Chemistry

For decades, we've known sunscreen dramatically lowers a person's risk of developing skin cancer, with some of the first evidence coming from (aptly) the Sunshine State. This is how it works.

Researchers say they have found dangerous chemicals in little penguin habitat and populations around Tasmania.

Canberra's fixed pill-testing site encountered three drugs that staff could not identify. So, the substances were sent to chemists at the Australian National University. 

For two million years, Gigantopithecus blacki roamed the forests of what is now southern China. A new study claims to discover when — and why — it went extinct.

The humble bag of chips has come a long way, with flavours like cheeseburger, curry, and cucumber now available. To get the flavours right involves a bit of technology — and a whole lot of noses.

More people are using medical cannabis than ever before, but some health professionals are concerned that the explosion in clinics and online services may not meet the holistic approach to healthcare.

As the world's shipping industry decarbonises at a glacial pace, the Marshall Islands has a plan to wean its fleets off fossil fuels completely by 2050.

A small lake near the Canada-US border has been chosen as the site that may define the start of a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene.

Mescaline, the hallucinogenic substance in some cacti, is illegal to use. But with the recent medical approval of other similar psychedelics, this scientist wants more research on the plant.

Does price matter and how should you navigate the myriad of cosmetic products on offer? Dr Michelle Wong says the answer isn't as straightforward as we may think.

An analysis of bracelets owned by ancient Egyptian royalty more than 4,500 years ago has found Egypt and Greece were involved in long-distance trade much earlier than realised.

New data shows girls make up only a third of physics and specialist maths students in year 12 and both boys and girls enrolments in higher level maths are declining in all states.

Australia's Black Summer bushfires damaged the ozone layer so badly that 50 years of improvements achieved by banning substances that destroyed ozone were temporarily wiped out, new research says.

In his lab on Germany's tallest peak, Hannes Vogelmann measures the minute fluctuations of water vapour in the upper atmosphere to better understand how we're changing Earth's climate.

An analysis of vessels excavated from a mummification workshop near the pyramids reveals what ancient Egyptians used to embalm their dead.

If we're to transition to green energy, we need help from carbon. New research into carbon-based materials is improving lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and solar panels.

With Black Summer and Black Saturday still fresh in some people's minds, it's tempting to think bushfires in Australia have ramped up in intensity in recent times. But is this really the case, and how do we find out?

Scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K Barry Sharpless have been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing "click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry".

Hedley Marston was, in many respects, an establishment man — but when he began studying nuclear fallout from British bomb tests at Maralinga, he became incensed.

Researchers have made a paper-based battery that they think can help clean up the waste stream of single-use disposable batteries.

It had 276 teeth and grew longer than a bus. So why did the world's biggest shark die out about 4 million years ago?

Targeting the essential genes of the whitefly by using its own RNA against it, much like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines fight COVID, is within reach against one of global agriculture's worst pests.  

The spectacular recovery of the global leather industry owes much of its success to Australian ingenuity.

The ultimate goal is to generate power the way the sun generates heat, as Michael Slezak explains.

We've known for a while that Earth's deepest depths, its "solid iron" inner core, isn't made of pure iron — and now scientists say it might not be solid either.