Science

Scientists create simplest ever microbe that could hold clues to life

Rachel Feltman   Four bottles of chemicals and just 473 genes have rounded out a 20-year goal for these biologists.

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Feeling a wee bit angry? Brain parasite could have made you a cat's paw

Liam Mannix   Explosive temper? Prone to risk-taking? It might not be your fault. Your mind could be being controlled by a single-celled organism that can rewire our behaviour to its own advantage.

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Science

Self-cleaning clothes a step closer after nanomaterial breakthrough

Peter Spinks   Scientists are working on nano-enhanced textiles that spontaneously clean themselves when exposed to sunlight - or even a humble light bulb.

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HDTV, OLED, UHD, HDR, WTF?

Peter Wells   This year has marked a turning point, with television manufacturers focused once more on picture quality, but is it time to upgrade your HD TV? First, we have to look at 2016's marketing buzzwords, and see which you care about.

Science

Melbourne's Botanic Gardens set for new climate-tolerant face in 2090

Peter Spinks   Plant scientists plan to adapt the botanical landscape to the harsh effects of global warming predicted for coming decades.

Richard III's grave like you've never seen it before

Marcus Strom   Find out what death was like for a king inside his 500-year-old forgotten grave.

NASA photos quiz: are you an Earthling or a spaceman

Marcus Strom   Take this quiz to see how well you know the Earth and our nearby Solar System. Are you staring at the skies or at your shoes?

Geoffrey Rush and Brian Schmidt capture the cosmos for planetarium

Andrew Stephens   Imagine this: all around you, for your entire life, there has been a mysterious force at work that you knew nothing about. That force constitutes most of what surrounds you, yet it is invisible, and pulls unseen strings to make your world the way it is.

Lift-off for pint-sized alien hunters at Giralang

Stephen Jeffery   Giralang Primary School's Cosmic Stars program teaches students about the search for extraterrestrial life.

Digital technologies value to boom but women and mature aged missing out

Matthew Raggatt   The number of ICT workers will rise to 695,000 by 2020, but women are under-represented, report finds.

Alzheimer's 'lost memories' may one day be recoverable, scientists say

Ariana Eunjung Cha   Memory loss is one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's, but what if they weren't actually gone — just inaccessible?

Space

An ice volcano? 5 new surprises about Pluto

Kenneth Chang   On Earth, the only ice is frozen water. On Pluto, not so much.

Science

Mystery rays traced to giant black hole at galactic centre

Peter Spinks   We are under attack by alien rays from outer space, bombarding Earth. Now scientists reckon they know where they're coming from.

When all else fails, read the manual

Terry Lane   Buy a new camera and the instruction manual will likely be a 400-page PDF available from the manufacturer's website. All well and good, but what the hell are you supposed to do with it?

Small speakers make a big-room sound

Rod Easdown   There's a thing I do when testing speakers; I close my eyes for at least a couple of minutes and then open them again.

Europe unites in a quest to reach Mars

Helene Fouquet   While countries in Europe have been slashing budgets, one area has not just escaped the axe but chalked up a stellar jump: space exploration.

Web

Google doodle March 16 celebrates astronomer Caroline Herschel

Lisa Visentin   Caroline Herschel was a German astronomer who in 1828 became the first woman to receive Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Science

World’s fastest car gears up to break land speed record

Peter Spinks   A blend of automotive and aerospace engineering, the world's fastest vehicle get sets to hammer the sound barrier.

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Science

Tyrannosaurs got smart before they got big, fossil discovery indicates

Kenneth Chang   The evolutionary jump of tyrannosaurs from people- and horse-size animals to behemoths has remained a mystery, until now.

Should all research be free?

Kate Murphy   One woman’s guerrilla campaign seeks to tear down the paywalls of scholarly journals and make research papers free.