It is an image that should put us firmly in our place. Set against the inky blackness of space our Earth can be seen with the smaller Moon in orbiting around it from a distance …

Memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s Disease could be reversed after scientists discovered that a chemical naturally produced by the body to fight arthritis also works on the brain condition. … Read more

A senior astronomer has said that the hunt for alien life should take into account alien “sentient machines”. SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has until now sought radio signals from worlds like Earth. But …

Scientists reported discovery of two simple, inexpensive ways of boosting the amounts of healthful antioxidant substances in potatoes. One involves giving spuds an electric shock. The other involves zapping them with ultrasound, high frequency sound …

A British teenager has been given a new windpipe grown from her own stem cells in a pioneering operation. … Read more

By combining origami and electrical engineering, researchers at MIT and Harvard are working to develop the ultimate reconfigurable robot — one that can turn into absolutely anything. The researchers have developed algorithms that, given a …

China, facing the risk of embarrassment if it misses a looming environmental deadline, has ordered thousands of companies to close high-polluting plants as its leadership vies to retool economic growth. … Read more

The world needs to double food supply by 2050. That was the message of science and agriculture author, Julian Cribb when he spoke at the Grasslands Society of Southern Australia’s annual conference in Wangaratta last …

Irrigated by one of the world’s mightiest river systems, the Murray-Darling Basin yields almost half of Australia’s fresh produce. But the basin is ailing and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited …

The United States may have reset its Russia policy, but the U.S. approach to the other states in the region is in dire need of a conceptual revolution. … Read more

A team at Tufts University near Boston led by an Italian physicist turned bioengineer has created a material that could eventually render whatever it covers invisible to the human eye, Italian news agency ANSA reported. …

A study has measured the amount of plastic debris found in a region of the Atlantic Ocean over a 22-year period. … Read more

The in-vogue idea of the ‘rise of Asia’ can be irksome. Lumping together civilisationally disparate entities like India and China with a motley collection of South-east, Central and West ‘Asian’ countries smacks of a persistent …

Ten years ago, it was nuts to think you’d have your entire music collection in your pocket. Today, no biggie. So what’s coming in the next decade? Plenty. The future of …

Adaptive software is the largely unfulfilled promise of mobile technology, but now a new platform developed by European researchers promises to finally deliver software that reconfigures itself depending on the context. … Read more

The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) said in 1981 people typically received the state pension for 25% of their life. But by 2000 increased longevity meant that the proportion of people’s lives during which they were …

Banks and mobile network operators are working towards a time when people will purchase pints of milk, Sunday newspapers and even train tickets with a ‘wave’ of a mobile phone. This is the future of …

The marriage of an American technology firm and a Taiwanese display panel manufacturer has helped make digital reading a prospective challenger to paper as the main medium for transmitting printed information. … Read more

Earth has done an ecological about-face: Global plant productivity that once flourished under warming temperatures and a lengthened growing season is now on the decline, struck by the stress of drought. … Read more

Researchers have designed a toothbrush that cleans teeth by creating a solar-powered chemical reaction in the mouth, doing away with the need for toothpaste. … Read more

Smartphones, tablet computers and online TVs are blurring the lines in the tech industry, and Intel is rethinking what it means to be a computer chip manufacturer. … Read more

Coastal development in New South Wales is set to become much more restricted, under new planning guidelines released today. The NSW Coastal Planning Guidelines have been developed in response to concern about the effects of …

The Wright State Research Institute is developing a ground-breaking system that would scan the skeletal structures of people at airports, sports stadiums, theme parks and other public places that could be vulnerable to terrorist attacks, …

In a mere 10 years, an intelligent kitchen worktop could be giving you advice on the curry you’re making, brainstorming salad ideas with you and reminding you to eat that stilton at the back of …

Finland wants to build the world’s first “green highway,” with service stations offering charging points for electric cars and pumps filled with local biofuels, the project manager said. … Read more