Rolling the die

People have been predicting the end of the world since the dawn of recorded history, and they’ve all been wrong, so is Tony Ord’s estimation that humanity has a one in six chance of extinction this century anything more than a rhetorical device or alarmist book promoting gimmick?

Start together

Computer scientists and mathematicians working in complex systems at the University of Sydney and the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Germany have developed new methods to describe what many of us take for granted – how easy, or hard, it can be to fall in and out of sync.

Australia lags behind in R & D investment

Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that national investment in R&D is continuing its 14-year decline, despite the increasing pace of international innovation.

Belittling science undermines us all

Australian science enjoys the overwhelming confidence of the public, but this is at risk from those who seek to twist the truth to suit their agenda.

Target Australia

New evidence suggests the world’s largest known asteroid impact structure is buried deep in southeast Australia, the geological remnants of a vast impact hundreds of millions of years ago.

Mapping Australia’s silicon valleys

Australia’s digital technology clusters have been mapped and analysed on a national scale for the first time as part of a new report released by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and the Tech Council of Australia.

The smart digital technologies of industry 4.0

Adaptive ‘smart’ technologies and integrated production systems driven by digital transformation are helping to accelerate more sustainable products and industries.

Below the death line

The nature of a long-running source of regular radio signals from space has scientists excited, though it is almost certainly natural in origin, rather than a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Australia’s capabilities accelerator

The launch of the Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator within the Defence Department puts Australia in the race to develop the technology, skills and finance we need to compete in the global strategy arena.

The end of the Titan

The discovery of wreckage on the ocean floor has confirmed the catastrophic loss of the Titan tourist submersible and its five crew members.

The return of the ninth planet?

Years after Pluto was demoted from planetary status, astronomers have found new evidence that our solar system may have a genuine ninth planet, far beyond the orbit of Neptune.

UFOs hit the headlines, but are they in the skies?

Claims the US government has retrieved alien spacecraft have been circulating since the Roswell incident in 1947, but there’s still not a shred of hard evidence to suggest this is true, whatever the latest spate of videos, committees and news articles may claim.