As nights grow shorter and the sun approaches equinox the signs of seasonal change are hard to miss. Perhaps images of flowers in bloom, fledgling birds and outdoor adventures fill your mind? Yet, for those familiar with the night skies signs of seasonal change are equally hard to miss, as the winter constellations start to set and summer constellations begin to rise....
As the seasons change, so does the sky. As we move into spring, the abundance of sky objects associated with the dense Milky Way stretching across the sky, and the bright regions around Scorpius and Sagittarius, are now setting in the west earlier, opening us to the wider (apparently emptier) universe. The stars themselves do not appreciably move over such short time periods. The change occurs as the Earth moves around the Sun; the night side of Earth faces a slightly different direction into space each night. This change causes stars to rise about 4 minutes earlier each successive night....
There is something special happening on those cold foggy mornings blanketing the landscape around us. Emerging research has found that fog is much more than just water vapor, it is biologically alive and full of bacteria that help clean our air. ...
Engineering researchers from McGill University in Canada have followed a long tradition of taking inspiration from nature to a new level. Rather than copying the features of a plant or animal in their designs, Puma et al. (2025) opted to replace the printing nozzles of 3d printers with the proboscis (mouth) of female mosquitoes. ...
Here in the Southern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice has just past. From the 22 June, the shortest day and the longest night of the year are behind us. This is the time when the Earth’s south pole is pointed away from the sun due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis, so the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. In our temperate climate, I notice this most in three ways: the obvious one being darker mornings and earlier sunsets. The second one is the shadow cast by our house over our south-facing back garden - it is noticeably longer in the winter when the sun is lower in the sky than in the summer when the sun is high. From now on, the shadow will cover less of the garden as the sun’s angle increases....
One of the last strongholds for the broad-shelled turtle in the Gwydir Wetlands is on the brink of disappearing as the Gingham Waterhole rapidly dries, prompting urgent calls for environmental water releases from Copeton Dam in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. Field surveys conducted in March by freshwater turtle researchers revealed a worsening ecological crisis at the site. “We are watching the collapse of a turtle population in real time,” said freshwater turtle biologist Professor Deborah Bower....
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 other locations to complete six challenges. After completing each activity, teams were given a clue for finding the next location. Once found, they were provided with instructions on how to complete the challenge. ...
We humans use names in almost every conversation, whether addressing the person we’re speaking to, recounting what friends and family have been up to, cheering on our favourite athlete or discussing the latest celebrity news. But what if animals could also call each other by ‘name’? It might sound like something out of a movie, or a serious case of anthropomorphising, but new research suggests that some monkeys may be doing exactly that....
Imagine being able to see in the dark, without bulky night-vision goggles strapped to your head. It sounds like science fiction, but researchers have recently developed contact lenses that could one day make this a reality....
This popular STEM activity allows children to visualise the water cycle in real-time by creating a mini ecosystem in a plastic bag. When placed in a sunny window, the heat causes the water to evaporate, condense on the sides, and creates "precipitation" that runs back down into the bottom of the bag. ...
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 dead animal picks itself up and starts walking around, reanimated by the power of electromagnetic radiation. You would be forgiven for assuming I’m describing a scene in a schlocky horror movie from the ‘60s, but if you’d been a fly on the wall of James Lovelock’s lab in the National Institute for Medical Research in London in the 1950s, that’s exactly what you would have seen. ...
In the Discovery team, we are often inventing things to help us present an activity. Perhaps “inventing” is too strong a word, although I think the facilitators putting together the new Discovery engineering activity definitely feel that their inventiveness has been well tested recently! Wouldn’t we would love to have the ability to solve problems while we are asleep? Very few people have this talent, however, this article is about a self-professed “inventress” who did just that. Her creations are numerous, varied and inspiring and I’d like to share a little about her as she is not well-known....
Chromatography is a technique used to separate soluble substances that have been mixed together. It's normally used to separate coloured mixtures, like food colourings. We are going to use chromatography to separate these different texta colourings into the coloured pigments they are made from....
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 epilepsy. What began as a clinical attempt to reduce seizures went on to fundamentally reshape our understanding of brain organisation, language, and even consciousness....
The Australia Day awards in 2026 named Katherine Bennell-Pegg as Australian of the Year, recognising her as the first person to qualify as an astronaut under Australia’s space program. She is a qualified professional astronaut and space engineer. ...
