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NCI-supported CSIRO researcher Amanda Barnard has won the Foresight Institute Feynman Prize. Dr Barnard is both the first Australian and the first woman to receive this prestigious award. Using the power of the NCI supercomputer, Dr Barnard – who leads CSIRO's Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory – has...

Osteoporosis is a debilitating disease. As the bones become thinner and less dense, they become exceedingly fragile. Painful fractures and breaks are a constant risk. Luckily, bones are pretty amazing structures. They have a remarkable capacity for remodelling. If a piece of bone lost in a sheep...

One of science's unresolved questions – Where did all of the antimatter at the origin of the Universe go? – may now be explored with the help of NCI. Professor Igor Bray, Head of Curtin's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said the University's theoretical physics research group have been using...

With some help from Raijin, an international team of scientists studying ultrafast physics have solved a mystery of quantum mechanics, and found that quantum tunneling is an instantaneous process. The new theory could lead to faster and smaller electronic components, for which quantum tunneling is a...

Scientists have used Raijin to reveal the complex chemistry behind one of nature's best kept secrets—the chemical sparkplug that plants use to make energy. New research from The Australian National University (ANU) shows that the chemical reaction site in plants, where sunlight is used to convert...

Volcanic ash is entirely different from the bushfire or backyard barbeque ash that most Australians are familiar with. It's abrasive and corrosive rock, formed from small particles of fragmented lava which travel vast distances, leaving a passage of devastation in its place. To help reduce the...

Encouraged by computations carried out on Raijin, ANU chemists have created a star-shaped molecule previously thought impossible to make. The work could lead to more efficient ways to make medicinal agents, said lead researcher, Professor Michael Sherburn from the ANU Research School of Chemistry....

Researchers are using supercomputing to stop fungal pathogens in their tracks and help secure our food crops. Alison Testa from Curtin University has developed a sophisticated, self-training software that can help to identify which fungal genes are responsible for crop disease. "There are several...

Antonio Tricoli and Noushin Nasri test their mobile sensor. Photo by Stuart Hay/ANU. Smart phones are getting smarter by the minute. They already help us plan transport routes, check the weather and take pictures. What if they could also diagnose diabetes or lung cancer? Dr Antonio Tricoli and his...

Researchers from Adelaide University have used Raijin to work out how to control the transport of molecules across membranes using a 'light switch'. These artificial smart membranes harbor 'photoswitchable' peptides that change shape depending on what light wavelength they are exposed to. "The...