Putting solar panels over irrigation canals seemed like a win-win idea: we get electricity while reducing evaporation. It turns out it's a win-win-win idea. Canals in California that have done this have generated electricity, reduced evaporation by a stunning 50% to 70%, and saved irrigation districts bunches of money by causing algae and aquatic weed growth to drop by 85%.

Novel appetite for camel meat helps Western Australian pastoralist fight feral population. Feral camels are an expensive problem for pastoralists in central Australia, and now one Western Australian station owner has come up with a solution — forming a partnership to turn the nationally declared pest into pet food.

Twin study asks if immune systems are shaped by our genes or our lives. Nicole and Amanda are identical twins with one key difference: their immune systems. Scientists want to learn why they've had such different health journeys.

How Deaf people experience the power of classical music. Deaf musicians have shaped classical music for centuries, but only recently have innovations like haptic vests and Auslan signers enabled deeper connections.

Once upon a time, insects had 24 legs. This ancient oddball fills a major gap in the fossil record. Insects are famous for their six-legged body plan, but that wasn't always the rule. A 324-million-year-old fossil dug up from a shale bed in West Texas had a markedly different setup, sporting a whopping 18 extra legs along its belly — a body plan unlike that of any living insect.

50 years of spotting southern right whales off Great Australian Bight. From Western Australia's capital to South Australia's far west coast, scientists have collated 50 years' worth of data on the southern right whale to track changes to breeding cycles.

Small town pushes to reopen rare dinosaur cavern. Mount Morgan in Central Queensland hopes to bring tourists back to a palaeontological wonder that has been sitting idle for more than a decade.

Woman laid to rest in coffin made from mushrooms in Australian first. The casket, grown from mycelium and hemp fibres, takes just 45 days to break down, enriching the soil in the process.

World-first trial finds floating wetlands can cut greenhouse gas emissions. A floating garden of native plants in Victoria's east cuts a wastewater lagoon's emissions by about 30 per cent, with researchers now testing the approach on farm dams.

Backyard astronomer contributes to world-first Saturn discovery. An amateur astronomer helps discover a mysterious decagon on Saturn's south pole, which he tracked from his homemade backyard observatory.

Feather discovered in fossilised dinosaur poo is first of its kind. A well-preserved feather discovered inside fossilised dinosaur faeces could help explain why ancestors of modern birds survived the mass extinction.

Argentine court clears return of Nazi-looted portrait worth $400,000 Australian. A portrait looted from a Jewish art dealer in WWII will be given back to the owner's heir, after a deal where the daughter of a fugitive Nazi official agreed to drop her claim. Portrait of a Lady, by Italian baroque painter Giacomo Ceruti, had been missing for eight decades. But its existence was revealed last year, after being photographed hanging in the home of the daughter of a senior Nazi officer, who had fled to Argentina after World War II.

Glowworms shine again in North Yorkshire after larvae reared in garden shed. Volunteer glow-getters overseeing reintroduction of endangered beetles at Nosterfield nature reserve. (North Yorkshire, England, Britain)

Ancient sheep virus found hiding in medieval parchment.

In a study published in Science Advances, researchers pin the virus' emergence to about 5000 years ago, roughly the same time people started to intensively shear sheep for wool. "I was so jealous when I saw this paper," says Floris Breman, an evolutionary biologist at the Belgian national health agency Sciensano, because he wished he could have made the discovery. "It's very important because it shows us how viruses arrive in a population." The peek into the pathogen's past came from an unusual source: dozens of medieval books and legal documents written on parchment, which is made from specially treated animal skins. "It turns out parchment is an extremely good preserver of this type of biological data," says University of Leicester historian Joanna Story, a co-author of the new study.

Japan's overlooked indigenous people fight for return of ancestor's remains. A group of indigenous people are suing the Japanese government for the return of ancestral remains taken during the brutal colonisation of Hokkaido.

Environmental DNA shows some frog species bouncing back from fungus. The species were hit hard by chytrid fungus in the 1980s and 1990s, but new research suggests two frogs have recovered to now expand to new territories, while one is still constrained.

It was a spy satellite, now NASA's new telescope has headed into space. NASA has launched its latest space telescope, a repurposed spy satellite which accompanies the James Webb Space Telescope. So what is it, and why is it being used?

The mysterious hum of Earth and what scientists think is causing it. Earth is constantly humming with an ultra-low-frequency vibration that can be picked up right across the globe and has puzzled seismologists for decades. Growing evidence suggests it is the collective sound of the world's oceans constantly moving.

