Scientists now understand the substances that make armpits smell, that they predate Homo sapiens and they may have had an important role in communication between our ancestors

In what may be one of the biggest breakthroughs yet in combating COVID-19, a scientist has invented a surface coating that wipes out the virus and may continue working for years

A fast-food chicken chain is creating lab-grown meat made from stem cells to create a “meat for the future”, as a burger chain feeds cattle lemongrass to try to cut methane emissions

Scientists are just beginning to understand how the bushfires devastated populations of native animals. See the full list of species that are now – suddenly – under threat

UAE launched its first mission to Mars on Monday as it strives to reduce the country’s reliance on selling oil. On the ISS, NASA astronauts complete a space walk and prepare to head home

Girls are dropping out of sport at high rates as they move from tweens to teens and a new study is looking to see if uniforms are part of the problem

Despite more than 90 per cent of Australians not eating enough dairy, cheese is being overlooked as a source of calcium and “good” fats, with some cheeses only rating 1.5 health stars

Cartoonist Mark Knight discusses Victoria’s change of circumstances as coronavirus case numbers increase, and whether Premier Daniel Andrews is running away from responsibility

Traffic is about to get busy on the interplanetary route between Earth and Mars as three rival missions leave Earth during July in time for the next Earth-Mars Close Approach in October

Melbourne students have an extra week of holidays as schools face a return to remote learning while the city battles a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Wrinkles are a normal part of ageing, except for the wrinkly fingers and toes people of any age can get when they’ve been in the bath or pool for too long. Kids News researched wrinkles

Pressure is mounting on the SA government to reverse a decision allowing fishing of giant cuttlefish in the Spencer Gulf, where they mass each year to spawn, the only place in the world this happens

A team of mechanical engineering students in South Australia has invented a small drone that transfers pollen from plant to plant and that could one day replace bees

You might not have been bullied but chances are you’ve seen it happen to one of your classmates. Experts say bystanders make a choice to be part of the problem or part of the solution

Nestle will rename its Red Skins and Chicos lollies as the names are now “out of step” with the company’s values and it wants to “keep creating smiles” rather than cause offence

Towering titanosaurs and other dinosaurs once roamed the vast, mountainless lands between the east of Australia and New Zealand on a lost continent called Zealandia

Victoria’s new coronavirus cases — including AFL player Conor McKenna — are causing concern about how this could impact Australia’s economic recovery, reopening borders and sport

Move over T-rex, Gigantosaurus and Spinosaurus — the discovery of dinosaur footprint fossils in Queensland reveal Australia had its own huge predator in the Jurassic Period.

Australia has the world’s highest rate of childhood food allergies but researchers hope a simple vitamin supplement could help change that.

June 20 is World Refugee Day. Kids News shares a film by a teenager at Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda about young people making music to help stop the spread of COVID-19

Fast-food companies are bombarding children and teenagers on social media with ads for unhealthy junk food and drinks, according to a new study. Researchers want the ads banned

Kids could live free of life-threatening egg allergies thanks to a treatment being trialled by Australian researchers in Melbourne after the success of a similar trial for peanuts allergies

An exoplanet that orbits a star just like our Sun could be the most similar to Earth ever found, which has scientists thinking it could liveable.

A long-buried ancient Roman city in Italy has been mapped in incredible detail without any digging. Instead, archaeologists used a ground-penetrating radar strapped to a quad bike

Learning how sea creatures build the equivalent of five-story palaces in about an hour, made just with mucus from their heads, could help us build expanding homes on Earth, the Moon or Mars

Phillip Island reopens on World Environment Day as Ranger Jess McKelson shares tales of bushfire koalas and little penguins

Have you ever wondered why footballers struggle to convert set shots for goal? Australian sports scientists believe the answer could be all in the mind

Get your umbrella and winter woollies out. The Bureau of Meteorology is tipping plenty of rain and chilly days ahead but nights could be warmer.

A young Queensland soccer star has claimed his fourth Guinness World Record, despite most sport being cancelled during coronavirus-related restrictions

A successful captive breeding and release program of more than 500 Richmond birdwing butterflies means the species could soon be taken off the threatened species list

Humour is as ancient as human life itself, but the joys of laughter never grow old and amusement experts believe we’re on the cusp of a COVID-19 comedy revolution

Donations of spit from about 1500 people are helping scientists understand how the billions of microbes in our mouths work to keep us healthy and what you can do to keep them healthy too

Beloved Australian children’s author Andrew Daddo says storytelling platform Littlescribe invites kids to imagine breaking all the rules

A team of climbers is on its way to summit Mount Everest this week to measure whether it has grown as Earth’s tectonic plates move and try to end international disagreement on the subject

Imagine the fun you’d have living in this cool house. Pool parties with friends are just the start. How about your own indoor skate bowl?

