Cosmic dust survived in denser universe

Scientists finally have an explanation as to how cosmic dust - which provides the building blocks for stars - survived the supernova explosions of stars in the early universe.  These primordial stars blew up in dense environments, which prevented their dust from being destroyed, according to a new study.

Jupiter's migration key to our unique solar system

Earth and the other terrestrial planets are late arrivals, forming only after the original planets of the inner solar system were destroyed, according to a new model explaining our solar system's unique architecture.

People recognise written words like they do faces

Experienced readers recognise whole words in much the same way we recognise a face, according to scientists who have observed the changes in brain scans that occur as a new word is added to our 'visual dictionary'.

Mystery of Darwin's strange South American mammals solved

Charles Darwin thought they were the strangest animals yet discovered. One creature looked like a cross between a hippo, rhino and rodent; the other resembled a humpless camel with an elephant's trunk.  Ever since Darwin first collected the fossils about 180 years ago, scientists had been baffled about where these odd South American beasts, that went extinct just 10,000 years ago, fit on the mammal family tree.  The mystery has now been solved.  Researchers undertook a sophisticated biochemical analysis of bone collagen extracted from fossils of the two mammals, Toxodon and Macrauchenia, and demonstrated that they were related to the group that includes horses, tapirs and rhinos.

Rainbow lorikeets eating meat

Rainbow lorikeets who frequent a backyard feeding station on a property north of Brisbane are eating meat.  Lorikeets usually eat nectar and pollen which they obtain from native plants and shrubs.

The Moon's past pyroclastic volcanism

The Moon's geologic history is far more complex than previously thought, according to preliminary results from China's Chang'E-3 spacecraft and its 'Jade Rabbit' lunar rover.  The findings indicate a world that experienced multiple lava flows, interspersed with explosive pyroclastic volcanism.

Spiders customise their webs to the conditions

Spiders can customise their webs to make sure they get the diet they need.  In response to their diet, they optimise the size, strength and stickiness of their webs for catching whatever prey is around.

Chameleon's colour magic revealed

The mechanism behind chameleons changing colour to dazzle mates, scare rivals and confuse predators has been shown to involve not pigments but nanocrystals in the skin that are tuned to alter the reflection of light.

Speeding star accelerated by exploding companion

One of the fastest moving stars in the Milky Way galaxy was accelerated to hypervelocity speeds by an exploding companion star.  The star called US 708 HVS 2 is travelling at over 1200 kilometres per second, so fast that it will escape the Milky Way Galaxy in 25 million years.

Milky Way may be 50 per cent bigger than thought

A ring-like filament of stars wrapping around the Milky Way may actually belong to the galaxy itself, rippling above and below the relatively flat galactic plane. If so, that would expand the size of the known galaxy by 50 per cent and raise intriguing questions about what caused the waves of stars.

Herders from the Great Steppe spread Indo-European languages

Nomadic pastoralists from the Great Steppe helped spread Indo-European languages, an analysis of ancient DNA confirms.  The findings give weight to one of two competing hypotheses about where this language group came from.

Ancient galaxy sheds light on dust in early Universe

One of the oldest galaxies ever observed has revealed that dust played a vital role in the infancy of the Universe.  Grains of dust made from carbon, silicon, magnesium, iron and oxygen are formed in the nuclear combustion of a star.  They are spewed into space when the star dies and explodes. Over aeons, clouds of dust and gas coalesce to form new star systems.  The theory is that in the fledgling Universe, gas must have formed the early galaxies as there was no dust to do the job.  But new research suggests dust played its creative part at a much earlier point than thought.