Have you ever wondered how animals just seem to know what to do to survive and breed in their given environment? Birds can build nests without completing a course on nest building, koalas can climb trees and know what leaves to eat, seals can swim and fish and find their way home from the vast ocean. In contrast, humans typically send their children to school for years, to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in an increasingly complex human environment....
We recently joined in the fun at the Creative Street Arts Festival in Armidale for the Halloween craft event. We were so excited to be invited and to share our love of slime making!!!...
We would like to celebrate our gorgeous Christmas Beetles! There are 35 species of Christmas Beetle which are endemic to Australia – this means that they are found nowhere else in the world. 21 of those species are found in NSW. ...
South Australians are being encouraged to eat local oysters and donate the shells so that they can be recycled and used to recreate shellfish reefs, as reported by various media outlets. These reefs used to occur naturally off the South Australian coastline, but were gradually destroyed by land and water management practices after colonialisation. ...
I’m Julia, the UNE Discovery booking officer, and I have just been on an exciting trip to Namibia and South Africa. During my trip, I learnt many fun science facts about the animal life, plant life and geology of this part of the African continent....
When we go out insect collecting with students in their school yards, we often find earthworms. Although they are not insects, we still bring them inside for a short time as they are fascinating to look at under the microscope. We can see their intestine, full of soil, running down the length of their bodies. We can see their segments, and how they stretch out and scrunch up to move along. We can see that they do not have bones, but they do have a hydrostatic skeleton, which they can pump fluid into to move along....
Have you ever wondered how geckos can climb walls and stick to ceilings? You may be thinking of suction cups or some sort of sticky serum on their toes, but it’s actually a much more elegant solution, using intermolecular attraction and teeny tiny toe pad forests!...
National Science Week was held from 9-17 August 2025 with the UNE Discovery team hosting a number of inclusive community events. We started the celebration with Science @ the Markets on Sunday 10 August where we joined the Armidale Farmers’ Markets crew with a pop-up science stall and our Imagination Playground (big blue blocks). Due to the soggy ground of Curtis Park, the event was moved up into the Beardy St Mall which was a lovely change. ...
This DIY communicating vessels experiment teaches students about fluid mechanics – that’s the science of how liquids such as water behave under different conditions. ...
Did you know that some sharks lay eggs? Researchers report that around 40% of all sharks in the world lay eggs, while other shark species give birth to live young. ...
Hortense was an unforgettable chook, one could say she was a little quirky. One of my earliest garden memories is squatting next to her, toddler style, while she sat on a green tomato – Mum suggested she was trying to hatch it (as far as we know she never laid an egg in her life). ...
Rjukan is a town in the Tinn Municipality of Norway. It is located about 180km to the east of the capital city of Oslo and sits at the bottom of a deep valley between the lakes of Møsvatn and Tinnsjå. The town has a population of about 3000 people and covers 260 hectares....
CrowdScience takes questions from members of the public and puts them to experts to answer. The question “Did the moon have a greater impact on life on earth at the time of the dinosaurs than it does now?” grabbed my attention, as it dovetails nicely with one of Discovery’s activities, “Weighing Giants”, which uses modelling, maths and physics to estimate a dinosaur’s weight. ...
Summer is here and the air is filled with the sound of summer, cicadas. They are the loudest insects in the world, and can have a volume up to 120 decibels (similar to a chain saw or motor cycle). Little is known of the Australian species, but there are an estimated 500-800 species in Australia, or possibly even more. ...
Have you ever heard of a “Bund”? We found this story fascinating and thought we’d share it with you. A deceptively simple way of slowing the flow of rain over the soil is regenerating degraded land and bringing both ecological and social benefits to landscapes and communities. A series of large half moons, also known as “earth smiles” or bunds, are dug into the soil in dry times. Native grass seeds and sometimes trees are planted into the bund and when it rains, the water is trapped by the bund and soaks into the soil, rather than rushing over the top and causing erosion. This technique is being applied on a massive scale in Africa, with lasting benefits to the environment and communities. ...
In early November, an unexpected visitor arrived on Ocean Beach in Denmark, Western Australia. An adult male Emperor Penguin was spotted waddling along the beach, south of Perth. Emperor Penguins live in Antarctica and for this penguin to be so far north, is nothing short of astonishing. ...
On Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st October, UNE Discovery hosted our biggest event of the year - Far Out Science 2024. Welcoming over 800 students from year 5-10 over the two days, we were as excited as the students to have so many young people here on campus. ...
Halloween might be over, but that doesn’t mean the spooky fun has to end! Explore the cryptic properties of liquids with a lava lamp, assembled from ingredients you can find at home....
Are you ready to help our turtles this November? The 1 Million Turtles Community Conservation Program is a national community conservation citizen science program. Promoting strong collaboration between scientists and community to support initiatives aimed at conserving threatened Australian freshwater turtle species. ...
You may have seen the news recently whereby researchers studying in Patagonia, Argentina, discovered what is considered the largest and oldest-known tadpole. This Jurassic amphibian lived around 161 million years ago and was found on the bottom of a pond where it had been hidden for millions of years....
National Science Week is over for another year! The UNE Discovery team loved sharing science with members of the community in various ways. We held an art competition relating to adaptations of our Australian species, two science shows at the Armidale War Memorial Library and two nature walks on the weekends. ...
When Dr Sue Jaggar from the UNE Discovery team spoke at our recent art exhibition opening, she regaled us with stories and interesting facts about the Tachinidae family of flies (Bristle bottom flies). Being an enthusiastic entomologist, Sue was able to easily talk to us about how these fascinating flies have made certain adaptations to suit the hosts of the larvae....
Ever since their introduction to Australia in 1935, cane toads have been a scourge on native wildlife. Not only to they eat everything in their path, but they themselves are highly toxic to any predators that might try to make a meal of them. Even freshwater crocodiles, native to northern Australia were not immune to the cane toad’s poison. In regions where cane toad populations have established themselves, researchers reported crocodile population declines of up to 70%, largely as a result of ingesting cane toads. ...
Australia is famous for its unique animals, including all of the various marsupials and monotremes. But the emu and cassowary are quite famous as well; giant flightless birds, related to the ostrich and the kiwi. Australia used to have even bigger birds, though, and recent finding by scientists at Flinders University are giving new insights into what these giants looked like....
Here in the UNE Discovery Voyager team, we’ve been thinking a lot about scientific art recently. We brainstormed “What is scientific art?” and came up with a plethora of ideas, including: scientifically accurate botanical or zoological illustrations; charts or graphs representing data...
Everybody has been talking about the aurora lately – and in May it was seen and photographed as far north as Mackay in north Queensland, a rare event in Australia. The reason for this is that the aurora australis (southern lights), and its northern cousin the aurora borealis (northern lights), have been more active than usual, due to an intense geo-magnetic storm which impacted the earth on a weekend in early May. Aurora watchers were rewarded with spectacular displays of colour in the sky, most vivid on Saturday the eleventh of May, but also on following nights in southern latitudes....
Last week, I had a Zoom meeting with a colleague, entomologist James Tweed from the University of Queensland (UQ). We were chatting about insects on islands when he suddenly told me about a new species he had just described. Of course, that was fascinating, and we talked for a while about the importance of taxonomy and naming species to establish conservation measures for their protection....
On a recent camping trip to the stunning Washpool National Park we were captivated by the sight of a Spotted-Tail Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) visiting our campsite. Our little visitor arrived just on dark as we were preparing our campfire dinner. This national park is located east of Glen Innes in northern NSW and is part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, and very close to the Gibraltar Range National Park....
Continuing our theme of palaeontology, let's look at some recent discoveries made in the field of palaeontology here in Australia. Our country is an important place for finding fossils; the rocks here are some of the oldest in the world, so some of the oldest fossils can be found here, too. Discoveries can range from the relatively recent, like the Ice Age, to long, loooooong before the dinosaurs. Here are four recent finds made by Australian scientists!...
Palaeontology is a science plagued by an incomplete record. Most fossils only preserve “hard” parts such as shells, teeth, and most notably, bones. It is very rare to find fossils with skin or muscle preserved, for example. When we think of fossils, often what comes to mind are huge dinosaur skeletons; complete, intact, and on display in museums. No skin, muscle, or internal organs to be seen, just bones. But even an intact or complete skeleton is rare to find. ...
Do you need a fix of earth science? Do you have a craving to see some lava? Do you want to check out some crystals and fossils up close? UNE Discovery has got you covered from the 7th-9th of March!...
While we celebrated International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, we thought we’d also celebrate some of our female counterparts in nature too....
