The Latest Breaking News from the Australian Research Council

You would have learned about the “water cycle” in primary school – water’s journey, from evaporation to rainfall to flowing in a stream or sinking into the ground to become groundwater.

Recent deaths have highlighted the seriousness of intimate partner violence nationally. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, the number of women killed by partners increased by 28% from 2022 to 2023. While the overall homicide rate remains low, the numbers were decreasing prior to 2022. It’s a concerning uptick.

The Australian Capital Territory parliament passed its voluntary assisted dying law yesterday by 20 to five.

The gender gap in urban cycling worldwide is staggering. Most cyclists are young to middle-aged men – hence phenomena such as “lycra cyclists” or “mamils”.

We need two ingredients for life to start on a planet: dry land and (fresh) water. Strictly, the water doesn’t have to be fresh, but fresh water can only occur on dry land.

High-profile legal disputes, such as the current case between coal giant Adani and the Queensland government, show Australia’s approach to managing large mining projects is flawed.

How do new species arise? And why are there so many of them? One possible reason is the arms race between animals such as predators and parasites, and the victims they exploit.

Emma Cotton (or Cotterell) sailed into Sydney harbour on the Rubicon in 1833 as a free immigrant. A 32-year-old woman of independent means, she took on needlework in the colony. Emma’s genteel life unravelled four years later when she appeared before a Sydney court charged with stealing a bundle of…

Deep in the ocean lies the world’s largest active carbon reservoir, which plays a pivotal role in buffering our planet’s climate. Of the roughly 10 billion tonnes carbon dioxide we emit each year, about 3 billion tonnes are taken up and stored in the oceans – and largely by plants.