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Bridie Smith

Scientists now the man with the golden gum

Bridie Smith Money may not grow on trees but researchers have found that the next best thing does. Gold.

Scientists come face to face with evolution's missing link

Embargoed until 3am Thursday (Published in Nature)
Scientists have discovered what may be the earliest known creature with what we would recognise as a face. Discovered in China, the exceptionally well-preserved 419-million-year-old fish is the most primitive vertebrate to have a modern type of jaw. The evolution of jaws is one of the key points in the evolution of vertebrates, but the gap between jawed and jawless vertebrates is so large that it is hard to work out the individual evolutionary steps in the transition. It was thought that the most recent common ancestor of jawed vertebrates resembled modern sharks but the new fossil turns this view on its head.

Bridie Smith The discovery of what may be the earliest known creature with a face has provided scientists with the missing link needed to solve an age-old mystery as to when vertebrates developed jaws.

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Cosmic quarries: a new frontier for mineral exploration

Bridie Smith UNLOCKING the moon for mineral exploration is closer to science fact than science fiction.

'Gene switch' offers hope in breast cancer fight




David?s myotis, a tiny insectivorous bat native to China, was one of two bat species selected by researchers for comparative, whole-genome analysis in a study conducted by an international team of researchers, including CSIRO scientists. Their findings shed light on genetic changes associated with the evolution of flight, and pave the way towards understanding how wild bats carry and disseminate deadly human viruses such as Hendra, Nipah, Ebola and SARS. The Age. 19 December, 2012. Image supplied by CSIRO. 
*** This material is under strict embargoed until 6am Friday December 21 ***
We are NOT able to publish anything prior to 6am (so it cannot appear in Friday?s paper).  It can appear online on Friday after 6am then in print on Saturday.

Bridie Smith BATS’ ability to fly could provide vital genetic clues to prevent and treat fatal diseases in humans, according to researchers.

A mirror kill snuffs out the twinkle, twinkle

The Giant Magellan Telescope.


'She's not pretty' - meet a real hobbit

A new evidence-based image of the tiny hobbit species – known officially as Homo floresiensis.





Scientist wins $300,000 prize for looking at nothing

Professor Ken Freeman

Bridie Smith DESPITE it being invisible, astronomer Ken Freeman, pictured, managed to put dark matter on the galactic map - and in the process placed himself among astronomy's brightest stars.

The secret to two-hour flights to London: ceramics

A passenger sleeps on the floor in Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport

Bridie Smith One of the barriers to hypersonic flight is creating aircraft materials that won't melt or malfunction.

Long day at the office as scientists get in sync with Mars

Technicians celebrate Curiosity's landing on Mars.

Bridie Smith The mission team behind the Curiosity rover will be clocking up some serious overtime in coming months.

Scientists find secret of why women live longer


Bridie Smith THE reason women live roughly four years longer than men in Australia is not solely down to their reduced rate of obesity, risky behaviour and smoking.

Women and children last: chivalry shown to have been thrown overboard

Bridie Smith FORGET chivalry at sea. It's everyone for themselves on a sinking ship. While the unwritten maritime law of evacuating women and children from a sinking ship before men did play out on the Titanic,...

Hold on a second and let it sync in

Clock face

Bridie Smith Time will stand still for a second on Sunday morning when the nation's timekeepers add a second to keep the atomic clock in sync with the Earth.

Dinosaur ankle points to Australia as stomping ground for ceratosaur


Bridie Smith THE FOSSILISED ankle bone of a carnivorous dinosaur found on the Victorian coast in 2006 is the first evidence that a major group of dinosaurs called this part of the world home.

Bigger and brighter: why the moon is super-sized


Bridie Smith The reason for the super-sized moon with its apparent extra dash of lunar luminescence is simple.

Bigger and brighter: why the moon was super-sized last night

super moon

Bridie Smith If you caught a glimpse through the clouds over Melbourne and the moon looked bigger and brighter than normal last night, you weren't imagining it.

'Rodents' roamed, thrived with dinosaurs

T-Rex and rat.

Bridie Smith The rodent-like mammals that prospered under the dinosaurs did so "by the bumps on their teeth", according to a team of international researchers.

Science reveals the secrets of super-sized mammals

Monash University's Dr Alistair Evans from with the skulls of a mouse and elephant.

Bridie Smith A mouse-sized mammal can evolve into a beast the size of an elephant — it just takes about 24million generations, according to researchers who have calculated the rate of evolutionary change...

Don't blame asteroid: NASA

An image from NASA showing an artist's impression of an asteroid breaking up.

Bridie Smith Member of the asteroid family blamed for crashing into Earth and killing off the dinosaurs likely to have been wrongly accused.

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