search for elusive skinks is filling gaps in Mozambique's biodiversity data

Every morning the phone buzzes, many times in short succession, as the students send photo after photo of the snakes, frogs and lizards that have been caught in various traps the previous day. We scroll through the images. Again—no Scolecoseps boulengeri. No Proscelotes aenea.

Improving soil carbon measurements empowers African farmers

The amount of carbon in farm soils is important to farmers. Soils with high carbon contents tend to provide better yields. They also tend to have more resilience to weather-related crop failure. But measuring the amount of carbon in soil can be expensive and involve several steps. That can make it hard to collect this critical information in regions like sub-Saharan Africa.

Dual photoreceptor identified in an oceanic green picoplankton

The discovery by a RIKEN-led team of a single photoreceptor that can detect orange, far-red, and blue light will provide new insights into the evolutionary history of plant photoreceptors.

The billionaire space race reflects a colonial mindset that fails to imagine a different world

It was a time of political uncertainty, cultural conflict and social change. Private ventures exploited technological advances and natural resources, generating unprecedented fortunes while wreaking havoc on local communities and environments. The working poor crowded cities, spurring property-holders to develop increased surveillance and incarceration regimes. Rural areas lay desolate, buildings vacant, churches empty—the stuff of moralistic elegies.

New salts raise the bar for lithium ion battery technology

Lithium ion batteries are set to take a dominant role in electric vehicles and other applications in the near future—but the battery materials, currently in use, fall short in terms of safety and performance and are holding back the next generation of high-performance batteries.

Beating the curse of dimensionality

A partial matching approach can overcome the dimensionality "curse" of continuous measurements over time to yield more accurate future predictions.

Shape-based model sheds light on simplified protein binding

Can something as simple as shape fully determine whether or not proteins will bind together? Scientists are commissioning supercomputers to find out.

Facts, fears and the evolution of masking throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Do you remember the beginning of the pandemic, when for months a major debate was whether people should or shouldn't wear a mask?

Logging increases risk of severe fire for rural and regional towns

Logged forests near regional and rural towns and settlements are at increased risk of increased fire severity, new research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows.

Tracking cattle with GPS to better understand disease risks in East Africa

Scientists have teamed with farmers from rural areas of Tanzania to track dozens of herds of cattle using satellite GPS devices to better understand how diseases can pass from one herd to another.

Study: Refugees often face violence, mental health issues in the cities where they had sought safety

Refugees who experience violence in the North American cities where they've sought asylum suffer from devastating, long-lasting mental health issues—and those issues can impact them just as deeply as the violence they faced in their home country, says Carmel Salhi, assistant professor of health sciences.

Fighting fungal infections: Giant leaps for smart nanotech

They're roughly the same size as a coronavirus particle, and 1000 times smaller than a human hair, yet newly engineered nanoparticles developed by scientists at the University of South Australia, are punching well above their weight when it comes to treating drug-resistant fungal infections.

Angry bees produce better venom

Researchers at Curtin revealed how behavioral and ecological factors influence the quality of bee venom, a product widely known for its effective treatment of degenerative and infectious diseases such as Parkinson's and osteoarthritis.

'Fingerprints' of extreme weather revealed by new statistical approach

Determining if particular extreme hot or cold spells were caused by climate change could be made easier by a new mathematical method.

Current research combined with classic studies to highlight reptiles' secret social lives

We all know that humans and other mammals have intricate social lives, but conservation biologists say it's crucial to recognize that reptiles also engage in complex social behaviors.

Spain sizzles in crushing heat as fires blaze

Fires in Spain's central Avila province forced hundreds of people to flee their homes Sunday as parts of the country sweltered under crushing temperatures.

Death toll of powerful earthquake in Haiti soars to 1,297

The death toll from a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti climbed to 1,297 on Sunday, a day after the powerful temblor turned thousands of structures into rubble and set off franctic rescue efforts ahead of a potential deluge from an approaching storm.

EXPLAINER: Why are earthquakes so devastating in Haiti?

The powerful earthquake that hit Haiti on Saturday killed hundreds and injured thousands more. The destruction comes just 11 years after a temblor killed tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands. Some 100,000 buildings were destroyed in the 2010 quake.

Lava streams from Indonesia's Mount Merapi in new eruption

Indonesia's most active volcano erupted Monday with its biggest lava flow in months, sending a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing 3.5 kilometers (more than 2 miles) down its slopes on the densely populated island of Java.

Fire near Jerusalem forces village evacuations

Residents of several villages on the outskirts of Jerusalem were evacuated on Sunday because of a large forest fire nearby, Israeli police said.

Lobster boat tracking coming to protect whales, fishery

America's lobster fishing businesses could be subjected to electronic tracking requirements to try to protect vulnerable right whales and get a better idea of the population of the valuable crustaceans.