Gophers heal devastated Mt Helen’s landscape in one day
Michael Allen, a University of California-Riverside Microbiologist, sent two Gophers to spend just 24 hours on the barren side of Mount St. Helen in 1983, 2 years after the devastating eruption. Yet, 40 years on, the benefits they gave the landscape can still be seen.
A Memoir: Finding the Endangered in My Backyard
We Australians might be accustomed to sulphur-crested cockatoos squawking in our backyards, but have you heard of gang-gang cockatoos? Gang-gangs are an endangered type of cockatoo that predominately lives in parts of the eastern coast of Australia, and there are at least two living near a storm-water drain in the inner south of the ACT!
E-Skin: The Innovation That Will Heal, Feel, and Transform Lives
In recent years, scientists have developed a groundbreaking innovation: electronic skin (also known as e-skin), which can mimic the sensitivity of human skin, detecting stimuli such as pressure, temperature and even pain. As this technology evolves, it offers the potential to transform fields like healthcare and prosthetics, opening new doors for real-time health monitoring and advanced medical care. However, as ethical and social debates about data privacy and accessibility emerge, the question arises: Should we embrace this technology? E-skin is a game-changer that will enhance human life. Here’s why.
Mars Is Off Limits
Will Mars destroy us, or will we destroy Mars? Mars has not proved habitable for humans, but if scientists were to find a way, it would still be wrong to begin new human life there. Over many years, humans have become unsatisfied with what we have. What the Earth provided for us was apparently, never enough. We destroyed Earth – it is up to us to restore it, not move on just to ruin another planet.
New Fishy Face Could Soon Appear on Australian Plates
Salmon, Tuna or Cod? Or the newest option we might be seeing in Australian fish markets, Pompano? A group of scientists led by Dr Polly Hilder from the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have recently completed successful breeding trials of the fish. These trials bring Pompano one step closer to swimming onto the plates of Australians across the country.
Tiny Rodents Save Volcanic Wasteland!
In 1980, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake accompanied by an avalanche flipped the switch on Mount St Helens, a volcano in the western USA. With the pressure removed from the magma below, the volcano erupted, destroying 350km2 of forest and killing 57 people. But three years later, in 1983, scientists put two wild gophers in a small, fenced enclosure on the volcanic plain. They then left them to dig for 24 hours before removing them. According to a new study, those two little rodents have caused benefits to the mountain ecosystem that could still be seen decades later.
Non-Recyclable Bits of Fabric Could Enhance the Strength of Concrete
Textiles, materials made from fibres, yarns, or threads that can be woven, knitted, or felted into fabric, are very difficult to recycle. Before we can really start effectively recycling it, we need to separate all the different fabrics and dyes. This is pretty hard to do by hand and even mechanically. Because of this, hundreds of thousands of tons of textiles end up in Australian landfill every year, but some engineers say that there’s a better destination for the textiles: concrete.
A Few Asteroid Collisions Make Up Most of Earth’s Meteorites
Meteors have been battering the Earth for billions of years, ever since Earth formed, but only recently, in October 2024, have scientists found out where most of these cosmic space rocks came from.
Scuba Diving Lizards Use Bubbles to Hide Underwater
In late 2024, researchers found a special type of lizard that uses a special bubble they produce around their nose to hide underwater for an extended period of time. The first known vertebrae to use this behavior, called rebreathing.
Cold Water Combats Climate Change to Conserve Coral
Climate change has wiped out around 75% of one of Australia’s, most beautiful landmarks, the great barrier reef, but scientists at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (the CSIRO) have found an interesting phenomenon that might just save part of it: cold water.