Record-breaking coral bleaching decimates WA's Ningaloo coral reef
Rhiannon Shine reports.
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ABC News
7 hours ago
- ABC News
BTN Newsbreak 14/08/2025
CYBERCRIME REPORT A new report from the Australian Institute of Criminology has found that nearly half of Australians experienced cybercrime last year. Yeah, the digital world provides a lot of opportunities for crafty criminals, and a lot of Aussies are getting caught out. See, the Australian Institute of Criminology or the AIC has just released its latest cybercrime report and found that around 47% of us have been the victim of a cybercrime in the last 12 months, with identity theft, malware, and scams being some of the most common crimes. While some people said they were pretty tech savvy, the AIC reckons this confidence could be why some people are letting their guard down. So as cybercrime becomes more sophisticated, the AIC is calling for Aussies to stay safe online by remembering to always install the latest software updates, use unique passwords, and enable multifactor authentication wherever you can. EUROPE WILDFIRES Countries in southern Europe have been battling extreme wildfires. Thousands of people have been evacuated as firefighters and volunteers battle the intense blazes in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Türkiye and the Balkans, which are being fanned by a record-breaking heatwave and strong winds. At least 3 people have died, and authorities say the extreme heat will likely continue over the coming days, prompting some countries to call for urgent aid from the European Union. HAIR TOOTHPASTE We all know it's important to brush our teeth, and scientists in London reckon they've now come up with the ultimate tooth protecting toothpaste which is made from hair! According to Scientists from King's College in London, hair could be the key to good oral health! Sort of. See, our teeth are coated in a natural protective layer called Enamel, but when Enamel gets damaged from things like acidic food and drink, poor oral hygiene and ageing, it doesn't repair itself and can lead to tooth decay, pain, and eventually losing teeth completely! But hair contains a protein called Keratin, and the King's College scientists found that when Keratin comes into contact with minerals in saliva, it forms a crystal-like protective coating similar to enamel. But it's a little more complicated than just putting hair in your mouth. The Keratin is actually extracted, and can then be used as a gel, or toothpaste. Keratin doesn't just come from human hair either, but also skin and animal wool. While the scientists reckon hair toothpaste will transform dentistry, it won't be available for another two or three years, so, in the meantime hair styles and good smiles won't have any crossover. DUST SLIPPER First up, to slippers made out of an unusual material: dust. Yeah, I'm talking vacuumed fresh off the floor, household dust. Rahat is a design graduate from Ravensbourne uni in London, and says he takes out bits of hair, sticks and other debris before flattening it out and heating his dust fabric to kill bacteria. BAKED BEAN RECORD And finally to the moment these four gentlemen broke the world record for eating the most baked beans with a toothpick in 3 minutes. That's David Rush, who's a bit of a world record legend, he currently holds more than 300 titles! Including this one, now.
ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
CSIRO opens Australia's largest wildlife vault
A new CSIRO National Research Collections facility has opened in Canberra, where it will safeguard more than 13-million irreplaceable biodiversity specimens. Named 'Diversity', the $90-million building brings together the Australian National Wildlife Collection and the Australian National Insect Collection under one roof
ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
New $90 million research facility opens at CSIRO to house specimens collected over 150 years
Millions of irreplaceable biodiversity specimens have been re-homed at a new CSIRO facility that the agency says will support research to better understand and manage Australia's natural environment. Named 'Diversity', the $90 million National Research Collections building in Canberra features temperature-controlled vaults that are bushfire and pest-resistant while designed to preserve 13 million specimens for future generations. Among the specimens, which have been collected over 150 years, are 55,000 birds, 17,000 orchids, 2.4 million moths and seven million beetles. Dr Clare Holleley, who is the director of vertebrate collections, says the facility serves as a "time machine for Australia's biodiversity". "It's taken snapshots of specimens over time, and when we put all of those little snapshots together, it puts together a picture of how Australia's biodiversity is changing. "We can learn from those trends and potentially predict what is going to happen in the future." The collections include 99 per cent of Australia's native birds, as well as exotic bird species, skeletons, mammals, reptiles stored in ethanol, eggs and frozen tissue. Relocating the specimens took about a year. The official opening of the facility coincides with National Science Week, described by CSIRO chief executive Doug Hilton as an "exciting" moment. Dr Hilton described the facility as "cutting-edge", featuring new genomics laboratories and digitisation facilities that will allow scientists to extract and share more information from research specimens. "If we can't understand how things are changing over time, it's very hard to conserve things for the future," he said. "What we have here is a facility that holds specimens in a highly secure way and allows us to digitise and automate digitisation in a way that is just the envy of the world." While there was celebration at the opening of the building, concern remains about the potential of job cuts at the agency, with the Community and Public Sector Union warning that hundreds of jobs could be axed this year. In responding to those concerns, Dr Hilton said: "Our science has to adapt". "There are programs of research that we may have to stop in order for us to be able to do new programs of research to tackle those big problems like productivity, sustainability and our sovereign science capacity." He said the agency would be reviewing its whole portfolio of science next month and then would need to make "hard choices", but wouldn't say how many jobs could be affected. The new National Research Collections building was jointly funded by the CSIRO and the Department of Education through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. While the building won't be open to the public, the collections will be accessible to researchers, governments, and citizen scientists worldwide.
