The brightest object in the universe is a sun-eating colossus

The brightest object in the universe is a sun-eating colossus

Australian scientists have discovered the most luminous object in existence – and the fastest-growing black hole.

  • byAngus Dalton

Latest

How a ‘vacuum cleaner’ drug could unlock the secret to treating MND
Exclusive
Health

How a ‘vacuum cleaner’ drug could unlock the secret to treating MND

Scientists across the globe have tried and failed to translate treatments for motor neurone disease from mice to humans. A Sydney team is aiming to be the first.

  • byAngus Thomson
Could you survive an Antarctic blizzard to look for mud? These scientists had no choice

Could you survive an Antarctic blizzard to look for mud? These scientists had no choice

Dr Richard Jones faced a dilemma:hunker down in the Antarctic wilderness or make a run for it?

  • byLaura Chung andAngus Dalton
Lucky one-millionth caller:The frog that sounds like cross between a chicken and a lawnmower

Lucky one-millionth caller:The frog that sounds like cross between a chicken and a lawnmower

The Spalding’s Rocket Frog has been recorded by one of the world’s largest citizen science projects,which has now hit one million amphibians and counting.

  • byLaura Chung
Choosing cancer drugs is a gamble. These tiny tumours stack the odds
Exclusive
Cancer

Choosing cancer drugs is a gamble. These tiny tumours stack the odds

Australian scientists have cloned bowel cancer tumours outside patients’ bodies,allowing them to identify good treatments and rule out drugs that wouldn’t work.

  • byAngus Dalton
How scientists solved the 80-year-old mystery of a flesh-eating ulcer
Analysis
Science

How scientists solved the 80-year-old mystery of a flesh-eating ulcer

Cases of flesh-eating Buruli ulcers are rising and cases have spread from coastal Victoria to NSW. Researchers have finally figured out what spreads the disease.

  • byAngus Dalton
Advertisement
The truth about the Sleepy Girl Mocktail and other insomnia ‘cures’
Analysis
Science

The truth about the Sleepy Girl Mocktail and other insomnia ‘cures’

Millions of us are insomniacs or experience sleeplessness a few times a week. A recent study sheds light on what actually works in sending us to sleep.

  • byAngus Dalton
The secretive lab where billionaires are spending a fortune hunting for the next big thing

The secretive lab where billionaires are spending a fortune hunting for the next big thing

In an unmarked laboratory stationed between Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,a splinter group of scientists is hard at work.

  • byRob Copeland
Sydney is having a scorcher. Think twice before you get in the ocean

Sydney is having a scorcher. Think twice before you get in the ocean

Warm seawater,crumbling pipes and sudden downpours combine to create a potentially deadly cocktail.

  • byAngus Dalton
Prenatal opioid exposure linked to eczema,asthma:WA study finds

Prenatal opioid exposure linked to eczema,asthma:WA study finds

The study from the University of Western Australia analysed health records of 401,462 children born in WA between 2003 and 2018.

  • byTara Cosoleto
We’ve hit peak science,and that’s not good
Analysis
Science

We’ve hit peak science,and that’s not good

With more scientific papers being published now than ever,we are being “overwhelmed with information” – and there are questions about the quality of that information.

  • byLiam Mannix