The powerful earthquake that struck Morocco, killing more than a thousand people, didn't hit in the most active seismological region, said one French expert. But aftershocks can be expected, he warned.

The cost of building an artificial intelligence product like ChatGPT can be hard to measure.

Plants range from simple seaweeds and single-celled pond scum, through to mosses, ferns and huge trees. Paleontologists like us have long debated exactly how this diverse range of shapes and sizes emerged, and whether plants emerged from algae into multicellular and three-dimensional forms in a gradual flowering or one big bang.

The U.S. government is investing over US$7 billion in the coming years to try to manage the nation's escalating wildfire crisis. That includes a commitment to treat at least 60 million acres in the next 10 years by expanding forest-thinning efforts and controlled burns.

Woodside Energy this week announced it would start seismic testing for its Scarborough gas project off Australia's west coast, before reversing the decision in the face of a legal challenge from Traditional Owners.

Monkeys and dogs were usually used to test whether humans could survive outside Earth’s atmosphere – but 60 years ago the French tried something a little differentIn a few weeks, space scientists will celebrate a remarkable event – the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first cat into space, an astronautical feat that has never been repeated.A small black-and-white Parisian stray,...

Two studies use facial recognition to analyse ‘old master’ painting and return opposite verdictsAuthenticating works of art is far from an exact science, but a madonna and child painting has sparked a furious row, being dubbed “the battle of the AIs”, after two separate scientific studies arrived at contradictory conclusions.Both studies used state-of-the art AI technology. Months after...

Democrats say deaths will follow false claim by Dr Joseph Ladapo that new boosters were not tested on humansCovid-19 deaths are inevitable in Florida, Democrats are warning, after rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis joined the state’s controversial surgeon general in urging residents to ignore public health advice and avoid new vaccines targeting a resurgence of the virus.The...

Relief at rejoining flagship research scheme tempered by anger over loss of top academics since Brexit Britain may have rescued its scientific fortunes with a last-minute decision to rejoin the EU’s Horizon research programme – but the move should not be treated as a cause for jubilation, scientists have warned.The sluggish pace at which the agreement was reached has had too severe an impact...

New genetic research has reignited the controversy over which type of creature was the first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the common ancestor of all animalsWhile life on Earth has flourished for billions of years, much of it has been single-celled and microscopic. None of the first organisms had brains, or even neurons (nerve cells). None of them could “think”. The first animals to...

The space shuttle era was a time of many firsts for space exploration. Most prominently, it marked the regular usage of the first reusable spacecraft to carry humans into low Earth orbit. In its 30-year history since beginning in 1981, the Space Shuttle Program’s fleet — Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour — flew 135Continue reading "From space to museum showcase: the...

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has released a draft feral cat management plan.

Billions were sunk into the Human Genome Project and the promise of precision treatments personalised to the individual. Now many believe the money might have been better spent on public health interventionsAfter spending 13 years and $2.7bn, the Human Genome Project announced in 2003 that it had successfully mapped our DNA, paving the way for a new era of medicine that would deliver “the right...

This first week of September, researchers reported on burned-out sharks, a method for maintaining quantum coherence and some positive market news for old-timey coal barons. Plus: Snail slime is really impressive if you look at it from a molecular standpoint.

Everybody loves bees, but their cousins the wasps often provoke a far less friendly reaction. The much-maligned insects often inspire fear, disgust or even the "kill it with fire" response.