The targeting of pregnant minke whales has raised new concerns over the plans by Japan to kill 50 humpback whales for scientific purposes in the Antarctic in late 2007.

While the population of tigers surviving in the wild continues to fall alarmingly, conservationists the world over are battling for a way to stem the trend.

Karen Hussey knows a thing or two about water management. The political scientist is the Chair of the ANU Water Initiative, which brings together 80 researchers from a multitude of disciplines to look at how Australia and other nations are dealing with H2O.

Amid one of Australia’s worst droughts, the understanding and efficient management of groundwater supplies and their use has taken on a new urgency. Ageing metering infrastructure and weak guidelines on allocations and policing have led to profligate and illegal extraction. But new efforts to change this are underway. Strong policy action is now needed to see the tougher measures through. Max Berry reports.

Like any "ugly duckling", there’s often something unique and interesting under the surface. So it is with custard apples, a sub-tropical deciduous fruit that has developed into a small but thriving commercial industry on the NSW north coast.

A philosophical argument about flirting gained her international attention – now Carrie Jenkins wants to reshape the way we think about arithmetic.

New Zealand has a regulatory framework to protect the marine environment against human assaults and is now using a unique management model developed by Aotearoa Fisheries Limited to construct a sustainable crab fishing industry from scratch.

An Australian researcher is developing a new natural insecticide from spider venom that is deadly to insects yet harmless to humans, animals and the environment.

Smallpox. SARS. Drug-resistant tuberculosis. Bird flu. HIV. All these are infectious diseases that can threaten large human populations. Governments and health authorities are scrambling to develop protective strategies against these biosecurity risks, which could be spread via natural means or a terrorist attack.

Cassava is a staple food for up to a billion people. It can also be deadly.