Heatwaves have been in the news a lot lately, and no doubt also in your house and under your skin. In Armidale, where UNE Discovery is based, we are experiencing weeks of 33+ °C!...
In the Northern Hemisphere, on the eastern edge of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, you’ll find the man-made Lake Abraham where an amazing natural phenomenon occurs during Winter. ...
Kiwirrkurra is a remote Indigenous community nestled in the Western Desert region of Western Australia, that recently commemorated the 40th anniversary of its establishment. The 40-year celebration was held around the time the first bore was sunk on Kiwirrkurra Country....
Scientists can’t be everything, everywhere all at once, but there is one important resource scientists can utilise that is everywhere: you! Get involved in a citizen science project in 2024 and have your observations contribute to important scientific research. Here is a list of ten Australia-wide citizen science projects that you can get involved in. All of these projects offer some training so you can be confident in the accuracy of your observations....
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Kate Grarock last month at an Entomological conference in Albany, Western Australia. I watched her deliver a great presentation on her work in Bush Blitz. Bush Blitz is a conservation initiative that unites researchers and volunteers in an ambitious quest to explore, document, and safeguard Australia's incredibly diverse ecosystems. ...
Throughout human history, the unusual has always caught the attention and captured the imagination. This has been especially true of strangely coloured animals. Black panthers, leopards or jaguars with a genetic trait called melanism, appear often in stories when their spotted kin are not as common. Albinos, animals that completely lack the dark pigment called melanin, are also eye-catching and have sparked many tales throughout history. Most mammals are some variation of brown, so if a rare individual stands out, it gets noticed....
On November 30th and October 1st, 2023, UNE Discovery was delighted to bring back Far Out Science! After a hiatus from 2020 until this year, it was wonderful to see the event return and bring so many school students back to visit the UNE Armidale campus for 2 days of science filled fun....
On Thursday 26 October, the UNE Discovery Voyager team and our colleagues from UNE’s School of Education collaborated and hosted a “Digital Play Day” for our local pre-schoolers and Kindergarteners. This was a Children’s Week event and one that was hugely successful with over 100 children participating with their carers, educators and teachers....
It is in fact a bike, a fast bike. A bike named ‘Bilby’. ...
Now here’s a book you’ll want to have in your book collection. ...
In Australia, we may not think of Canada as a particularly warm part of the world but nestled in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, Lillooet may be Canada’s hottest town. ...
On 17 October 2023, the winners of the 49th annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition were announced....
One extraordinary project that exemplifies the impact of citizen science is Insect Investigators, an initiative dedicated to exploring and documenting the incredible insect diversity across Australia....
What a blast! Every year UNE Discovery looks forward to National Science Week and this year we pulled out all the stops to bring Armidale something magical....
As the weather starts to warm up, we’ll be seeing a few snakes moving about as they mobilise from their Winter brumation. ...
Whether we live in a town or on a farm, every day we hear nature around us. Sometimes nature’s sounds blend into the background, but when we tune in, we realise there is a great variety - some musical, some quiet, some scary, and some just strange....
Very recently, scientists have discovered that the big fish, Megalodon was ‘warm-blooded’, and that may have been the cause of its demise (not Jason Statham)....
On the 22nd-24th August 2023 UNE Discovery team members Alfonsina and Claire had the opportunity to join the fun of AgQuip with some of the representatives of UNE from a range of faculties. ...
Attention all teachers in the northern NSW region – Far Out Science is back in 2023! UNE is excited to welcome school students to campus for a BIG science extravaganza in late October. Registrations will be open very soon. Add the dates to your calendar......
Have you ever seen pictures of glowing animals deep in the bottom of the sea and wondered, how do they glow? Well, this is called ‘Bioluminescence’ it is caused through a chemical reaction called the ‘Luciferin-Luciferase’ reaction. This chemical reaction happens inside the creature’s body, giving it a bright glow. ...
The Popocatépetl is one of Mexico's most renowned and picturesque volcanoes. Standing tall at 5,393 meters, this majestic stratovolcano is located in the country’s central part, near Puebla and Mexico City. Popocatépetl's name means "Smoking Mountain" in the indigenous Nahuatl language, and it has a rich history dating back to ancient times....
