science wire

Malaria is one of the biggest killers in the world, particularly for young children and pregnant women in Africa and the Pacific, and our research could help save countless lives in some of the world's poorest countries. Malaria researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have found one of the malaria parasite's best weapons against drug treatments turns out to be an Achilles' heel, which could be exploited to cure the deadly disease.

The University's vision is to be the destination of choice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander intellectual leaders and this includes Indigenous artists.

The ruling is widely tipped to come down in favour of the Philippines and many hope the country's new President Duterte will offer concessions that might placate China.

The Kungkarangkalpa Seven Sisters fly up to become the Pleiades in the night sky, performance at the NMA, March 2013.

Computer scientists have developed a tweak for computer operating systems that could make large data centres 25 per cent more efficient by sharing their processing power.

On Saturday 2 July Australians voted in the 2016 election, with vote counting ongoing and the outcome unclear.

Australia's official interest rates should remain on hold in July against a backdrop of political uncertainty over the Australian election and Britain's vote to leave the European Union, the ANU RBA Shadow Board has found.

Scientists at ANU have improved the performance of tiny lasers by adding impurities, in a discovery which will be central to the development of low-cost biomedical sensors, quantum computing, and a faster internet.

The Australian National University (ANU) will celebrate 50 years of chronicling and telling the stories of Australians though the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) by hosting a conference on producing biographies in the digital world.

The world's leading audio researchers and sound designers will gather at The Australian National University (ANU) from Sunday to hear about the latest technology regarding auditory display.

Because it is safe this could be used for cheap sensors to diagnose cancer and other diseases. It will be really important for biology.

At its most confronting, policy like safer roads may actually lead to more deaths because it results in funds being unavailable for better policy, for example critical diagnostic equipment in hospitals.

ANU has extended a major survey of health concerns of people who have lived in a house with loose-fill asbestos insulation. Chief Investigator Associate Professor Martyn Kirk said the survey would be extended until Friday 8 July, to give people more time to have their say. The survey is examining the physical and psychological effects associated with living in a Mr Fluffy house, and aims to give a clear picture of the overall health impact of residential exposure to loose fill asbestos.

It's not a political case, it is scientific. Current management is a major loss making enterprise that basically diminishes other land uses which are economically, socially, and environmentally more valuable.

Two volunteer astronomers have had a galaxy cluster named after them after finding the galaxy in an international citizen science project co-led by ANU. The two Russians identified the huge C-shaped galaxy cluster from much smaller images of cosmic radio waves shown to them as part of the web-based Radio Galaxy Zoo program.

Researchers from around Australia have begun testing satellites at the ANU Mount Stromlo space testing facilities ahead of a mass satellite launch from the International Space Station later this year.

Just as they reached a stable state, China came in and without any hindrance to research at all says 'come here and we'll let you do what you want'.

Scientists have found past El Niño oscillations in the Pacific Ocean may have amplified global climate fluctuations for hundreds of years at a time. The team uncovered century-scale patterns in Pacific rainfall and temperature, and linked them with global climate changes in the past 2000 years. For example, northern hemisphere warming and droughts between the years 950 and 1250 corresponded to an El Niño-like state in the Pacific, which switched to a La Niña-like pattern during a cold period between 1350 and 1900.

We already know that around two thirds of published authors in Australia are women, but two thirds of the books being reviewed are by men.

A new study from ANU has found a global boom in the sale of infant and baby formula, especially in China and Southeast Asia, raising concerns about the health of millions of mothers and their babies. Lead researcher Dr Phillip Baker said the study suggested governments around the world needed to do more to control marketing of baby formula and to ensure work policies gave women a choice to breastfeed their children.

ANU will strengthen its role as a leading centre for personalised medicine following the announcement of $7.3 million in funding from the ACT Government to set up a new centre, Canberra Clinical Genomics.

Associate Professor Ian Cockburn from The Australian National University (ANU), has won funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's to help find more effective treatments for malaria. Associate Professor Cockburn said he was honoured to be awardedUS$100,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's latest Grand Challenges Explorations round.

