Last Top Stories: Launceston welcomes 1.28m visitors

Launceston welcomes 1.28m visitors

The latest passenger statistics show the airport did not record an increase in the March quarter in comparison with the previous financial year, but enjoyed a 3 per cent rise in the quarter leading to December. Launceston Airport general manager Paul ... >> view original

Top five 'firsts' in human space exploration

AS much as human exploration of space is said to bring us together as a species, our competitive spirit has driven our best efforts. So who, or what, got there first? 1. The first human-made object in space. While the Paris Gun and unfortunate sewer covers ... >> view original

Distant light might hold the key to why the universe is filled with matter

EVERYTHING we see, touch and experience is made up of matter but for the longest time scientists had no idea why it existed. Now they may have found an answer. NASA's Fermi space telescope has detected high-energy light linked to a magnetic field that ... >> view original

Lightning Ridge opal miner says having dinosaur named after him will 'make him ...

Opal miner Bob Foster is none too pleased at the prospect of having a new species of dinosaur bear his name 30 years after he discovered its fossilised remains. Back in 1985, Bob Foster had no interest in dinosaurs — his only concern was striking it lucky in ... >> view original

Lomborg's think tank looking for a home

Bjorn Lomborg says he is confident the Australia Consensus Centre will go ahead. Ben Rushton. by Tim Dodd. Who would have thought there would $4 million up for grabs for an Australian university? Education Minister Christopher Pyne has put that amount ... >> view original

Global warming established with detection of atmosphere hotspot

Strong warming detected in the upper troposphere has sealed the debate on global warming. The hotspot detected was expected and appears in many climate models. Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science have produced ... >> view original

Eye-opening day for three lizards now on low-fat diets

About a year ago, reptile keepers at Melbourne Zoo first noticed changes to the eye in one of their crested basilisk lizards. Fatty deposits had started to appear, making the eye appear cloudy. On closer inspection they saw the same thing was happening with ... >> view original

NSW covered in cobwebs after raining spiders in 'angle hair' phenomenon

Everybody knows the phrase 'it's raining cats and dogs,' but how many times have you heard that it's raining spiders? A resident of the Southern Tablelands in New South Wales took to Facebook to report that millions of baby spiders appeared to be falling ... >> view original

Monster squid with 16-foot-long tentacles washes up on New Zealand shore

Cue the “Jaws” soundtrack. No, actually, that would be the theme song from “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Kaikoura Marine Centre and Aquarium biologists on New Zealand's South Island stumbled upon a monster squid on Wednesday in Kaikoura, more ... >> view original

Meet the 'science nut' who grew up to be a space archaeologist

Dr Paul Willis, director of the Royal Institution of Australia (RiAUS), which has produced the Ultimate Science Guide 2015 to encourage students to take up jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths. When Dr Alice Gorman was a girl she would stare ... >> view original