Why do dogs have different coats? Experts explain – and give grooming tips for different types
From fluffy to sleek, straight to curly – what’s the science behind the dog fur on your couch? …
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Science/Technology
Look up! A once-in-a-lifetime explosion is about to create a ‘new’ star in the sky
Astronomers and stargazers around the world are excited to witness a rare event that only happens once every 80 years – a recurrent nova. …
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We used 1,000 historical photos to reconstruct Antarctic glaciers before a dramatic collapse
Few observations exist from before the 2002 Larsen B Ice Shelf collapse. We’ve now estimated how many billions of tons of glacier ice were lost – and what it means for the future. …
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Why is Amazon building a ‘top secret’ $2 billion cloud for Australia’s military intelligence?
You may only know Amazon as an online retailer – but it’s also become the world’s single biggest player in providing cloud computing services. …
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AI could revolutionise environmental planning – if we don’t get trapped in the ‘iron cage of rationality’
Many datasets have gaps and biases due to how the information was gathered. Developers must account for this to avoid embedded wrong assumptions being carried across to train future AIs. …
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Photos of Australian kids have been found in a massive AI training data set. What can we do?
Human Rights Watch has sounded the alarm over Australian children’s images found in a huge data set used to train AI models. It could be a breach of our privacy law. …
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NZ is moving closer to digital IDs – it’s time to rethink how we protect our valuable data
As the digital economy accelerates, New Zealand needs new rules to regulate how we develop new services– and who develops them. …
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Australia is pushing big tech to ‘protect kids from porn’. What can they actually do?
Major tech platforms have been given six months to come up with an enforceable code that protects children from harmful material online. What might that look like? …
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New study shows mysterious solar particle blasts can devastate the ozone layer, bathing Earth in radiation for years
Every few thousand years, the Sun unleashes a burst of high-energy particles that can have serious consequences for life on Earth. …
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We mapped the entire bilby genome – and now we can use poo to save Australia’s ‘Easter bunny’ from extinction
We’ve just published the largest ever marsupial genome – all 3.6 billion pieces of it. Together with Indigenous rangers, we’re applying two-way science to better protect bilbies. …
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