Australia is home to many plants and animals that have been introduced by humans either intentionally or by accident. Some of these have become invasive, meaning they have spread and multiplied to the point where they damage the environment, threaten the continued existence of our own native plants and animals, or create significant problems for agriculture. Invasive animals, often called feral animals, and invasive plants or ‘weeds’ are two of the biggest environmental problems facing Australia today. We would commonly call them pests!...
In late May, UNE and Armidale Secondary College hosted some very special guests. Several high schools around the region, including ASC, Guyra Central School, and Uralla Central School, have recently started Future Teachers Clubs, where high schoolers that are interested in becoming teachers get a taste of what it's like to do the job. On May 24th and 25th, the Future Teachers from these local schools were joined by the Future Teacher's Club from Macquarie Fields High School in Sydney, which has a long-standing Future Teachers Club of its own....
Last month, we said goodbye to one of our long-term UNE Discovery team members. Phil Spark joined the team in the middle of 2017 and has now taken early retirement....
We are very excited to offer two new activities from Term 2 in 2023. Escape the Museum is our portable escape-room style activity which includes some challenges and puzzles that students will need to solve to find their way out of a locked museum before time runs out. Using imagination, logic and problem solving, students will work within a small group and immerse themselves in an imaginary museum. ...
Our UNE Discovery team member, Alfonsina, recently participated in a two-week research expedition in New Caledonia, where she had the privilege of exploring the magnificent rainforest in Le Parc des Grandes Fougères with the research team, where they encountered the Cagou (Rhynochetos jubatus) in its natural habitat. While there for beetle research and walking in the forest, they spotted the bird running with its wings open and its crest standing up as a sign of defence. Though it was a fleeting moment, it left the research team with a lasting impression of the bird moving its wings but unable to fly....
UNE Discovery is most well known for visiting schools and delivering exciting, play based activities to students across northern NSW. But this is not all we do. From time to time the Discovery team also heads out to special festivals and events to bring awesome science fun to kids and adults alike! This was the case earlier this year when we attended the Minerama Fossicking, Gem and Jewellery Show in Glenn Innes, and a Close the Gap event in Tamworth....
Have you noticed a lot of dragonflies in your area lately? Are there more than usual? Well, there’s a reason for this. A story by Megan Backhouse in “The Age” late last year suggests that while these insects are always most prevalent from November to March, their recent abundance is being attributed to La Nina....
During Australian wet weather events, the news is full of images of saturated, soggy and sodden koalas and exhausted kangaroos swimming through the rising flood waters. While the diversity of Australian mammals is substantial, with approximately 380 species, most of our native mammals are small and rarely seen. Because of their tiny size, it can be difficult to remember that they, too, are affected when the skies open and gullies turn into white water rapids....
On 7th and 8th March, the Armidale Central Rotary Club together with the support of UNE’s Schools of Science & Technology and Environment and Rural Science, hosted the Highlands Science and Engineering Challenge & Discovery Days, a nationwide program run by the University of Newcastle. Students from primary and secondary schools from all across the Northern Tablelands gathered at the Armidale Ex Services Memorial Club to tackle difficult science and engineering tasks, competing for the top place....
The 11th February marks the annual International Day of Women and Girls in Science. UNESCO and UN Women implemented this day in collaboration with institutions and civil society partners that aim to promote women and girls in science....
It is always interesting looking at the night sky, seeing the Moon and some of the planets. Just after sunset it is currently possible to see Venus, Jupiter and Mars. There are a number of other interesting celestial objects in the sky right now as well. They are comets. The most notable in the news recently is “The Green Comet” which is in the direction of Mars. The name of this green comet is Comet ZTF. ...
Dung beetles play a crucial role in the burial and degradation of vertebrate dung, performing several critical ecological services that are essential for ecosystem functioning. Australia has more than 500 species of native dung beetles. Some of these species inhabit tropical and subtropical rainforest regions, and some are restricted to small pockets of rainforest above 1000m, making them very vulnerable to climate change....
Australia has over 240 species of frog, with 90 species found in NSW alone. While everyone knows what a frog is, and of course every Australian knows what a cane toad is, it’s not all that common for people to be able to tell different species of frogs apart....
Earlier this year, UNE teamed up with The Science Experience to deliver a 3-day science camp for high school students. The Science Experience is a nationally run program across 30 different universities in Australia. The goal of the program is to give high school students with a passion for science a taste of university life and exposure to the many and varied disciplines in science....
