Quinoa, the sacred "mother grain" of the ancient Inca civilisation suppressed by Spanish conquistadors, could become an increasingly important food source thanks to genetic secrets revealed in a new study.

• Cameron Atfield

Black holes are not necessarily as big – or as small – as astronomers previously thought.

• Marcus Strom

His name has been used to classify a beautiful dragonfly, an extinct marsupial lion, a ghost shrimp from Madagascar and a carnivorous pitcher plant.

• Marcus Strom

Australia's Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel has said US President Donald Trump's move to censor environmental data is 'reminiscent' of former Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's control of science in the USSR.

• Dr Biplob Ray

Wi-Fi technology is often spoken about in a whole heap of numbers and scientific jargon. Dr Biplob Ray makes sense of it all.

• Naomi Neilson

As the temperature soars to new heights, experts are working towards preparing useful technologies that will warn sun baskers when it's time to seek shade. 

• Will Dunham

Scientists believe a tiny marine creature from China that wriggled in the seabed mud about 540 million years ago may be the earliest-known animal in the lengthy evolutionary path that eventually led to humans.

• Andrew Masterson

People who are dogmatic and stubborn about whether Firefox or Chrome works best for them might be closet climate change sceptics, according to new research.

• Bridie Smith

Sharks have hogged the spotlight this summer. But what about the smaller creatures that inhabit our waters. Fish that can go from being female to male or sea cucumbers that can reorganise the position of their vital organs before splitting in two. They all live in Australian waters: in our bays, harbours and deep oceans.

• Marcus Strom

Scientists hope this research will pave the way to grow fully-functioning human transplant organs inside hybrid animals.

• Natalie Angier

The world's first transgenic ants offer scientists the chance to explore the evolution of animal societies - and, perhaps, our own.

• Marcus Strom

'When we reduce the quality of education that anyone receives we reduce the expectations we have of them.'

• Steven Trask

The inspiration for the latest breakthrough by these ANU physicists came in a desperate message from Princess Leia.

• Rhett Jones

Scientists have finally filmed what's known as a 'sonic boom' being created by light. But the breakthrough with the most immediate potential may be the camera itself.

• Kim Arlington

A specimen that has preserved for 110 years is the subject of an "exciting innovation".

• Amy Mitchell-Whittington

Ever wanted to be in two places at once? A Cairns woman has created a robot that allows you to do just that.

• Bridie Smith

Stargazer access to the best view of the heavens in central Melbourne under threat from Royal Botanic Gardens expansion.

• Bridie Smith

It was a tough call as to who had the more enviable job. The answer depended which end of a large and potentially dangerous predator you would rather be working on: the head (read canine teeth) or the tail (read anal gland).

• Sarah Kaplan

For years, astronomy has been in an uproar over the origin of Earth's only natural satellite, grappling to make sense of a model that seems increasingly unsatisfactory.