A rare fossil of a young Tyrannosaurus rex has been found by three small humans in the Hell Creek Badlands of North Dakota, US. Regardless of who found it, scientists say the T. rex fossil could rewrite our understanding of how these dinosaurs lived. The discovery has been highlighted in a new documentary called T. REX which is narrated by New Zealand actor Sam Neill – the actor who played  Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic Jurassic Park. Brothers Liam and Jessin Fisher, 7 and 10 years old at the time, and their 9-year-old cousin Kaiden Madsen found the fossil leg bon ..read more

The exceptionally named “necks-for-sex” hypothesis of giraffe evolution suggests their long necks are the result of competition among males, but new research suggests it could be something much more prosaic. Male giraffes practice “neck sparring,” violently swing their necks into each other to assert dominance, so the hypothesis formed that males with longer necks may have been more reproductively successful. But, more recently, biologists have proposed that neck length may instead be driven by females’ foraging behaviour. Being able to forage deeply into trees for otherwise difficult-to ..read more

An intact skull of Australian megafauna bird Genyornis newtoni has finally been discovered, revealing that the ancient creature resembled a giant goose. Genyornis was first discovered more 128 years ago. The only previously known fossil of the species was found in 1913 but was badly damaged. Now, a skull fossil described in a Historical Biology paper, provides new insight into the ancient bird. Reconstruction of Genyornis newtoni skull next to fossil material. Credit: Jacob C. Blokland. Today, the largest bird is the ostrich which weighs up to 150kg, followed by the emu and cassowary which ca ..read more

By Michelle Lazarus, Monash University in Melbourne The autonomous vehicle ‘trolley problem’ shows where self-driving technology can fail. But there could be upsides to coding human values into these machines. While fully self-driving cars are a hypothetical product of the future, some levels of autonomous vehicles (AVs) are already here. As with other forms of AI, humans must weigh the costs and benefits of incorporating this new technology into their lives. On the upside, AVs could support sustainable transport by reducing congestion and fossil fuels, enhance r ..read more

Physical activity is crucial for physical and mental health, and yet girls and women often don’t feel comfortable and confident playing, or being involved in, sport. So, researchers from Victoria University (VU) are committed to discovering why and pushing governments and organisations to ensure gender equality in all sports. You too can help increase the number of women in sport by understanding the barriers and joining the conversation. Pioneering inclusive Australian sports Despite an often keen interest in sport and exercise, girls in Australia are less physically active than boys and fem ..read more

Physical activity is crucial for physical and mental health, and yet girls and women often don’t feel comfortable and confident playing, or being involved in, sport. So, researchers from Victoria University (VU) are committed to discovering why and pushing governments and organisations to ensure gender equality in all sports. You too can help increase the number of women in sport by understanding the barriers and joining the conversation. Pioneering inclusive Australian sports Despite an often keen interest in sport and exercise, girls in Australia are less physically active than boys and fem ..read more

A nearly 100-year history of East Antarctic aerial photos has given a unique perspective to the region’s history amid the greatest challenge for the southernmost continent. Combining historical photos, including some dating back 87 years, researchers have compiled a short-term evolutionary history of glaciers in East Antarctica, generally considered the more stable Antarctic half. The photography of 2,000km of coastline overlayed with current satellite technology shows two contrasting stories. Overview map of the expedition route in 1936/1937 and the areas investigated by the researchers. Cre ..read more

Scientists have designed and implanted a transparent “window” in a patient’s skull and then used functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) through it to collect high-resolution brain imaging data. The results of the study are published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “This is the first time anyone had applied functional ultrasound imaging through a skull replacement in an awake, behaving human performing a task,” says co-author Charles Liu, a professor of clinical neurological surgery,  at the Keck School of Medicine, the University of Southern California. “The ability to ..read more

Within the first 6 months of its operation, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) broke the record for the most distant galaxy we have observed. It’s now broken that record again, giving us a deeper insight into the early universe. Two galaxies, dubbed JADES-GS-z14-0 and JADES-GS-z14-1, are so far away that their light has reached us from a time when the universe was only 290 million years old – that is roughly 2% of the universe’s 13.8-billion-year lifetime. The previous record-holder, JADES-GS-z13-0, is from 325 million years after the birth of the universe. The new galaxies’ discovery i ..read more

Researchers have identified a global climate indicator which they say might help improve predictions of dengue outbreaks months in advance. A study, published in the journal Science, found the Indian Ocean basin-wide (IOBW) index, which measures temperature fluctuations at the surface of the Indian Ocean, closely correlated to annual dengue incidence in the northern and southern hemispheres. Having reliable long-term predictions could help tackle the disease by planning control measures against the mosquitoes that transmit the disease and enabling countries to mobilise hospital staff and equi ..read more