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They say leaders are born not made, but it seems the opposite is true for queen bees, according to a new study by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) and Queen Mary University of London. Larvae turn into queen bees when they are fed a nutritious diet called 'royal jelly'. Royal jelly has the capacity to influence the genetic instructions encoded in the honey bee genome, a process called 'epigenetics' or 'above genetics'.

A study on past reversals of Earth's magnetic field has found that a rapid shift occurred within two centuries - such an event in future would increase our exposure to the Sun's radiation that may cause trillions of dollars in power and communications systems damage. The international research team found that magnetic field reversals - whereby the South Pole became the North Pole and vice versa - could happen much more rapidly than the thousands of years previously thought.

For most of us, the body's deterioration is an unavoidable part of getting older. This age-related decline, known as "senescence", can occur subtly and slowly for some individuals, while for others it happens much faster. A researcher from The Australian National University is trying to find out why.

Australian scientists have invented a new ultra-thin device that can turn invisible light into the visible and change the colour of light, with the potential to be used to help turbo-charge internet speeds around the world. A change in light's colour alters its frequency, which is a vital process in optical technologies including next-generation telecommunications.

Australian scientists have invented a new ultra-thin device that can turn invisible light into the visible and change the colour of light, with the potential to be used to help turbo-charge internet speeds around the world. A change in light's colour alters its frequency, which is a vital process in optical technologies including next-generation telecommunications.

New archaeological research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found that Homo erectus , an extinct species of primitive humans, went extinct in part because they were 'lazy'. An archaeological excavation of ancient human populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Early Stone Age, found that Homo erectus used 'least-effort strategies' for tool making and collecting resources.

Scientists from Australia and the United States have helped to solve the mystery underlying Jupiter's coloured bands in a new study on the interaction between atmospheres and magnetic fields. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Unlike Earth, Jupiter has no solid surface - it is a gaseous planet, consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium.

An international study has found the Earth is at risk of entering a hothouse climate that could lead to global average temperatures of up to five degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial temperatures and long-term rises in the sea level of between 10 and 60 metres. Lead researcher Professor Will Steffen from ANU said such increases in temperatures and sea level would be devastating for human civilisation and most ecosystems that support plant and animal life.

New research involving biologists from The Australian National University (ANU) shows that some birds are just as skilled as humans at eavesdropping. The work has just been published in the journal Current Biology. Just like humans, birds eavesdrop on conversations intended for others, including alarm calls warning of predators.

New research from The Australian National University (ANU) has found people with high levels of psychopathic traits have difficulty telling when someone is genuinely afraid or upset, based on people's facial expressions. The study involved participants looking at photographs of faces expressing different emotions.

The increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to human activity will contribute to future sea-level rises, but new research has revealed that rapid ice age sea-level drops were not caused by changes in CO2 concentrations. The international study involving ANU found that the climate during the last ice age, which ended tens of thousands of years ago, could flip with smaller, more localised disruptions such as the discharge of huge masses of ice.

A new research paper from The Australian National University (ANU) has found agreements to protect the critically endangered Swift Parrot in Tasmania have been broken leaving the species at high risk of extinction. The paper's lead author Dr Matthew Webb of the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society said the logging of known and protected breeding habitats of the birds has continued.

A research team from ANU and The University of Queensland has designed and made a molecule derived from a human protein that kills the parasite which causes malaria. Treatments for malaria, a disease that kills a person every 90 seconds, are becoming less effective because of drug resistance and there is a risk to the future control of the disease.

Radiocarbon dating of the oldest known dingo bones has confirmed that the species likely arrived in Australia more recently than previously believed. Research from The Australian National University (ANU) and University of Western Australia (UWA) shows the bones are between 3,348 and 3,081 years old.

A research team led by ANU has found the first proof that Antarctica is not isolated from the rest of the Earth, with the discovery that foreign kelp had drifted 20,000 kilometres before surfing to the continent's icy shores. Scientists had previously thought that Antarctic plants and animals were distinct from others around the world because they were isolated, but this new research indicates that these differences are almost entirely due to environmental extremes rather than isolation.

New insights into gambling addiction from those experiencing its harmful effects will help inform more effective treatment and interventions. Researchers at the Centre for Gambling Research (CGR), based at The Australian National University (ANU), interviewed more than 50 people in the ACT about their experiences of gambling-related harm and the public health approaches to tackling the problem.

New research from The Australian National University (ANU) has shown people demonstrate unconscious negative biases when they encounter a person of ethnic appearance or hear a foreign accent. Dr Ksenia Gnevsheva of the ANU School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics asked research participants to watch videos of ethnically diverse people speaking and rate the level of accent they detected.

This year's convention is entitled 'The Literary Interface' because of the connections literature has to so many parts of our lives. A major literary symposium hosted by The Australian National University (ANU) has opened with a keynote speech by Australian author Charlotte Wood in which she challenged the notion of "relatability" in literature.

We have taken the first step towards one day being able to control and manipulate chemical reactions that are critical to vision and photosynthesis. ANU has contributed to a ground-breaking discovery that promises to help revolutionise the science behind the next generation of light-harvesting technologies, including potential new ways to generate solar power.

This might sound like science fiction, but space agencies and private companies around the world are actively trying to turn this aspiration into reality in the not-too-distant future. Scientists at ANU have contributed to an international study that will potentially help humans to colonise Mars and find life on other planets.