science wire

Research led by ANU is helping to develop food crops with bigger yields and greater ability to cope with drought compared with today's plants. Crops such as sorghum and millet produce much more yield and are better at resisting drought and other extreme conditions compared to wheat and rice, and this research will help explain why by studying the role of a key enzyme in the process.

As Canberrans prepare to hit the polling booths on Saturday 15 October Canberra to elect the next ACT government, some of Australia's leading politics and policy experts at ANU have weighed in with their opinion on the current election situation.

ANU is saddened by the death of Professor Desmond Ball AO, who was one of Australia's most influential and respected defence and strategic policy experts.

If cities expand business as usual, the projected urbanisation alone will breach the warming limit set by the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accepted a specially bound set of the new edition of the Australian National Dictionary, the primary repository of Australian English .

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accepted a specially bound set of the new edition of the Australian National Dictionary, the primary repository of Australian English .

While many Australians fear terrorist attacks and a majority are prepared to compromise their individual rights and freedoms in favour of living in security, they have at the same time conflated terrorism with extremism.

It's neither narcissism nor self-empowerment. People are using selfies as a tool as part of their everyday life.

New technologies including mobile phones, online monitoring and tracking devices are reshaping what it means to be a child in modern society.

ANU today announced it would invest $12.5 million in strategic funds in the School of Music over the next five years to ensure a bright future for music teaching and research at the University.

A European Union expert at ANU will train Australian public servants and businesses about how the European Union works, in the lead up to negotiations on a possible Australia-EU free trade agreement.

Further policy confusion over renewable energy targets arising from myths about the South Australia extreme weather event will only make matters worse.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are remote but this region influences Australia's heat waves, affects whether our crops get the winter rainfall they need and determines how quickly our ocean levels rise. Human-caused climate change is robbing crucial rain from southern parts of Australia by shifting Southern Ocean westerly winds towards Antarctica, according to a new study.

Optical quantum computing is still a long way off, but our successful experiment to stop light gets us further along the road.

China has a limited amount of land and water that can be used for agriculture. This is compounded by the fact that a massive amount of soil and water is contaminated.

Eucalypts dominate so much of Australia, providing habitat for countless flora and fauna species, and they have a special place in the identity of many Australians. The habitats of more than 90 per cent of Australia's gum tree species will on average halve in size, and 16 eucalypt species are likely to become extinct, over the next 70 years due to global warming, a new international study has found.

If we could plant 20 million hectares of eucalyptus species worldwide, which is currently the same amount that is planted for pulp and paper, we would be able to produce enough jet fuel for five per cent of the aviation industry.

Composer Dr Christopher Sainsbury from The Australian National University (ANU) has won an inaugural national grant to help promote the work of Indigenous composers in Australia.

There will be no respite for Canberra hay fever sufferers this year with The Australian National University's (ANU) Canberra Pollen project forecasting another nightmare pollen season.

This project will establish strong artistic and cultural links between the ANU School of Music, the NCA and the Canberra International Music Festival as well as the wider Canberra community.

The re-opening of the visitor's centre at Mount Stromlo, along with the other projects already launched and underway, is the missing piece of the puzzle for the site following the 2003 bushfires.

The fact that we are partners in eight of the nine awarded centres is testament to the breadth and quality of the work being done at ANU.

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have developed a new spray-on material with a remarkable ability to repel water.

The Australian National University (ANU) will lead Australia's next wave of research into the Universe and the formation of the basic elements, using new 3-D technology to explore the Universe, after winning a $30 million Centre of Excellence from the Australian Research Council (ARC).

Overly meticulous examinations are detecting the condition in the early stages and resulting in unnecessary surgeries. Research led by ANU has found doctors around the world are over diagnosing the most common thyroid cancer, creating an artificial epidemic that costs billions of dollars each year in unnecessary medical costs.

ANU will establish an international research program to improve ways to store renewable energy that can be integrated into the electricity grid under a new $8 million partnership with the ACT Government.

A disproportionately large amount of gambling revenue in the ACT is derived from people who report problem gambling.

Australia's official interest rates have gone as low as they need to and should remain on hold in September, the ANU RBA Shadow Board has found.

The Australian National University (ANU) will launch a campaign to raise funds to help prevent konzo, a brain disease spreading across tropical Africa that cripples women and children, at the 2016 ANU Open Day on Saturday.

India has become the dumping ground for our e-waste, everything from computers, phones, televisions and whitegoods are illegally being exported to India.

Musicians and engineers at The Australian National University (ANU) have invented a new instrument stand designed to prevent injuries for saxophone players and musicians who play a range of heavy wind instruments.

Researchers Alex Smith (L) and Dr Deborah Anthrop (R) work with Parkinson's disease sufferer Ken Hood (middle). Image: Stuart Hay, ANU. The thing about Parkinson's disease is that some people can be OK for quite a long time, while others progress more rapidly. Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) will use machine learning to help solve the mystery of how to determine the progression of Parkinson's disease.

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have set a world record for efficiency for a solar thermal dish generating steam that could be used for power stations.

A lot of Americans didn't understand the question. To them it was obvious, just count up the number of medals. Australians think the fairest way to judge the Olympic medal tally is by medals per capita while Americans think it should be judged on total medals. A researcher at The Australian National University (ANU) has found people will adjust their perception of the Olympic medal tally based on their country's performance.

Scientists have developed a new material based on graphene that could drive a revolution in medical implants and lightweight heat-resistant materials for car and aircraft engines.

New research into the winter migration of Tasmania's swift parrots has found the population migrates up to 1,000 kilometres further north from their central Victorian habitats during drought years to concentrate on the coast of New South Wales. Using eight years of data collected by volunteers from BirdLife Australia, researchers for the first time have worked out exactly how far the critically endangered Swift Parrots need to travel to find food after consecutive years of drought.

Aboriginal people, but particularly women, were absolutely integral to the industry's success. Without them it just wouldn't have been possible.

While climate change generally poses a major threat to humanity, it also may reduce the incidence of dengue in some areas. Health researchers predict that the transmission of dengue could decrease in a future warmer climate, countering previous projections that climate change would cause the potentially lethal virus to spread more easily.

Biomedical scientists have revealed the inner workings of a group of proteins that help to switch critical genes on and off during blood-cell production, in a finding that could lead to the development of new and improved cancer drugs. One of the proteins involved is linked to breast cancer, which is the most common cancer for women and kills more than half a million women around the world each year.

On Tuesday 9 August Australians will complete their forms for the 2016 Census of Population and Housing.