Fran Molloy

Parents should see themselves as ‘lockdown learning supervisors’, not their child’s teacher, says Education Professor Garry Falloon, who has some pointers to help parents cope until kids get back to school.

New humpback whale group feeding behaviours seen along Australia's south-east coastline could be related to a recent whale baby-boom, with humpback whales have been spotted forming super-groups that join together and use bubble net traps to feed on fish for the first time.

Small robots called Starbugs designed for large land-based survey telescopes will give astronomers unprecedented access to galaxies that existed long ago – and far, far away.

Tapping into thousands of years of observation and water management by Australia’s First Peoples holds the key to future water policy in Australia. Managing the aquifers, water catchments and rivers that span Australia’s arid lands lies deep in the blood of Kamilaroi water scientist, Bradley Moggridge, who says: “My people have been interested in water for more than 65,000 years.”

New research has uncovered the secret pathway used by some aggressive breast cancers to avoid detection – and will likely lead to more effective treatments for metastatic breast cancer.

Cyber security experts defend our vital infrastructure against a constant stream of cyber attacks such as May's Colonial Pipeline shutdown in the US – and a new ‘smart city’ model is helping in their quest.

There’s growing pressure on organisations across industry sectors and around the world to meet environmental, social, and governance (ESG) expectations set by investors, governments and communities. FRAN MOLLOY explores three innovative CSIRO ESG collaborations with the highly-competitive resources industry: groundwater monitoring; a revolution in steelmaking and cement from the dry slag granulation process; and a remarkable water treatment process that combining forward-osmosis and reverse osmosis.

This Pacific archipelago is a photographer’s dream destination. “On land, the wildlife is amazing. And underwater, it’s just as vibrant,” says expert travel photographer Luciana Griggi. She shares her top photography tips when shooting underwater.

The head of Australia's tutoring industry peak body says that despite education leaders publicly dissuading parents from tutoring, in practice they often get private tutors for their own children.

New research with scientists collaborating with indigenous elders, is exploring the ancient history of how Indigenous Australians moved plants around the continent. The black bean trees in northern NSW produce nutritious seeds that Indigenous people harvested for at least 2000 years, removing toxins and crushing the seeds to make flour for a bush damper. DNA mapping shows it may be directly descended from the Cape York trees.

Securing conservation zones to protect vital ecosystems in Antarctica needs consensus between 25 nations. The timing is ripe this year to gain global agreement for three new Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean - and the European Union could be key to overcoming rising geopolitical tensions to preserve Antarctica’s pristine waters.

A deep repository of knowledge Australia’s long history in vaccine research and the size of our research workforce are key parts of our arsenal, says microbiologist Professor James Paton, Director of the Research Centre for Infectious Diseases at University of Adelaide, whose grandfather, Sir John Burton Cleland, was Principal Bacteriologist at the NSW Department of Health during the 1918 pandemic.
UQ scientists developed a rapid-response vaccine pipeline to reduce vaccine development from multiple years to a number of weeks using ‘molecular clamp’ technology to trigger an immune response.

“Food waste is a really huge issue, wasting about $20 billion every year in Australia alone. It’s also the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases,” says Dr Steven Lapidge, CEO of the Fight Food Waste CRC.

This story in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at options for counselling careers. While clinical psychologists must do 6 years of tertiary education, other degrees and courses offer shorter training.

Strong links between hearing loss and ageing poorly highlight an urgency for better health screening of seniors, and preventing and addressing hearing loss across the course of people’s lives.