A Fossil of a Bizarre Snake-Like Lizard Has Generated Controversy Beyond Its Identity
More than 120 million years ago in what is now modern Brazil, an ancient waterway was filled with all manner of strange creatures. These included…
The Conversation News
Webb – The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever Built – Will Look Back in Time to the Dark Ages of the Universe
Some have called NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope the “telescope that ate astronomy.” It is the most powerful space telescope ever built and a complex…
Do Flies Really Throw Up When They Land on Your Food?
Imagine you’re at a picnic and just about to bite into your sandwich. Suddenly you spot a fly headed your way, homing in on your…
60 Years After It First Gazed at the Skies, the Parkes Radio Telescope Is Still Making Breakthroughs
The CSIRO’s 64-meter Parkes Radio Telescope was commissioned on October 31, 1961. At the time it was the most advanced radio telescope in the world,…
Long COVID: Western Medicine Has Reached a Crisis Point
As I walked her up the flight of stairs to my clinic room, Victoria* barely engaged with my small talk. I glanced back at her….
COVID-19 Danger: White-Tailed Deer Found To Be Huge Reservoir of Coronavirus Infection
New research from the US has shown that white-tailed deer are being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. Antibodies were found…
Sending a Tiny Telescope Past Saturn Could Solve Some of the Biggest Mysteries of the Universe
Dozens of space-based telescopes operate near Earth and provide incredible images of the universe. But imagine a telescope far away in the outer solar system,…
The Moon’s Top Layer Has Enough Oxygen To Sustain 8 Billion People for 100,000 Years
Alongside advances in space exploration, we’ve recently seen much time and money invested into technologies that could allow effective space resource utilization. And at the…
Preliminary Evidence Suggests Coronavirus Jumped From Animals to Humans Multiple Times
The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has been hotly debated. This debate has caused substantial difficulties in the Australia-China…
Land Ahoy: First Continents Bobbed to the Surface of Earth 500 Million Years Earlier Than Thought
Most people know that the land masses on which we all live represent just 30% of Earth’s surface, and the rest is covered by oceans….
Meet the Penis Worm: These Widespread Yet Understudied Sea Creatures Deserve Your Love
Australia’s oceans are home to a startling array of biodiversity — whales, dolphins, dugongs, and more. But not all components of Aussie marine life are…
Another Problem With Daylight Saving Time: Increased Risk of Hitting Deer on the Road
Daylight saving time ends in the U.S. and Canada on November 7, 2021, and most of us will be setting our clocks back an hour….
The Scariest Things in the Universe Are Black Holes – Here’s Why
Halloween is a time to be haunted by ghosts, goblins, and ghouls, but nothing in the universe is scarier than a black hole. Black holes…
Viruses Are Both the Villains and Heroes of Life As We Know It – Nature’s Powerhouses for Genetic Innovation
Viruses have a bad reputation. They are responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic and a long list of maladies that have plagued humanity since time immemorial….
James Webb Space Telescope: An Astronomer on the Team Explains the “First Light Machine”
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to head to space on December 18, 2021. With it, astronomers hope to find the first galaxies to…
We’re Filmmakers Who Work With Firearms: This Is What’s Important in On-Set Safety
In a horrendous accident, a cinematographer has died and a director has been injured after Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun while filming in New…
A Mysterious Signal Looked Like a Sign of Alien Technology – Here’s What the Investigation Revealed
In December last year, the media reported an intriguing signal we at the Breakthrough Listen project found in our radio telescope data. Dubbed BLC1, the…
New Force of Nature? Tantalizing Evidence for New Physics From CERN’s Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) sparked worldwide excitement in March as particle physicists reported tantalizing evidence for new physics — potentially a new force of…