2022 has been a year of great change for UNE Discovery. After a tumultuous couple of pandemic years, 2022 was when we finally started to feel like we were getting back to normal and down to business. At the start of the year, the Discovery Voyager team was quite small and a somewhat restricted in what we could offer. However, as the year went on we were privileged to be able to grow the team with new and vibrant facilitators....
The residents of the New England region share their homes with many wonderful species of plants and animals. One that is unique to the Tablelands is the Bell's turtle (Myuchelys bellii), which may also be unique among all turtles for its unusual diet....
The residents of the New England region share their homes with many wonderful species of plants and animals. One that is unique to the Tablelands is the Bell's turtle (Myuchelys bellii), which may also be unique among all turtles for its unusual diet....
Filomena is a Flashforge Guider IIS fused filament deposition 3D printer. This means that is uses a coil of plastic filament which is fed through a heated nozzle to ‘draw’ out plastic to build up a model, layer by layer. Unlimited access to this technology is going to allow Discovery to build custom parts and specialised pieces for our activities. We have already been using 3D printed models for one of our very popular activities: Think Like A Rock!...
ROLA (Stone) is a short film depicting the intersection of geology and culture. Directed and produced by UNE palaeontologist and geologist, Dr Marissa Betts, the film beautifully captures the interconnectedness of our environment with human culture and experience....
The Aussie Bird Count is an activity for all ages that involves observing and counting the birds that live near you – whether that’s in your garden, the local park, a beach, your school or even your own town centre. By taking note of the birds you’ve seen in a 20 minute period, you will help BirdLife Australia develop an understanding of local birds whilst getting to know the wildlife on your doorstep....
It’s that time of year again: our lawns are a bit soggy, the temperature is mild, and slugs and snails are crawling up the walls. If you are anything like me, you walk to the mailbox, dodging and tiptoeing to avoid them while whispering a stream of apologies when you hear a dreaded crunch. The common garden snail was accidentally introduced in Australia on the bottom of pot plants from Europe more than 120 years ago and is generally only found where humans are. ...
The University of Toronto has recently carried out a study suggesting using trains to capture CO2 from the air could help us with the fight against climate change. ...
ABC Science recently asked people to go online to explore the wonder and science of the plant kingdom, and vote for their favourite tree....
The theme for this year’s National Science Week was “Glass: more than meets the eye” and while the UNE Discovery team were planning and preparing for our activities in Sydney and Armidale, we made some interesting discoveries. ...
UNE Associate Professor Oliver Knox is the man of the hour, having received his second major award in just two weeks! ...
Teachers! Are you looking for a fun way to teach about extinction, biodiversity, evolution, or Australian megafauna? Are you looking for a free, curriculum-aligned resource? Then Go Extinct! might be for you!...
This year National Science week ran from 14-22 August and the Discovery team were certainly very busy getting out and about during this most wonderful time of the year....
Would you like to go back in time and cuddle a Woolly Mammoth? Well, we can’t offer you either of those but we can tell you about an amazing discovery in the news recently....
Science continues to answer the big questions, like “Did dinosaurs have bellybuttons?” A bellybutton seems like a pretty normal thing for us humans. Before we are born we grow in our mother’s womb, and we are given all our vital nutrients to let us develop through our umbilical cord. All placental mammals share this trait, and our bellybutton is essentially the scar from where the umbilical cord was once attached....
I read a fascinating story about a male lyrebird called ‘James’ recently. By all accounts it’s a true story and not an urban myth. It got me thinking about the mimicking abilities of this amazing bird. A lyrebird is one of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds. The two species are Menura novaehollanidae, the Superb Lyrebird, which is the larger of the two species, and Menura alberti, Albert’s Lyrebird. Lyrebirds are large passerine birds, amongst the largest in the order....
The octopus' brain and the human brain share the same 'jumping genes'. Now there’s a revelation! The octopus is thought to be one of the most intelligent invertebrates (ie. no backbone). They have demonstrated intelligence in a variety of ways, including solving mazes, tricky tasks for food rewards, and their amazing escapades are the focus of many hit videos. A new study has identified an important molecular analogy that could explain the remarkable intelligence of these invertebrates....
Do you like snow and ice? Would you like to be in Antarctica and have it all around you? Or would you prefer to keep warm? Antarctica is a great place for preserving things. It’s one of Earth’s freezer compartments. We use our freezers in our houses and workplaces to preserve things until we are ready to use them....
