Have you ever thought about how Google Maps and GPS work? I think most of us have some vague idea about a network of satellites orbiting Earth and talking to our phones and cars somehow. And that’s more or less accurate, but the usefulness of...
On Sunday 12 April 2026, around 70 hardy souls took part in our first ever “The Amazing Science Race” – our take on the reality tv show “The Amazing Race”. The event took participants from Civic Park in Armidale, around the CBD, to four...
Picture it. A British government lab in the 1950s. A low hum of electricity. Lightbulbs turning on and off at random. A pound note in your pocket catches on fire out of nowhere. And there, on a bench, in a makeshift chicken wire cage, a...
Snipping the brain straight down the middle to treat a neurological condition sounds more like the plot of a science fiction film than a legitimate medical intervention. Yet in the mid-20th century, this drastic-sounding procedure became a revolutionary treatment for people with severe, medically intractable...
Have you ever wandered through the UNE Natural History Museum, and wanted to have a closer look at the bones and specimens that you were seeing? Well, even if you’re not able to touch them, the museum offers the next best thing!...
After a cold Armidale winter, we cannot wait for spring, when the weather warms up and the flowers bloom. But some of us will feel uncomfortable during spring as we will develop hay-fever, an allergy to pollen. Pollen is produced by plants and is carried...
There’s nothing quite like perfectly cooked rice to go with just about any dish and fill you up, but how does a cheap, basic rice cooker know when the rice is ready? Perhaps, like me, you’ve always assumed there was some sort of simple computer...
In the Discovery team we often talk about the different types of scientists: a botanist, astronomer, palaeontologist and so on. I learnt about a new one recently…that a metrologist is a measurement scientist, someone who studies the science of measurement and how it can be...
Did you know that the Armidale Pine Forest (known locally as “The Piney”) is home to some extraordinary architecture, an example of the wonder in the world around us? These structures can adapt to temperature and humidity, and are a source of inspiration for humans...
Between 1979 and 1987, palaeontologists travelled to the town of Surat, in south-eastern Queensland on the hunt for fossils. A mysterious bone that was found along the Balonne River had been sent to Dr Mary Wade at the Queensland Museum which inspired their visit. To...
