The Impact Of Megafauna Extinctions

The extinction of Australia's megafauna led to major ecological changes and helped create the vegetation of today.

New ev­i­dence for the ex­ist­ence of the Higgs bos­on

We see a dis­tinct Higgs-like sig­na­ture that can­not be easily ex­plained with­out the pres­ence of some­thing new. If what we’re see­ing really is the Higgs bos­on, it will be a ma­jor mile­stone for the world phys­ics com­mun­ity and will place the key­stone in the most suc­cess­ful par­t­i­cle phys­ics the­o­ry in histo­ry.

A pan­o­ram­ic im­age of the uni­verse

Un­til re­cently our view back to the first ep­och of gal­axy forma­t­ion has been lim­it­ed to ti­ny, ‘pencil-beam’ im­ages made with the Hub­ble Space Tele­scope. Now VIS­TA, with its pan­o­ram­ic im­ag­ing ca­pa­bil­ity, is pro­vid­ing us with the first view of truly rep­re­sent­a­tive re­gions of the young Uni­verse.

Why the Moon is locked in a synchronous orbit

The reason why the near side of the Moon always faces the Earth may be the result of it being a 'loaded dice'.

The New Science of the Birth and Death of Words

Physicists claim to have identified universal laws governing the birth, life course and death of words.

Weaver ants use corporate memory to defend nests

Weaver ant colonies use shared memory to sniff out rivals, similar to sports fans recognising each other by their team colours.

Bluffing crayfish

Crayfish can often make opponents back off from a fight by pretending they are stronger than they really are.

Desert dunes created by erosion not wind

Some linear sand dunes may have formed through a process called wind-rift erosion, rather than simple deposits of windblown sand.

Traces of oxygen found around tiny moon

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected faints wisps of oxygen in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Dione.

Did life start in a pond, not the ocean?

Modern life is more chemically compatible with conditions in venting geothermal fields, such as Yellowstone National Park, than in the ocean, even a primitive ocean, new analysis shows. The finding challenges a widely accepted theory that modern life began in a marine environment.