Guest Author • Jun 08, 2018 •
Monica Grady, The Open University It was to a great fanfare of publicity that researchers announced they had found evidence for past life on Mars in 1996. What they claimed they had discovered was a fossilised micro-organism in a Martian meteorite, which they argued was evidence that there has once been life on the Red Planet. Sadly, … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 30, 2018 •
Katarina Miljkovic, Curtin University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. When we look up at Mars in the night sky we see a red planet – largely due to its rusty surface. But what’s on the inside? Launching in May, the next NASA space mission will study the interior … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 22, 2018 •
Helen Maynard-Casely, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Roughly every two years Mars and Earth wander a bit closer to each other, making the leap between these two planets a little easier. In July this year, Mars will only be about 58 million kilometres away – and NASA is set to take advantage by launching their next mission … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 12, 2018 •
Leif Karlstrom, University of Oregon and Joseph Byrnes, University of Minnesota This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago was a rough time to be living on Earth. Three global catastrophes occurred nearly simultaneously: The Chicxulub meteorite slammed into … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 18, 2018 •
Gary Li, University of California, Los Angeles; Danielle DeLatte, University of Tokyo; Jerome Gilleron, Georgia Institute of Technology; Samuel Wald, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Therese Jones, Pardee RAND Graduate School This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Forty-five years have passed since … Read More
Guest Author • Jul 27, 2017 •
Ian Crawford, UCL The search for life elsewhere in the universe is one of the most compelling aspects of modern science. Given its scientific importance, significant resources are devoted to this young science of astrobiology, ranging from rovers on Mars to telescopic observations of planets orbiting other stars. The holy grail of all this activity would be … Read More
Guest Author • Jun 01, 2017 •
By Candice Majewski, University of Sheffield The rocket that blasted into space from New Zealand on May 25 was special. Not only was it the first to launch from a private site, it was also the first to be powered by an engine made almost entirely using 3D printing. This might not make it the “first … Read More
Guest Author • May 11, 2017 •
By Tara Djokic, UNSW Fossil evidence of early life has been found in old hot spring deposits in the Pilbara, Western Australia, that date back almost 3.48 billion years. This extends the known evidence of life at land-based hot springs on Earth by about 3 billion years. Not only is the find exciting for what it might … Read More
Steve Pointing • Apr 06, 2016 •
Today on my Dear Science show on 95.0 bFM radio we have a special feature on weird microbiology stories that are making the headlines this week. You can listen to the podcast here. Poo microbes reveal Hannibal’s route over the Alps Source: Wikimedia Let’s start with a history lesson: Hannibal was Commander in … Read More
Ryan Ridden • Mar 20, 2016 •
Are we alone? This is one of the most profound questions we can and have asked. The quest to find life outside of Earth captures our attention. It is a quest that challenges how we view ourselves in the universe. Could it be that Earth is special and life thrives only here? Could it be that we, as a species … Read More