The twin laser technology, developed by physicists from ANU and Laboratoire Kastler Brossel in Paris in the laboratories of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics at ANU, may dramatically improve precision measurement ranging from atomic to outer-space applications. Read more »

A new $30 million federal government-funded Cooperative Research Centre for Biomarker Translation (CRC-BT) has been launched at La Trobe University Research and Development Park. Core partners in the new CRC are La Trobe University and the Macfarlane Burnett Institute for Medical Research and Public Health in Melbourne; the Mater Medical Research Institute and Mater Health Services in Brisbane; and the Women & Children’s Health Research Institute and Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science in Adelaide. US-based biotechnology corporations Amgen and Becton Dickinson Biosciences are the commercial CRC-BT partners. Read more »

Fossilomics research is being facilitated by the sensitivity, mass accuracy and resolution of modern mass spectrometry. Read more »

Next generation of nanoelectronics could be based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the intramolecular junctions that connect CNTs for integration. Read more »

CSIRO aims to use biostatistics to generate better information from health data, contributing to improved health outcomes for Australians. Read more »

Any potential health, safety and environmental risks with the introduction of nanotechnology products will be addressed by Australia's regulatory system. Read more »

Researchers have used larger families to identify some genes associated with autism. Read more »

A Curtin University discovery challenges fundamental understanding of the processes active in the early history of the Earth. It suggests that life may well have appeared on Earth long before the period of heavy-meteorite bombardment believed by some to have initiated the emergence of life on Earth. Read more »

The CRC Association recommends that assessment for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Consultation Paper should be primarily based on the assessment of evidence portfolios by expert reviewers rather than on the use of volume-based intermediate metrics of activity. Read more »

NSW is to appoint a chief scientist and scientific engineer to build on the state’s strengths in science, engineering, medical research and innovation. Read more »

Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory have devised a 'next generation' X-ray light source — the free electron laser oscillator (X-FELO) — that is many times brighter than current X-ray technologies. Read more »

Three firms that have pioneered development of new sequencing technologies — 454 Life Sciences, Applied Biosystems and Illumina Inc — have joined the 1000 Genomes Project to build the most detailed map to date of human genetic variation. Read more »

The study of single molecules in solution is being facilitated by the development of nano-scale glassblowing techniques. Nanoscale funnels can direct molecules into chambers and possibly even sort different-sized molecules. Read more »

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a system that relies on the ‘noise’ of jiggling electrons as a basis for measuring temperatures with extreme precision. The system may help define the Kelvin. Read more »

The prestigious CRC STAR Award has been awarded to two separate CRCs this year, for their high-level achievement in developing successful enterprises through the transfer of CRC innovation. Read more »

Researchers at the UK’s University of Nottingham have taken some important first steps to creating a synthetic version of a living cell. Read more »

Australia’s reputation for excellence in cancer research has been strengthened with the launch of the Peter MacCallum Pfizer Translational Oncology Research Collaborative Hub (TORCH) at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Read more »

Interested Australians have been invited to respond to a consultation paper on the development of the government’s new Future Fellowships scheme. Read more »

A new technology which could aid the early detection of disease has been invented and developed by University of Queensland (UQ) researchers. Read more »

An internationally recognised expert in medical imaging, Dr Simon Warfield, has been awarded an Australia-Harvard Fellowship to travel to Australia and work with the biomedical imaging team at the Australian e-Health Research Centre on early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Read more »