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Researchers studying eating behaviour in Singapore have found negative comments made by mothers have more impact on their children than their father's comments. Co-author Dr Daniel Fassnacht from The Australian National University said the study found significant differences with Western culture. "In Singapore, negative maternal comments on their child's weight and shape were linked to greater body dissatisfaction and disordered eating," he said.

The actions we take now to transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels will help protect our planet from further damage and ensure future generations can continue to prosper. An international team of scientists has found overwhelming evidence that the Earth has entered a new geological epoch due to the impact of human activity.

Vulnerability to internal plumbing failure puts the tallest trees in rainforests at increased risk of death during drought, a study in the Amazon forests in Brazil has found. The research found that as water in the soil dried up during drought, the tallest trees were affected by air bubbles entering their internal plumbing, making it difficult for the trees to transport water and other nutrients to their leaves.

Scientists drilling into the ocean floor have for the first time found out what happens when one tectonic plate first gets pushed under another. The international expedition drilled into the Pacific ocean floor and found distinctive rocks formed when the Pacific tectonic plate changed direction and began to plunge under the Philippine Sea Plate about 50 million years ago.

A new study into problem gambling and gambling addiction has found there is no safe level of gambling. It found the more money a person spends on gambling, the greater the risk of a gambler becoming addicted, even at relatively low levels of spending. The study, led by PhD Candidate Francis Markham from The Australian National University (ANU), overturns previous assumptions that people could avoid the risk of becoming addicted to gambling if they gambled below a safe threshold.

Astronomers have discovered the oldest known stars, dating from before the Milky Way Galaxy formed, when the Universe was just 300 million years old. The stars, found near the centre of the Milky Way, are surprisingly pure but contain material from an even earlier star, which died in an enormous explosion called a hypernova.

Researchers have found more than half of the public datasets provided with scientific papers are incomplete, which prevents reproducibility tests and follow-up studies. However, slight improvements to research practices could make a big difference. Lead researcher Dr Dominique Roche from ANU Research School of Biology said many peer-reviewed biological journals now require authors to publicly archive their data when a paper is published.

Scientists have identified a gene that could potentially open the door for the development of new treatments of the lethal disease sepsis. Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) and the Garvan Institute of Medical Research worked with Genentech, a leading United States biotechnology company, to identify a gene that triggers the inflammatory condition that can lead to the full-body infection sepsis.

We've found preliminary evidence that the perceptual difficulties related to integrating information are what leads to the social difficulties. A new study into autism by researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) could turn the way people think of the condition up-side-down. While it is currently accepted that social and communication difficulties are the core element of the condition, the new research suggests that these issues may be the result of a difference in the way people with autism process information.

Scientists have discovered that rock-wallabies living in north east Queensland are sharing genetic material despite belonging to six different species. Rock-wallabies are a very interesting system to explore. It's exciting because it's an iconic Australian marsupial and it brings our research to the forefront of evolutionary theory.

Data collected by the Canberra Pollen app has revealed evidence of 'thunderstorm asthma' in Canberra. Image: John Fowler, Flickr. We saw one weekend last year where there was a massive spike in grass pollen corresponding in a record number of asthma suffers admitted to hospital. Research by The Australian National University (ANU) into pollen in Canberra has provided the first evidence that the region is prone to a phenomenon known as 'thunderstorm asthma'.

Researchers at ANU have found frill-necked lizards have different coloured frills, depending on where they live and what they eat. The colour of the frill on the lizards varies from red, orange, yellow and white. "We found that individuals with a red or orange frill found in western populations in the Kimberley and Top End had more colour pigments in their frill than lizards with a yellow or white frill found in Queensland," said lead author Dr Thomas Merkling from the ANU Research School of Biology.

Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have found the size and shape of orchids play a big part in their act of sexual deception to get male wasps to pollinate their flowers. Until now it had been thought many orchids need only produce floral scent, or chemicals that mimic female insect sex pheromones, to deceive male insects into pollinating their flowers.

An accidental find of a collection of young red dwarf stars close to our solar system could give us a rare glimpse of slow-motion planet formation. Astronomers from ANU and UNSW Canberra found large discs of dust around two of the stars, tell-tale signs of planets in the process of forming. "We think the Earth and all the other planets formed from discs like these so it is fascinating to see a potential new solar system evolving," said the lead researcher Dr Simon Murphy, from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Scientists have discovered the world's longest known chain of continental volcanoes, running 2,000 kilometres across Australia, from the Whitsundays in North Queensland to near Melbourne in central Victoria. The volcanic chain was created over the past 33 million years, as Australia moved northwards over a hotspot in the Earth's mantle, said leader of the research Dr Rhodri Davies from The Australian National University (ANU).

Biologists have discovered how the rice plant's immune system is triggered by disease, in a discovery that could boost crop yields and lead to more disease-resistant types of rice. Rice is central to the food security of more than half the world's population in many of the poorest countries. But bacterial leaf blight can destroy up to 80 per cent of a crop in some countries if it develops early.

Many researchers are unaware that their expectations can introduce such strong bias, and so they don't feel the need to work blind. Scientific journals should insist on more robust experimental processes, say biologists after reviewing nearly 900,000 experiments. The team found that non-blind experiments - that is, where scientists knew which samples they were recording - averaged a 27 per cent stronger result than blind trials.

Researchers have developed a way to help ecosystems bounce back after human disturbances such as shipping, oil exploration or fishing, and have applied it to a coral reef fish species. The method helps conservation managers create a cost-effective plan to bring species back from the brink of extinction in a local area, by building connections with the same species in nearby locations.

A new study published today has found analyses of carbon emissions may be misleading as they failed to include the impacts of policies such as trading schemes, emission caps or quotas. "The inclusion of policy mechanisms can radically alter the outcomes from life-cycle analyses and result in counter-intuitive outcomes," said Associate Professor Andrew Macintosh from ANU College of Law , lead author of the study.

One of Australia's smallest birds has found a cunning way to protect its nest from predators by crying wolf, or rather hawk, and mimicking the warning calls of other birds. Researchers from ANU Research School of Biology found that the tiny brown thornbill mimics the hawk warning call of a variety of birds to scare off predators threatening its nest, such as the larger pied currawong.