Changing the face of autism: here come the girls

Apr 01, 2016 09:21 am UTC| Health Science

If you ask someone to name famous people (fictional or non-fictional) who are known for having autism or being on the spectrum, Rain Man is often the top favourite, possibly followed by Sherlock Holmes (especially in his...

If we really want an ideas boom, we need more women at the top tiers of science

Apr 01, 2016 01:14 am UTC| Insights & Views Science

Few of us would imagine accepting that our daughters have fewer options than our sons. And yet that is exactly the situation we allow to persist in Australian science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)...

Science behind remarkable bid to smash Wall of Death motorcycle world record

Apr 01, 2016 00:08 am UTC| Science

The Wall of Death has been the most enigmatic dare-devil motorbike stunt for more than 100 years. Motorcyclists ride around the inside of a vertical wall, rather like a huge barrel, at speeds of around 30mph. Most Wall of...

Something new under a (dead) sun

Mar 31, 2016 23:55 pm UTC| Science

For all their enormous size and furious energies, stars are remarkably simple. Knowing just their mass and the smattering of elements heavier than hydrogen we can predict their lives from cradles to grave. But every now...

Saturn's moons may be younger than the dinosaurs – so could life really exist there?

Mar 30, 2016 13:59 pm UTC| Science

Saturn is home to more than 60 moons from the massive Titan and the crater-riddled Phoebe, to Enceladus with its geysers. Enceladus in particular has been put forward as a good candidate for harbouring microbial life,...

Weekly dose: Taxol, the anticancer drug discovered in the bark of a tree

Mar 30, 2016 13:33 pm UTC| Science

Taxol is a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of specific human cancers. It is a member of the taxane family of drugs, which includes cabazitaxel and docetaxel. The drug is also sold under its generic name of...

Exciting cells and controlling heartbeats – could optogenetics create drug-free treatments?

Mar 30, 2016 13:04 pm UTC| Science

A laser-controlled brain or a heart that beats in time to a disco light display sound like some of the more vivid imaginings of science fiction writers. But scientists are gathering together tricks that may allow us to do...