Australians’ optimism about the benefits of science and technology rests precipitously on how much they trust those delivering the information, writes Rebecca Thyer.

With the emerging imperative for organisations to examine all avenues to reduce their environmental impacts, product stewardship schemes are seeing greater uptake – although the ‘how to’ still remains the main challenge in Australia.

Understanding how the lung develops in newborn marsupials is part of award-winning research by a PhD student in Zoology.

DNA alone will not turn the tide against crime, but its inclusion in a wave of new technologies such as biometrics and forensic profiling promises to pin criminals to crimes, both past and present, reports Carmelo Amalfi.

Every minute of every day, plants around the globe convert 50,000 tonnes of sugar they’ve produced by photosynthesis into high-energy molecules to drive their growth. Marcia Van Zeller investigates the power of plants.

Under the Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI), CSIRO brings together partners from business, government and non-government organisations to work with communities to develop innovative solutions that address their local sustainability challenges.

Australian scientists are hopeful that a change of government will improve the "abysmally low" budget dollars set aside for scientific research over recent years, reports Louise Pemble.

International scientists are now in little doubt about the cause of a threat confronting up to one-third of all marine life: the 27 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide released each year by human activity are gradually dissolving into the ocean’s upper layers, turning them more acidic. Julian Cribb reports.

Is Australia on the road to a sustainable future? Yes and no, depending on which of two recent reports released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development you read.

China’s rapid urbanisation is cause for concern, but remarkable initiatives in cities such as Rizhao, Wuhan and Beijing are leading to a broader endorsement of sustainability principles, write Matthew Levinson and Jing Chen.