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3 weeks ago | 
abc.net.au | Rachel Mealey |Peter de Kruijff
First they opened bins, now, scientists have watched sulphur-crested cockatoos waiting their turn to operate - and take a swig from - drinking fountains. A new study has found the intelligent and often trouble-making birds, which roost around many urban areas across the country....have figured out how to operate twist-handled bubblers in Sydney's western suburbs. Now the scientists want to know what other behaviours the cockatoos are learning in your area.
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Jonathan Green |Kim Jirik |Peter de Kruijff |Richard Girvan
The egg is an extraordinary thing. In the pantheon of miraculous food chemistry, it takes on a range of essential roles. From helping cakes and soufflés to rise, to bringing disparate ingredients and flavours into a unified whole. They can also take on a starring role, whether fried, scrambled or poached. Eggs frequently appear in art, literature, design, and philosophy, too, and they are at the heart of the age-old paradox: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
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1 month ago | 
abc.net.au | Adelaide Miller |Peter de Kruijff |Lucy Cooper
Lying at the bottom of the ocean, thousands of metres below the surface, are reserves of what are considered to be the world's most critical minerals. In the Pacific Ocean between North America and Hawaii lies a large area known as the Clarion-Clipperton zone — a particularly abundant area filled with copper, cobalt and nickel. Now, the race is on to start mining these minerals.
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2 months ago | 
abc.net.au | Luke Radford |Peter de Kruijff
Australian Scientists are in a race against time to save one of the nations rarest birds. A new study suggests the orange-bellied parrot -- which migrate between Tasmania and Victoria -- has lost 62 per cent of its genetic diversity in the past 200 years. Scientists say desperate measure may be necessary to save the critically endangered species.
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Mar 25, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Rachel Mealey |Peter de Kruijff
Sharks have long been considered the silent predators of the deep, but now scientists claim to have recorded the sounds a shark makes underwater. And what do you think it's using to make that sound? You guessed it - it's teeth.
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Mar 18, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Ellen Phiddian |Peter de Kruijff
About 15 million years ago, a small fish ventured too deep into a lake. The fish species — a relative of the Australian grayling — would have been abundant in the tropical environment where it lived, in what is now dry NSW farmland. But in the freshwater lake all those years ago, oxygen was scarce. The fish asphyxiated and sank to the bottom, where it was covered by layers of iron-rich material.
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Feb 27, 2025 | 
abc.net.au | Holly Tregenza |Peter de Kruijff
The NSW government has extended a complete fishing ban on the eastern blue groper by three years, following a one year trial. The ban has been widely criticised by anglers who claim it is not based in science and fails to address the wider climate issues which are having an adverse impact on the species. The government said it would use the three years to commission further research on the state fish and come up with a plan for its conservation.
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Dec 15, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Peter de Kruijff
The fungus Psilocybe cubensis — colloquially known as cubes, gold tops or gold caps in Australia — is the most prolific hallucinogenic mushroom on the planet. Its psychoactive compound psilocybin is an illegal drug in most parts of the world, so research into where the species came from and how it spread is limited. But a new study, not yet peer reviewed but published on the biological sciences repository bioRxiv, suggests an ancestor of P.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
abc.net.au | Peter de Kruijff
Michael Lun, 17, never thought he'd be able to see a creature as stunning as a peacock spider in his Perth backyard. But the macro photographer was surprised to spot a vibrant male only a few millimetres in size on his fence a few years ago. "He looked so different to all the other jumping spiders I'd seen before because his abdomen had this beautiful red and blue colouring," Michael said.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
rnz.co.nz | Peter de Kruijff
By Peter de Kruijff, ABC environment reporterA drop in the number of low-altitude clouds was behind unexplained warming that contributed to the world's hottest year on record, a new study suggests. The record-breaking heat of 2023, which saw the planet warm an average 1.45 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial surface temperatures, took many climate scientists by surprise.
