Mapping the DNA inheritance from Neanderthal and Denisovan ancestors

Bridie Smith   Indigenous Australians may have a dash more Denisovan than Neanderthal in their DNA, with genetic traces of the mysterious population of hominids popping up in surprisingly high doses, according to fresh research.

Science

Scientists find evidence for ocean beneath Pluto's surface

Peter Spinks   Alien weirdos might swim in a sea of water and ammonia beneath the icy surface of dwarf planet Pluto, some scientists believe.

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Irradiated food labelling reviewed

Stephen Jeffery   Food Standards Australia New Zealand has asked the public whether mandatory labelling of foods treated with ionising radiation is still needed.

Sam's programming skills put to the test

Stephen Jeffery   A Telopea Park School year 10 student could represent Australia at an international programming competition in Russia later this year.

Computers

Aussie breakthrough brings quantum computing closer

Hannah Francis   Griffith University researchers have discovered a way to make quantum logic gates bigger, bringing down the cost and complexity of a quantum computing circuit.

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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.

Comments 23

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.

Comments 4

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.