Frontier research

The magnetic field protecting our planet originates deep in the Earth's core but fluctuates in strength over time. Image credit - ESA/ATG medialab

07 December 2018

Earth’s magnetic poles could start to flip. What happens then?

As Earth's magnetic shield fails, so do its satellites. First, our communications satellites in the highest orbits go down. Next, astronauts in low-Earth orbit can no longer phone home. And finally, cosmic rays start to bombard every human on Earth.

Prof. Eva Hevia says that bi-metallics make it possible to use water in chemical reactions - the holy grail for chemists. Image credit - Prof. Hevia

interview | frontier research

04 October 2018

Sustainability is a 'top priority' for chemists

A group of chemicals known as bi-metallics could help the pharmaceutical industry become more environmentally friendly by cutting the amount of energy used to produce drugs, according to Professor Eva Hevia from the University of Strathclyde, UK, who says that sustainability is a top priority for chemists.

At the centre of the image is an important star called the RS Puppis, a Cepheid variable star which is a class of stars whose luminosity is used to estimate distances to nearby galaxies. This one is 15,000 times brighter than our sun. Image credit - NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team. Acknowledgement - Howard Bond

space | frontier research

26 September 2018

Refining intergalactic measurements could alter our whole understanding of physics

New efforts to figure out just how fast the universe has expanded since the Big Bang, a speed known as the Hubble constant, could upend current theories of physics, according to some scientists.

Big companies from around the world have already shown interest in Prof. Lee Cronin's energy-dense liquid battery. Image credit - University of Glasgow

interview | transport | frontier research

17 September 2018

Tenfold improvement in liquid batteries mean electric car refuelling could take minutes

One of the biggest drawbacks of electric vehicles – that they require hours and hours to charge – could be obliterated by a new type of liquid battery that is roughly ten times more energy-dense than existing models, according to Professor Lee Cronin, the Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Scientists are working out how cosmic dust turns into hard, spherical pebbles which can then develop into planets. Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech

space | frontier research

05 September 2018

From dust to pebbles to planets – insight into the birth of a solar system

Detailed simulations of planetary formation are revealing how tiny grains of dust turn into giant planets and could shed light on where to find new Earth-like worlds.

The skull of a Australopithecus sediba, a species of Australopithecines, who were our ancestors and whose brains started to grow two to three million years ago. Image credit - Australopithecus sediba by Brett Eloff, courtesy Profberger and Wits University is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

frontier research

21 August 2018

Genetic error led humans to evolve bigger, but more vulnerable, brains

Newly-discovered genes that helped supersize human brains along with DNA retrieved from extinct humans, which can still be found in people living today, are expanding scientists’ understanding of how our species evolved.

frontier research | social sciences

17 July 2018

Lessons from a real Atlantis

Traces of long-forgotten human settlements claimed by the sea thousands of years ago are being uncovered by researchers along the coastlines of Europe.

Mysterious radiation emitted from pulsars - like this one shown leaving a long tail of debris as it races through the Milky Way - have puzzled astronomers for decades. Image credit - NASA

frontier research | space

16 July 2018

Antimatter plasma reveals secrets of deep space signals

Mysterious radiation emitted from distant corners of the galaxy could finally be explained with efforts to recreate a unique state of matter that blinked into existence in the first moments after the Big Bang.

interview | health | frontier research

10 July 2018

Study of DNA flags could reignite centuries-old evolution debate

Evolution could be partly based on environmental adaptation and not just random mutations, re-opening a centuries-old debate between Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, according to Professor Thomas Carell from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.

$A plasma cell can help sustain stronger acceleration fields than in conventional accelerators, at only a fraction of their size. Image credit - © DESY, Heiner Müller-Elsner$

frontier research | space

09 July 2018

Plasma accelerators could overcome size limitations of Large Hadron Collider

Plasma particle accelerators more powerful than existing machines could help probe some of the outstanding mysteries of our universe, as well as make leaps forward in cancer treatment and security scanning - all in a package that’s around a thousandth of the size of current accelerators. All that's left is for scientists to build one.