Research reveals how we could design robots to think like bees Bees available to film at Macquarie and Sheffield, video overlay and graphics available. Honey bees have to balance effort, risk and reward, making rapid and accurate assessments of which flowers are mostly likely to offer food for their hive. Research published in the journal…
Work is underway into how science can stop the superbug A. baumanniii after research exposes a weak link in the deadly but poorly understood pathogen. Images for download The deadly hospital pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii can live for a year on a hospital wall without food and water. Then, when it infects a vulnerable patient, it…
Group music therapy helps hearing-impaired kids understand complex sounds The improved listening skills boost educational and emotional growth A 12-week music program is helping deaf and hard-of-hearing children learn to optimise their hearing aids and cochlear implants, by teaching them to better understand the sounds they detect. The program, developed by Dr Chi Yhun Lo…
Unusual galaxy set to prompt rethink on how structures in the Universe form Full paper, Full video, and images available. Details below. Astronomers have captured an image of a super-rare type of galaxy – described as a “cosmic ring of fire” – as it existed 11 billion years ago. The galaxy, which has roughly the mass of…
Maths model helps rangers protect national parks, despite tight budgets. Mathematics can help reduce poaching and illegal logging in national parks, researchers have found. A team of applied mathematicians including Macquarie University’s David Arnold has developed an algorithm that predicts which areas inside park boundaries offer the greatest possibilities for criminals – and how rangers…
Researchers close in on an objective measure for physical distress. A new microscope-based method for detecting a particular molecule in the spinal cord could help lead to an accurate and independent universal pain scale, research from Australia’s Macquarie University suggests. An accurate way of measuring pain is of critical importance because at present degrees of…
New tech means cars can power houses, as well as the other way round. A new device turns electric vehicles into chargers for houses and stranded cars. Researchers led by Seyedfoad Taghizadeh from Australia’s Macquarie University are looking to commercialise the technology, which may significantly increase the appeal of the vehicles.
Academic journal rules are penalising citizen scientists and indigenous knowledge, say US and Australian scientists. Citizen scientists should be included as authors on journal papers, researchers say. In a paper published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, a team led by biologist Dr Georgia Ward-Fear from Macquarie University in Australia and Dr Greg…
A novel citizen science project in New Caledonia finds an ‘astonishing’ number of venomous reptiles in a popular swimming spot. A group of snorkelling grandmothers is helping scientists better understand marine ecology by photographing venomous sea snakes in waters off the city of Noumea, New Caledonia. Two years ago the seven women, all in their…
Apex marine predators choose who they hang with, researchers reveal. White sharks form communities, researchers have revealed. Although normally solitary predators, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) gather in large numbers at certain times of year in order to feast on baby seals. These groupings, scientists had assumed, were essentially random – the result of individual sharks…