A recent decision regarding ownership of IP by academic staff has some serious ramifications for universities, write Lynne Peach and Kylie Diwell. If universities want to ensure that they own inventions developed by academic staff in the course of their ...

The world leader in research output is expressing concern that its research universities are at risk of losing their competitive edge internationally. The core of the concern appears simply to be international competition rather than the impact the recession is ...

Climate change didn’t kill the giant kangaroo Neither climate change nor burning of the bush by Aboriginal people caused the extinction of the world’s largest ever hopping animal, according to a team of Australian and US researchers led by Dr ...

Skymapper’s to capture the southern skiespring Observatory. SkyMapper is a custom-built telescope that over five years will undertake the Southern Sky Survey – the first ever systematic digital map of the entire southern skies. In the process, it will produce ...

New device to fight terrorism Pioneers of the world’s first portable explosives “fingerprint” device at the University of Tasmania have received $1.6 million. The research should ultimately help apprehend terrorists responsible for bomb blasts. The team from the School of ...

Women plagued by fat days More than 90 per cent of Australian women who responded to an online questionnaire say they have regular “fat days”, and most say they are miserable about their bodies. According to the survey, conducted by ...

Australian researchers to undertake major HIV drug review UNSW researchers will conduct a major project to optimise the drugs used to treat HIV after receiving an $18 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The study is seen ...

Inverted chromatin, not carrots, the key to night vision Nocturnal mammals such as mice, cats, deer and lemurs remodel the DNA within their eyes to turn photoreceptor cells into light-collecting lenses, according to an article by scientists from Ludwig-Maximilians University ...

No resumption of Commercial Ready, says Carr The government won’t reinstate the Commercial Ready early stage technology development fund, innovation minister Kim Carr told the online publicationAustralian Life Scientist. “Many organisations have made representations to me about the program and ...

Stalagmites may show how fast ice is melting Researchers may be able to establish how fast the world’s ice sheets are melting by studying rare preserved stalagmites in a coastal cave in Italy. The stalagmites provide a timeline of sea ...