Fresh Science

The ‘Dewy Pine’ isn’t your average pine tree: it’s a carnivorous plant, adapted to catching and digesting insects to survive. But it thrives on fire—so suppressing fires (to protect nearby houses, for example) might be pushing the plant to extinction, according to an international team of scientists.

A special coating for the seeds of native plants has been developed by Curtin University researchers, who have made their technique freely available online. They hope it will help scientists around the world apply ‘designer seed technologies’ to native plant species, and help bring degraded landscapes back to life.

The moon may be the key to unlocking the secrets of the early Universe. In a project led by Dr Benjamin McKinley at Curtin University, astronomers are observing the moon with a radio telescope, in search of the faint signal from hydrogen atoms in the infant Universe.

For the Spotted Brown Snake (or dugite), size doesn’t matter when it comes to sex. Perth researchers found no difference between the lengths of tongue tines (the two sides of the tongue’s ‘fork’) between male and female dugites—giving clues as to the snakes’ behaviour. “Initially we were surprised, because while sexual differences between snakes tend…