Australian scientists develop cheap and rapid way to identify antibiotic-resistant golden staph (MRSA). A combination of off-the-shelf quantum dot nanotechnology and a smartphone camera soon could allow doctors to identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria in just 40 minutes, potentially saving patient lives. Staphylococcus aureus (golden staph), is a common form of bacterium that causes serious and sometimes…
Chinese-Australian research finds climate change good news, and solves an evolutionary mystery Baby turtles influence their gender by moving around inside their eggs, research has revealed. The idea that an embryo reptile can act in a way that affects its chances of developing as male or female has long been thought impossible, but findings by…
Macquarie University’s Professor Rob Harcourt urges Oceania-wide action to safeguard several species. Sharks in Australian waters are well protected but are at risk as soon as they leave them, a new international study reveals. The study compiled by 150 scientists around the world – including 26 with ties to Australia – has found that even…
Dr Stuart Ryder is venturing into the stratosphere on a NASA jet to study the birthplace of massive stars. Macquarie University astronomer Dr Stuart Ryder is in New Zealand to hitch a ride on a NASA jet and take a closer look at how stars are born in one of the most active stellar nurseries…
Australian research finds little lizards learn very quickly. Young Australian eastern blue-tongue lizards (Tiliqua scincoides) are every bit as clever as adults, researchers have found. Life is hard for baby blue-tongues. As soon as they are born, they are on their own, with neither parental support nor protection. Adults of the species can grow to 600…
Australian and South American researchers posit wandering “ploonets” as unseen actors in distant solar systems. Moons ejected from orbits around gas giant exoplanets could explain several astronomical mysteries, an international team of astronomers suggests. Researchers led by Mario Sucerquia, from the Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia, and Jaime Alvarado-Montes from Australia’s Macquarie University, modelled the likely…
New Guinea is one of the only places in the world where frogs are safe from the species-destroying chytrid fungus. An international team of scientists has published a new paper that shows how to keep it that way, but they need help to carry out their plan. The chytrid fungus has wiped out more than…
Most diamonds are made of cooked seabed. The diamond on your finger is most likely made of recycled seabed cooked deep in the Earth. Traces of salt trapped in many diamonds show the stones are formed from ancient seabeds that became buried deep beneath the Earth’s crust, according to new research led by Macquarie University…
Location matters for species struggling to survive under a changing climate. A new study led by Macquarie University has found we need to provide more safe havens for wildlife and plant species to survive under climate change in New South Wales’ west. Along the Great Dividing Range, the vulnerable spotted-tailed quoll will be forced to…
Ten per cent of the oxygen we breathe comes from just one kind of bacteria in the ocean. Now laboratory tests have shown that these bacteria are susceptible to plastic pollution, according to a study published in Communications Biology tonight. “We found that exposure to chemicals leaching from plastic pollution interfered with the growth, photosynthesis…