While the world has been in lockdown, zoos around the country have been welcoming a wave of cute, cuddly and not so cuddly babies. Check them out.

A three-minute song written by artificial intelligence that turned koala grunts, kookaburra laughs and Tassie devil barks into a kind of instrument has won an international music competition

When Mark Knight tuned in to watch Treasurer Josh Frydenberg talk about the economy in federal parliament, he saw him coughing uncontrollably. What was the cause?

British Museum guards have reported spooky goings-on including ghostly footsteps, strange lights and mysterious crying among the exhibits, like a real-life version of Night at the Museum

In a big win in the battle to save this species from extinction, scientists have observed koalas drinking in the wild for the first time, watching them lick rain running down tree trunks

Scientists have found human bones and a tooth up to 46,000 years old that rewrite the history of early humans’ arrival in Europe and time spent living alongside Neanderthals

Fast, ferocious Spinosaurus is the first aquatic dinosaur known to science. Experts believe it could topple T-rex to take the title as the most famous and exciting meat-eating dinosaur

An Australian-made radio telescope is preparing to look back 13 billion years in time to the Big Bang and discover the secrets of our universe. It will be the closest thing we have to a time machine

The skeleton of a backward-toothed mammal nicknamed “crazy beast” that existed alongside dinosaurs 66 million years ago has been unveiled by Australian palaeontologists

Wednesday, April 29, 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of James Cook’s arrival at Botany Bay. We explore why Cook came to Australia and why some celebrate and some lament this day

New scientific research has shown the number of insects living on land has fallen dramatically in the past 30 years, putting the world’s ecosystems — and human lives — at risk

Aussies could soon be self-testing for COVID-19 with the help of a fleet of drones. A Melbourne-based drone company is already using tiny aircraft in Africa to deliver and return test kits

In his weekly series, award-winning cartoonist Mark Knight explores the collapse of Virgin Airlines in Australia and how the company could make a buck selling its second-hand planes

By comparing brains of humans and apes, scientists have discovered the origins of human language could be 25 million years old — 20 million years older than previously thought

Scientists warn that a volcanic area of Iceland is becoming active, with more than 8000 earthquakes recorded since January 21 and 10cm of land uplift as magma pushes up from below

It is 50 years since the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission and though younger generations may think of it as a failure, its astronauts and others regard it as NASA’s finest achievement

Researchers off WA have filmed a long, glowing, stringlike, predatory underwater creature made up of millions of interconnected clones, the largest of its type ever discovered

The sounds of Australia’s Murray River will soon be heard in song after scientists and audio specialists captured its sights and sounds in a project aimed at improving the waterway’s health

Australian and international scientists have unearthed a two-million-year old skull bone — the oldest known fossil of the earliest human species named Homo erectus

Amazing video captured by a marine biologist after 17 years of waiting shows breeding grey seals clapping at each other underwater to warn off competitors and attract mates

On April 1, 1748, a Spanish engineer rediscovered Pompeii, changing the way we thought about historical artefacts and beginning the longest archaeological dig in the world

Parachutists have set a world record for crossing the equator 12 times in a single jump, which got us wondering what the equator is, where it is and why do they launch space rockets there?

The future of Australia’s critically endangered Bellinger River snapping turtle is a little more secure after 35 baby turtles hatched at Taronga Zoo

A slippery predator that lurked in lagoons 380 millions years ago had fins with finger bones that could teach us about the origins of the human hand

Archaeologists are uncovering a mysterious collection of mammoth bones arranged by our ancient Palaeolithic ancestors 20,000 years ago during the last Ice Age

For the first time in history, Australians are being told not to travel overseas and indoor gatherings of more than 100 people are banned in an effort to keep people safe from COVID-19

A woman who received two hands from a male donor has found her new hands have transformed to be slimmer and like her own skin tone, in an incredible development that has pleased doctors

The Australian Antarctic Division’s famous bright orange research ship Aurora Australis departed for Macquarie Island this week on one last voyage before its retirement

As WHO officially declares the global coronavirus crisis a pandemic, PM Scott Morrison announces a $2.4 billion package for Australia’s health system to help it respond to the crisis

