As it girdles the planet linking the main oceanic basins, the Southern Ocean is a potent influence over the Earth's energy distribution system: this vast and still-enigmatic water body holds one of the main keys to understanding how climate change will unfold. The Southern Ocean is warming much...

DISCOVERING NEW CHEMISTRY IN CYBERSPACE Finding an affordable way to turn carbon dioxide into fuel or deciphering the subtle processes that lead to heart disease or ageing are among the extraordinary possibilities now opening up thanks to advances in the field of computational quantum chemistry....

Each of us is the scene of billions of collisions, every microsecond of our lives. Indeed, our world and the universe around it thrive on the colliding of minute particles – fundamental processes that cause it to function as it does. "Atomic collisions are the interactions between atoms, electrons...

A key to feeding humanity and combating climate change through the 21st century will be the development of 'supercharged' crops and trees that perform the miracle of photosynthesis with far greater efficiency. At the Australian National University's John Curtin School of Medical Research, Professor...

Australia's most powerful supercomputer, Vayu, at the NCI National Facility is engaged in an epic task of discovery, helping to define how elementary particles bind together to form our universe. "This is about determining the fundamental laws of Nature by advancing our knowledge of the subatomic...

It will be a feat of cartography to rival the achievements of Captain James Cook, the most detailed map of the heavens ever compiled, charting a vast dome of stars extending from the equator to the South Pole. The Southern Sky Survey is a deep, digital map of all that can be viewed through the most...

It is the exquisite structure of human bone, down to the smallest scale, that lends it its exceptional strength – or reveals its secret frailties. How strong or weak a material may be, how porous or impermeable, are now coming to light for the first time through the art of three-dimensional X-ray...

When the world's leading climate scientists gather in 2013 to report to humanity on the consequences of its activities, a detailed understanding of the southern hemisphere and how it drives the earth's energy budget will be essential to the global picture. Now under development, ACCESS, the...

From exploring the earliest origins of life, to creating the quantum devices of the future, to unlocking a new source of fresh water for thirsty Australian cities, nanoscience involves discovering how the world works at the very smallest scales. Professor Julian Gale of Curtin University and his...

Among life's most profound mysteries is how molecules, of their own accord, assemble themselves into the structures essential for living creatures to exist. Understanding this sheds fresh light on the machinery of life itself. It also promises a new generation of safe, effective treatments for...