Backyard safari

‘Bioblitz’ events like the City Nature Challenge are advancing science and empowering communities to discover species never seen before in some urban areas.

A spring clean for Everest

Mount Everest was once the ultimate challenge in high-altitude mountaineering, but the commodification of expeditions over the last 30 years has turned it into a motorway strewn with trash which urgently requires a spring clean.

Plastic planet

An international team of researchers has found that more than half of branded plastic pollution in the environment is linked to just 56 companies.

Palaeo-conservation

Novel rewilding projects by scientists, ecologists and conservationists could give hope to critically endangered animals around the world fresh hope of survival.

Robots on the reef

QUT researchers have developed a robot to capture images of baby tank-grown corals destined for the Great Barrier Reef. The system will help keep the growing corals happy and healthy before they are deployed and save researchers thousands of hours of coral counting time.

The end of Eden

Mankind’s dominion over Earth is a story of monumental folly and needless greed, and now nature is suffering further fatal blows thanks to the consequences of man-made climate change.

White reef grief

The summer of 2023−24 saw substantial climate driven impacts across the Great Barrier Reef, with widespread coral bleaching, two cyclones and several severe flood events.

Bouncing back from the dead

Palaeontologists from Flinders University have identified three species of giant kangaroos from Australia and New Guinea which lived from around 5 million to 40,000 years ago before they were wiped out by man.

Park life

Mature trees and residential gardens are disappearing from our ever-denser cities and suburbs, but a study comparing the remaining urban green spaces with natural areas reveals they’re contributing a lot more to ecosystems than previously thought.

Water of life

A new book “Deep Water” is a hymn to the beauty, mystery and wonder of the ocean. Weaving together science, history and personal experience, it offers vital new ways of understanding not just humanity’s relationship with the planet, but our past – and perhaps most importantly, our future.

The return of the megadrought

Australia’s eastern states are due for a soaking this week, but Australia could soon see megadroughts that last for more than 20 years, according to new modelling from The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

Deep sea fish farms

The University of Queensland has co-led a project to design a cost effective yet robust pen to expand fish farming into deeper ocean areas to help feed the growing global population.