Old Clothes are Recycled into Concrete
Over 200,000 tonnes of textiles end up in Australian landfills.
A team at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia have found a way to lower this number. David Law, Chamila Gunasekara, Shadi Houshyar, Sujeeva Setunge and Nayanatara Ruppegoda Gamage are all part of the team that used old textiles as a material in concrete to help reduce cracks and boost the durability of it.
Scientists Make a Spider-Man Inspired Silk and Web Shooter
Marco Lo Presti of Silklab at Tufts University in the US was cleaning his glassware with acetone; he has recently been doing a project making extremely strong adhesives and suddenly noticed a web-like thing forming at the bottom of the glass.
Becoming the Next Spiderman
Remember when you were a child and wanted to be a superhero? You’re not the only one, because children always want to become their favourite superhero, whether it be Batman, Superman, Iron Man, or Captain America. Since 1962, when the web-slinging, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man made his debut in Marvel Comics, he has been a favourite hero of children all over.
Saving the Great Barrier Reef
The Australian Great Barrier Reef is a site that is beautiful to its age. The GBR is more than 60,000 years old, and it is still a world travel destination. Over the past 230 years, the reef has become a home of shipwrecks. 1,200 ship vessels have been sunk on the reef, with only 114 being discovered. These include the HMS Pandora (1791), SS Gothenburg (1875), Foam (1893), SS Yongala (1911). In 1981, the GBR was declared a world heritage area, due to its ‘outstanding universal value’.
World’s Smallest Scuba Diver
The latest research by Lindsey Swierk, a scientist at Binghamton University, has found that a small, semi-aquatic species of lizard, now claims the title of ‘world’s smallest scuba diver.’
The Effects of the Collision of Cyclones Seroja and Odette
In 2021, the world saw a rare and powerful weather event: two major cyclones, Seroja and Odette, collided and caused severe destruction in different parts of the world. Though they started in separate oceans, they came together off the western coast of Australia, creating devastating effects. This anomalous occurrence showed how unpredictable and powerful tropical storms can become when they interact.
Global Warming is Causing Dengue Cases to Soar
Whether it’s stress and uncertainty from forced displacements from wildfires, rises in sea level, or fear and hunger from poor nutrition in places where people can’t grow food, climate change is one of Earth’s biggest threats. Recent scientific discoveries show that mosquito-induced Dengue cases are set to double in the next 25 years, especially in warmer areas like the Americas and Asia, and could potentially affect over 250 million people. “It’s evidence that climate change already has become a significant threat to human health and, for dengue in particular, our data suggests the impact could get much worse,” says Dr Erin Mordecai, an infectious disease ecologist at Stanford University.
The Great Hunt
Imagine hunting a species that is ten meters larger than you. Well, that is what a pod of killer whales are doing in the Gulf of California. Last year, marine biologist, Erick Higuera, and his colleagues researchers uncovered the killer whales to have learned a series of unique skills to hunt down whale sharks, the world’s largest fish.
Ancient Writing Discovered in Syria
Imagine writing a gift tag, only for it to be discovered and marvelled at thousands of years later. Recently, at the American Society of Overseas Research meeting held in Boston, archaeologists presented evidence for the world’s oldest writing on a clay cylinder found in a 4,400-year-old Syrian tomb. The cylinder, described as an ancient gift tag, bore the word “Silanu,” which researchers speculate could be a name. This discovery was revolutionary as it both showed signs of humans experimenting with communication technologies and also showed a different perspective that the word may be alphabetic letters rather than another type of writing system.
Life on Mars?
Imagine a secret colony of talking creatures inhabiting Saturn or purple and rose-coloured aliens living on Jupiter. Whether life exists beyond Earth is one of the most intriguing and debated topics in science, and a recent discovery on Mars might answer the debate. A discovery in July of 2024, conducted by NASA scientists, uncovered a vein-filled rock on Mars that featured chemical signatures and structures that could have been formed by microbial life billions of years ago. This discovery suggests that there is a high possibility that life once inhabited Mars.