AFL legend Tom Harley grew up hearing bits of the story of his grandfather’s WWII escape. Now, for the first time, he’s learning the full details of an extraordinary adventure that is barely known

Space agency NASA has asked billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX to help explore a nearby asteroid called 16 Psyche that contains enough gold to make everyone on Earth a billionaire

Tasmania is considering culling kookaburras in the wild after populations of the iconic national bird have spread and are threatening the future of other native species

Literacy experts want to end the myth that informal language used by young people in conversation is just poor formal language. It is, in fact, a modern form of conversation that has evolved for decades

Our summers are now twice as long as our winters as climate change has increased temperatures since the middle of last century, according to a new study of Australian weather data

A new type of ancient marsupial lion has been discovered in Queensland after palaeontologists discovered its teeth were like nothing ever seen before

Australians may not be able to drink fresh orange juice in as little as five years if major retailers don’t pay growers more to make up for drought and rising water costs

A hidden chamber near the tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings may contain the long-lost remains Queen Nefertiti

Astronomers have discovered a planet where temperatures frequently hit 1000C, that has an 18-hour year and that will likely soon be destroyed when it spirals into its star or tidal forces tear it apart

Up to four tourists could launch into a super-high space orbit in an autonomous SpaceX capsule by the end of next year, with ticket prices expected to be in the millions of dollars

Archaeologists believe they have found the long lost tomb of Romulus, who legend says was raised with his twin brother by a wolf before founding the ancient city of Rome

The Holden car brand, an important part of Australia’s history for more than 160 years, will cease to exist in 2021. The move by US company General Motors has angered PM Scott Morrison and shocked motoring fans

Doctors have kept a heart beating for 24 hours in a jar with the new life-changing ULiSSES device, bringing hope to thousands of patients needing the lifesaving treatment

In his weekly series, award-winning cartoonist Mark Knight considers if vandalising vandalism is a new art form after a gang of youths spray-painted street art in Melbourne’s famous Hosier Lane

A fungus that can wipe out banana crops has been found on a farm in far north Queensland in a region that produces 90 per cent of Australia’s bananas

Look away if you hate spiders, because this story is about a huge funnel-web called Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. He’s so big he can produce enough venom to save many human lives

Water experts are preparing to keep Australia’s drinking water clean after bushfires, including installing huge fabric curtains across Sydney’s main dam

Platypus populations are on the brink of extinction from drought, land clearing and the way we manage our waterways, according to new research on this unique Australian icon

The head of the Royal Australian Mint has signalled the eventual end of the 5c and 10c coins. We look at the value of cash and when it could be the right time to let these coins go

Researchers have created super-fast bionic jellyfish to help explore the world’s oceans and monitor conditions such as temperature, salt levels, acidity and oxygen levels

The World Health Organisation now officially has a name for the coronavirus that has infected more than 40,000 people around the world 

Scientists have released the first photographs of the Sun from the new solar telescope in Hawaii, showing churning plasma that looks like a sea of gold nuggets, each as big as France

Kids and parents planning back-to-school lunches are warned to avoid unhealthy salty treats that contain almost the entire day’s salt allowance recommended for a child

This year’s bushfires prompted a bigger spike in Australian Google search queries than any other news event this decade, with floods and Cyclone Yasi also making the top-topics list

A robotic aerator to save river fish, a voice app to help people living with dementia and a photo-recognition app that sorts rubbish have been named Australia’s top student inventions

New Zealand’s White Island volcano has erupted suddenly forcing the dramatic rescue of tourists who were exploring the crater floor when it began to rumble

Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch’s puppeteer — the “most unknown famous person” – has died after 50 years creating joy on Sesame Street

NASA’s Parker spacecraft has reported back that the Sun is sending out sudden, violent bursts of solar wind so powerful that the magnetic field flips itself in the opposite direction

In a world first, Australian scientists are zapping balls of brain cells they are growing in a laboratory to make them come to life in a real-life, good-news version of Frankenstein

An adventurer from Queensland has become the first Australian to reach Antarctica’s Pole of Inaccessibility, just one leg of an epic journey to help men and women experiencing breast cancer

Sugary and fatty foods have the power to change how your brain works and stop you knowing when you’re full, but scientists believe you can retrain your brain to beat junk food addiction

In a world-first, Australian doctors have operated on a 3D-printed brain to rehearse for a real brain operation. Up next, 40 brain surgeons operating on 3D printed brains all at once

NASA doctors have made the surprising discovery that astronauts’ blood sometimes flows in reverse, with major implications for space tourism and trips to Mars