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Editor's Choice
In an ant colony, the queen isn’t in charge. So who is?
Imagine trying to build a house without a blueprint, find a shortcut through an unfamiliar city without a map, or govern a large organisation with no leaders and no meetings.…
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Editor's Choice
NZ’s costly fees‑free scheme did little to widen access to tertiary education – new study
The government’s decision to scrap the one-year fees-free tertiary scheme in this month’s Budget will be contentious. Some will see it as a sensible saving, others as another blow to…
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Editor's Choice
A deep‑ocean climate plan wins rare EPA approval, but is sinking plants in the sea the answer?
Innovators who are working on ways to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to fight climate change are having a tough time lately. Their biggest supporter, Microsoft, recently began…
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Editor's Choice
You can change your emotions – but it’s a 2‑step process that takes some effort
Picture Gigi, having a chat with her boss, when the meeting takes a sharp turn. Gigi’s boss tells her that her work has been lacking recently and that maybe she…
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Editor's Choice
Button‑pushing explorers: How to grasp that AI agents can do amazing things while knowing nothing
The nonprofit ARC Prize Foundation on May 1, 2026, released the results of a new benchmark: a test of an AI system’s ability to solve a game. The results were…
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Editor's Choice
Genome sequencing is rewriting the history of disease outbreaks – but without social context, it can tell only part of the story
Fingerprinting transformed police investigations by making it possible to place a suspect at a crime scene with physical evidence. Similarly, genome sequencing has changed how disease detectives study outbreaks by…
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Editor's Choice
Teens aren’t as disengaged as you may think: What adults get wrong about adolescents’ civic contributions
A teenager scrolls through their phone at the dinner table, barely looks up and answers questions with one-word replies. For many adults, that image has come to stand for a…
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Editor's Choice
Conspiracy theorists are building AI interfaces to the Epstein files – and presenting their views as data analysis
Jeffrey Epstein’s death on Aug. 10, 2019, sparked a flurry of conspiracy theories, and the release of Epstein’s purported suicide note on May 6, 2026, is a good bet to…
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Editor's Choice
Wealthy people were the first to buy electric vehicles. The current boom risks entrenching inequality
Australia is in the midst of an electric vehicle boom. The combined rise of battery electric, plug-in hybrids and conventional hybrid cars is steadily shifting the long-term market dominance of…
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Editor's Choice
Governments keep trying to make childcare safer. Could a new ‘national commission’ make a difference?
Governments have spent about a year announcing new policies to make early education safer for Australian children. In the wake of reports of shocking abuse and neglect in daycare centres,…
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Editor's Choice
Why has this autumn been so hot and dry?
We’re less than a month away from the southern hemisphere winter. But you’d be forgiven for thinking summer was only last week. April was unseasonably warm and dry across Australia.…
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Editor's Choice
How does your brain decide between the road not taken or the same old route?
When was the last time you paid attention to your commute? And I don’t mean a couple of feet in front of you, at the car merging into your lane…
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Editor's Choice
How AI can lead to false arrests and wrongful convictions
In Baltimore on Oct. 20, 2025, a 17-year-old student named Taki Allen was sitting outside his high school after football practice when an artificial intelligence-enhanced surveillance camera falsely identified the…
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Editor's Choice
Delta‑8, delta‑9, THCA? What sets the different THC forms available in regulated cannabis products apart
Hemp products have exploded across the United States, even in the majority of states where recreational marijuana remains illegal. This surge came after the 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from…
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Editor's Choice
Why did Tyrannosaurus rex have such short arms?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected]. What did the T. rex…
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