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How we collaborated in creating The First Inventors to celebrate extraordinary Indigenous peoples' knowledges and technologies

First Nations cultures and languages are being revitalised around the country. More non-Indigenous Australians are becoming interested in what Indigenous knowledges can teach us today.

The Conversation · Jun 14, 2023

Why more than two-thirds of Australians think no news is good news (at least some of the time)

Over the past 12 months, the news has been full of serious and negative news such as the war in the Ukraine, the surge in the cost of living, interest rate rises, and the climate crisis.

The Conversation · Jun 13, 2023

Meet the biggest and most bizarre skink ever found in Australia. It became extinct 47,000 years ago

Many of the giant marsupials and birds that roamed ancient Australia had vanished by 40,000 years ago. While the duration and drivers of these extinctions remain debated, fossils clearly show the continent lost a host of creatures which would have dwarfed humans, such as short-faced kangaroos, diprotodons, “thunder birds” and…

The Conversation · Jun 13, 2023

We’ve created a new lens that could take thermal cameras out of spy films and put them into your back pocket

Like something out of a spy movie, thermal cameras make it possible to “see” heat by converting infrared radiation into an image. They can detect infrared light given off by animals, vehicles, electrical equipment and even people – leading to specialised applications in a number of industries.

The Conversation · Jun 7, 2023

Giant tree-kangaroos once lived in unexpected places all over Australia, according to major new analysis

Kangaroos are an enduring symbol of Australia’s uniqueness. To move, they do what no other large mammals do: they hop along on oversized hind legs. So you may be surprised to learn that some kangaroos live in trees, and are among the most endearing and threatened of all marsupials.

The Conversation · Jun 7, 2023

Changing wild animals' behavior could help save them – but is it ethical?

When large and warty cane toads were first brought to Australia nearly 100 years ago, they had a simple mission: to gobble up beetles and other pests in the sugarcane fields.

The Conversation · Jun 6, 2023

The world's first flowers were pollinated by insects

Plants existed on Earth for hundreds of millions of years before the first flowers bloomed. But when flowering plants did evolve, more than 140 million years ago, they were a huge evolutionary success.

The Conversation · Jun 5, 2023

Hidden carbon: Fungi and their 'necromass' absorb one-third of the carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels every year

Beneath our feet, remarkable networks of fungal filaments stretch out in all directions. These mycorrhizal fungi live in partnership with plants, offering nutrients, water and protection from pests in exchange for carbon-rich sugars.

The Conversation · Jun 5, 2023

Social media snaps map the sweep of Japan’s cherry blossom season in unprecedented detail

Social media contains enormous amounts of data about people, our everyday lives, and our interactions with our surroundings. As a byproduct, it also contains a vast trove of information about the natural world.

The Conversation · Jun 4, 2023

A sustainable Australia depends on what happens in our cities – that's why we need a national urban policy

Australia has not had a national urban policy since the Rudd government. A troika of Liberal PMs followed. Tony Abbott wasn’t interested. Malcolm Turnbull didn’t quite live up to the hype but delivered cross-governmental City Deals and the Smart Cities and Suburbs Program. Scott Morrison at best presided over a…

The Conversation · May 31, 2023