news

The vast majority of Australians aren't confident in the country's aged care system, with more than one-in-10 saying they have no confidence at all, new analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) shows. The findings also show more than eight-in-10 Australians back a tax-based levy to improve aged care.

"Pretty" parrots are more likely to be snatched up for Indonesia's illegal wildlife trade, a new study reveals. The findings not only expose the key drivers behind the country's illegal trade in these birds, but offer lessons for the potential emergence and spread of infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans - like COVID and avian flu.

There has been "a very large decline in confidence in Federal Government among Australian voters", new analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) shows, with those declines linked closely to views on sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. The longitudinal survey of 3,200 adults also found there has been a large drop in the number of Australians who say they would vote for the Coalition.

The first-ever discovery of an extraterrestrial radioactive isotope on Earth has scientists rethinking the origins of the elements on our planet. The tiny traces of plutonium-244 were found in ocean crust alongside radioactive iron-60. The two isotopes are evidence of violent cosmic events in the vicinity of Earth millions of years ago.

Employment and hours worked have remained steady, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the scaling back of JobSeeker, new analysis from The Australian National University (ANU) shows. The survey of more than 3,500 adult Australians, led by the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM), found employment stayed at around 60 per cent of the population between January and April 2021.

Almost two-thirds of adult Australians, 64 per cent, think the Government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is not being handled well, a study from The Australian National University (ANU) shows. The study also found there's been a small decline in the proportion of people who would not take a safe and effective vaccine, though many Australians remain highly concerned about potential side effects.

A majority of Australians think the age pension should be increased, while most Australians who aren't retired think they won't have enough money when they do. The Australian National University (ANU) survey of almost 3,500 adults in early 2021 found more than seven-in-10 adults (70.5 per cent) think the current age pension of $944.30 per fortnight for a single person with no children isn't enough.

An international research team has debunked a popular theory that ancient humans caused mass animal and plant extinctions on newly inhabited islands. Archaeologists and palaeontologists, including from Griffith University and The Australian National University (ANU), compared records of human arrival and extinctions on islands spanning the past 2.6 million years, finding little overlap between the two events.

Remember the days before working from home? It's Monday morning, you're running late to beat the traffic, and you can't find your car keys. What do you do? You might try moving from room to room, casting your eye over every flat surface, in the hope of spotting the missing keys. Of course, this assumes they are somewhere in plain sight; if they're hidden under a newspaper, or fallen behind the sofa, you'll never spot them.

When humans arrive on an island they have an immediate and dramatic impact on the ecosystem, according to a new international study which included scientists from The Australian National University (ANU). The study looked at 27 remote islands across the globe and found they had something in common. "When humans arrive on these islands the ecosystem immediately starts to change.

New research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows female swift parrots can determine the sex of their offspring, and they are favouring boys over girls as they face diminished survival prospects in the wild. Instead of producing extra daughters to make up for a shortage of adult females they make sure their sons hatch first so they get more food and become more competitive in a tight mating market.

An international team of scientists has reconstructed the 22-million-year journey of an asteroid through the Solar System to its impact on Earth. The research on the flight path of the asteroid, which landed in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana on 2 June 2018, is the first time that scientists have precisely mapped a meteorite's voyage to Earth.

The Philippines was once home to three previously unknown species of an unusual group of rodents with fluffy tails known as "giant cloud rats", according to a new fossil discovery. All three of the newly discovered species ( Crateromys ballik, Carpomys dakal , and Batomys cagayanensis ) are thought to be extinct.

Scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) are looking for volunteers to help create Australia's longest daily weather record from a globally recognised climate change "hot spot". The citizen science project will help scientists reconstruct Perth's daily weather from 1830 to the present day.

Bone tools found in a well-known Kimberley cave site are more than 35,000 years old and among the oldest discovered in Australia, according to new research. The research team from Griffith University, The University of Western Australia (UWA) and The Australian National University (ANU) analysed eight bone tools from Riwi Cave in Mimbi country in the south-central Kimberley region of Western Australia.

Technology that stores clean energy by heating particles with captured sunlight is cost-effective and reliable, modelling from The Australian National University (ANU) shows. The ANU research team examined solar thermal technology developed by US-partner Sandia National Laboratories in a team including ANU, CSIRO and the University of Adelaide.

The vast majority of Australian voters support climate action, but their degree of support varies significantly across political divides, a new study shows. The survey examined the views of more than 2,000 Australian voters. More than 80 per cent of those surveyed said they think it's important for Australia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The world's first room-temperature quantum computer is in the final stages of development and is set to be installed at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and activated later this year. Unlike other quantum computers, this lunchbox-sized invention does not need extreme sub-zero temperatures to work and is on the cusp of being the most powerful computer ever created.

The critically endangered regent honeyeater is losing its "song culture" due to the bird's rapidly declining population, according to new research from The Australian National University (ANU). Just like humans learning to speak, many birds learn to sing by associating with older birds of the same species.

The Holy Grail of crops that can survive long heat waves and drought may be a step closer with scientists finding a way to precisely measure a plant's water loss through its skin. There are only two ways that crops and other plants lose water: through their skin, otherwise known as the cuticle, and the stomata.