Emeritus Professor Tony Haymet — a world-leading oceanographer, chemist and entrepreneur — is Australia's 10th Chief Scientist, effective immediately. [ + ]

The reforms are intended to maximise the value of the $1.2 billion in government funding that goes into the science sector each year. [ + ]

The synthetic chromosome includes features that enable researchers to generate genetic diversity on demand. [ + ]

Three months after mysterious ball-shaped debris first started washing up on NSW beaches, the balls appear to be back with a vengeance. [ + ]

A self-destructing vaccine administered intravenously provides additional safety and protection against tuberculosis (TB) in macaque monkeys, according to new research. [ + ]

Researchers at Nagoya University have demonstrated techniques for stretching and immobilising DNA in order to enable detailed analysis. [ + ]

People taking atogepant showed improvement on assessments of how much migraine impaired their activities and their overall quality of life compared to people taking a placebo. [ + ]

An experimental blood test for pancreatic cancer is being evaluated by a commercial laboratory — an important milestone towards making the test available for patients. [ + ]

Certain faecal proteins have been linked to deadly cardiovascular conditions. A connection between constipation and an increased risk of major adverse cardiac events has also been found. [ + ]

Vaxxas will receive AU$3.2m from BARDA to accelerate work advancing its high-density microarray patch technology for administration of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. [ + ]

The commonly used Parkinson's drug levodopa usually helps with tremors, but it tends to be less effective during stress, when tremors are often at their worst. [ + ]

Using the new scanning method, the team are able to reveal the parts of the lung that air doesn't reach properly during breathing. [ + ]

While DDX53, located on the X chromosome, is known to play a role in brain development and function, it was not previously definitively associated with autism. [ + ]

A new global competition offering over US$500,000 in prizes aims to spur drug discovery breakthroughs for the cancer target known as TBXT. [ + ]

A prescription medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could be repurposed as the first pharmacotherapy for people with methamphetamine dependence. [ + ]