Governments must get better at sharing data. That's the only way we will get better information about migration.

The Australian Academy of Science has recognised two scientists from The Australian National University (ANU) for their work on advancing science. Professor Susan Scott from the ANU Centre for Gravitational Physics , and Professor Simon Foote, Director of The John Curtin School of Medical Research ,  have been elected as new Fellows of the Academy in recognition of their significant contributions to science.

Australia has a proud history of multiculturalism. However, that cohesion is currently threatened. We are at a critical juncture where policy decisions can inflame or exacerbate divisions.

Some supernovae have a reserve tank of radioactive fuel that cuts in and powers their explosions for three times longer than astronomers had previously thought. A team of astronomers jointly led by Dr Ivo Seitenzahl from ANU  Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics detected the faint afterglow of a supernova, and found it was powered by radioactive cobalt-57.

An independent economic analysis of Australia's Direct Action program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has found major flaws in the program.

Physicists are putting themselves out of a job, using artificial intelligence to run a complex experiment. The experiment, developed by physicists from ANU and UNSW ADFA, created an extremely cold gas trapped in a laser beam, known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, replicating the experiment that won the 2001 Nobel Prize.

Less than halfway through her term, Brazil's first female President, Dilma Rousseff, has been stripped of her presidential duties for up to six months after the Senate voted to begin an impeachment trial.

An archaeologist studying musical horns from iron-age Ireland has found musical traditions, thought to be long dead, are alive and well in south India. The realisation that modern Indian horns are almost identical to many iron-age European artefacts reveals a rich cultural link between the two regions 2,000 years ago, said PhD student Billy Ó Foghlú, from ANU College of Asia-Pacific.

The South Australian Royal Commission into the nuclear fuel cycle has kick started a new public discussion about the role of nuclear energy as the world looks for clean sources of energy, say experts from ANU.

The Australian National University (ANU) has won $3.7 million of funding for 10 linkage projects in the latest round of the Australian Research Council's grants.

The Australian Government has listed the iconic Tasmanian swift parrot as critically endangered, lifting its status from endangered, following research by The Australian National University (ANU). Dr Dejan Stojanovic from the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society is part of a team that published the 2015 research which found the swift parrot could be extinct in as little as 16 years.

The Australian National University (ANU) has won $3.7 million of funding for 10 linkage projects in the latest round of the Australian Research Council's grants.

The Australian National University (ANU) has launched the third stage of its ACT Asbestos Health Study to examine health concerns of people who have lived in a house with loose-fill asbestos insulation. Chief Investigator Associate Professor Martyn Kirk said a confidential survey would be sent to people registered as living in a Mr Fluffy house when the ACT Government announced its buy-back program on 28 October 2014.

A major survey on the future of Australia has been extended by one month to give more people a chance to voice their opinions about the issues that really matter to them ahead of the federal election.

People desperately want to put the past behind and to identify a clear vision for the future that can be pursued with passion and enthusiasm.

A full cardiovascular risk assessment allows therapy to be targeted to those who would most benefit from it. Not only is this good clinical practice, it makes sound economic sense. Around one in five Australians aged 45 to 74 are at high risk of heart attack or stroke within the next five years but almost one million of them are not receiving the  currently recommended combination of medications, a major new study has found.

The Australia Labor Party has announced a new climate change policy ahead of the federal election. The policy outlines higher emissions cuts, a return to limited carbon trading, and a move to 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

ANUpoll clearly shows Australians are open to the idea of tax reform, as long as any changes are fair to all levels of society.

Researchers have found large old trees need greater long-term protection from the threat of climate change and logging if they are to be saved for future generations.

The rules of good sustainability research need to change and research become more collaborative to ensure complex sustainability challenges are overcome, a new study has found. The 10-year analysis found sustainability researchers needed to engage with local communities in order to ensure their research is relevant to decision makers.

Physicists have discovered radical new properties in a nanomaterial which opens new possibilities for highly efficient thermophotovoltaic cells, which could one day harvest heat in the dark and turn it into electricity.