Discovery of 30-million-year-old fossilised fruit changes evolutionary story. The fruit has challenged what scientists previously believed about how and when Melastomataceae plants arrived in Australia.

Africa bigger, US smaller as UN votes to adopt a new world map. The United Nations has voted to adopt a map that makes Africa and Australia bigger while shrinking North America and Europe.

Rare and beautiful: Owl population booms following mouse plague. (Midwest and Wheatbelt regions, Western Australia)

Did This Duke Poison His Brother? A New DNA Analysis May Solve the Centuries-Old Medici Mystery. Researchers found evidence of malaria in Francesco I de' Medici's bones, leading them to argue "with scientific certainty" that it was disease, not arsenic, that led to his death in 1587.

Three varieties of "vegan Dracula" plant-eating lampreys found in unlikely places. Scientists are working to determine the full range of the ancient and elusive creatures that have lain hidden for 150 million-odd years.

With its suction-cup mouth and circular rows of sharp teeth, a close-up view of an Australian brook lamprey is rather frightening. But unlike many bloodthirsty lampreys around the world, this species prefers a plant-based diet, gobbling up organic matter on creek beds instead.

Better late than never as high school receives library book 72 years late. Murray Bridge's Malcolm Blight held on to the adventurous The Kon-Tiki Expedition for more than 70 years, during which time he was inspired to undertake several journeys of his own.

Ancient clash with Kraken galaxy 12 billion years ago helped form Milky Way. A new study suggests one of the most significant clashes in the history of the Milky Way, dubbed the Low-energy-Kraken-Heracles merger, happened 12 billion years ago.

"Seismic shift": Māori set to invest in First Nations projects in Australia under new deal. One of the biggest and wealthiest Māori tribal authorities, the Waikato-Tainui, has signed a deal to invest in large-scale First Nations projects in Australia in renewable energy, mining, agriculture and more. Indigenous business groups say it's a watershed moment towards greater economic self-determination.

Once-in-a-lifetime discovery found in cave hidden beneath paddock. There are very few places on Earth that remain untouched and unseen by humans. For true explorers, the final frontier is not a distant speck in the sky, it is the underground realm beneath our feet. (Buchan, in East Gippsland, in Victoria, in Australia)

"Created something beautiful": Wildflower meadows are taking over cities. You may have spotted more native plants popping up in your local park or on the side of the road. It's part of a push to create hardier, more beautiful council plantings across Australia.

Do dolphins grieve the way humans do? A dolphin mother has carried its calf's remains for 11 days in what researchers believe could potentially reveal something new about dolphin mourning.

We've never seen the Sun in this much detail before. The highest-resolution imagery of the Sun's surface ever taken reveals dizzying currents, and clues about our star's magnetic fields.

Gliders were thought to eat swift parrots. Cameras showed something different. For over a decade, sugar gliders have been considered a major threat to the critically endangered swift parrot. But new research has called that into question.

Ancient bone-crunching thylacine femur uncovered near Alice Springs. An 8-million-year-old intact femur from the bone-crunching Northern Territory tiger has been found for the first time at the Alcoota fossil beds north-east of Alice Springs. Thylacines are also called "Tasmanian Tigers", but this Thylacine fossil was found 2216 kilometres (1377 miles) away from Tasmania.

Orchids return to grassland after 28 Years Later filming. Fountains Abbey staff left grounds unmown to appear abandoned for film shoot - and orchids returned for the first time since the 1850s. (North Yorkshire, Britain.)

There had been no record of the flowers on the abbey site since the 1850s and the orchids had not been seen in living memory. 170 Years Later, nobody knows where they have come from or why they have germinated once again.

Shipwreck cargo reveals 400-year-old global trade secrets. An analysis of cargo from one of Australia's best-known shipwrecks uncovers complex global trade routes from nearly 400 years ago.

Digging for Neanderthals under a medieval Welsh castle. Unscathed by destructive Victorian-era excavations and modern tourism, Wogan Cavern may provide scientists with a glimpse into the lives of early people. Paywalled original link is here.

The female artists who shaped botanical illustration in Australia. Female botanical illustrators have translated the science of our landscapes for centuries, today the craft is as important as ever.

Twitchers excited by sighting of rare migratory shorebird. The sighting of a redshank on the Cairns Esplanade is the talk of the birdwatching community. It is believed to be just the second time the species has been spotted in Queensland.

Artefacts from across the globe returned to southern Western Australia. Menang artefacts returned from museums across London, Edinburgh, Melbourne and Sydney are being showcased in a special exhibition in Albany.