Fresh Science

Is that plant healthy? We can’t easily monitor the health of plants, by the time we see that they’re sick it’s usually too late to save that. That’s an issue for your house plants, a field of wheat, orchards and plantations. Karina Khambatta has developed a way to use the waxy surface of leaves to…

Antidepressants are making their way into our lakes and rivers—and they’re making freshwater fish less fazed by predators. Jake Martin, a PhD candidate at Monash University, looked at how the eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) responded to the threat of a predator when they had been exposed to the antidepressant fluoxetine (using levels similar to those already…

New research from Murdoch University has revealed that lizards avoid each other in their own neighbourhood, and most of all steer clear of their relatives. The conventional wisdom is that family relationships form an important part of social interactions – in both humans, and many other animal societies – as many benefits are gained by aiding…

A tiny Tasmanian invention that could make personalized medication easy and affordable. Millions of people should have their blood tested each day to check the level of prescription drug in their blood. Some drugs are only effective within a very narrow range. Too little and the drug is ineffective, too much and the drug could…