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Our newest National Heritage Place, one of Australia's outstanding government domains, takes in landmarks such as Government House, Domain Parklands, Melbourne Observatory, Shrine of Remembrance and Kings Domain resting place.

Our newest National Heritage Place, one of Australia's outstanding government domains, takes in landmarks such as Government House, Domain Parklands, Melbourne Observatory, Shrine of Remembrance and Kings Domain resting place.

The current review of standards for egg and poultry farming does little do assuage fears that the industry wields too much influence. Only an independent regulator can restore public confidence. Elizabeth Ellis, Honorary Senior Fellow, School of Law, Faculty of Law, Humanities & the Arts, University of Wollongong Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Everyday hubbub can increase your chance of cardiovascular problems, new research claims. Here are four ways to mitigate the effects of background sounds

If you find it vexing that a loud bang can trigger a heart attack, bad news: it turns out a low rumble can, too. Several studies have identified links between noise pollution from railways, airports or roads and cardiovascular conditions such as high blood pressure, stroke and heart failure. According to new research published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, this is probably because sound can cause a spike in stress hormones, which damages the heart over time.

The researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany who compiled the research said one of the main ways noise pollution affects heart health is by disrupting sleep. Thankfully, there are simple way to mitigating those effects.

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The Danish capital ranks high on the list of the world’s healthiest and happiest cities. With obesity and depression on the rise worldwide, here are its lessons for how to combat them culturally

Maybe it’s the Viking heritage. There is an icy open-air pool in the waters of Copenhagen’s harbour, and although it is mid-winter Danes still jump in every day. On the front cover of the city’s health plan, a lean older man is pictured climbing out, dripping, his mouth open in a shout that could be horror or pleasure. “Enjoy life, Copenhageners,” urges the caption.

It’s not every Copenhagener who wants to take strenuous exercise in cold water either for fun or to get fit. But the packed bike lanes of the Danish capital, even at this sometimes subzero time of year, are testimony to the success of a city that is aspiring to be one of the healthiest in the world. Copenhagen consistently sits at the very top of the UN’s happiness index and is one of the star performers in the Healthy Cities initiative of the World Health Organisation, which, almost unknown and unsung, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The initiative was the idea of a group of individuals inspired by the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, which was about elevating the status of primary care and public health in a world where everybody equated healthcare with hospital treatment after you got ill.

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Rock singer Steve Ludwin has been injecting himself with snake venom for 30 years. In a strange twist, his bizarre habit could now save thousands of lives. His former partner Britt Collins tells his outlandish story

Sometime in 2006, when my ex-boyfriend failed to show up for dinner, I assumed something was wrong or perhaps he’d forgotten. About a week later, calling to apologise, he told me he’d had an overdose, accidentally injecting a lethal cocktail of venom from three snakes. A lot has been written about Steve Ludwin, widely known as the man who injects snake venom, and lately his life has turned into a non-stop frenzy of international journalists and film crews revelling in the seeming sheer insanity of it.

Steve was once my great love; an animal lover, vegan and musician who wrote songs for Placebo and Ash, and played the Reading festival with Nirvana. In between tours and recordings he dabbled with snake venom. In his latest incarnation as a self-taught snake expert, moulding himself into the role of a lifetime, he appears as a kind of living specimen and star in a short film at the Natural History Museum’s new exhibition, Venom: Killer and Cure.

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The 'Oumuamua asteroid from outside our Solar System was involved in a collision, a study finds.

Tanya Plibersek rejects Jeyakumar Janakaraj’s claim Bill Shorten casting doubt on future foreign investment

Labor has rejected claims it is destabilising Australia’s ability to attract investment through its growing scepticism of the controversial Adani Queensland coalmine.

Following moves by Labor to distance itself from Adani’s proposed Carmichael coalmine, the Adani Australia chief executive, Jeyakumar Janakaraj, told the Weekend Australian that Labor’s attacks on the project had cast doubt on Australia’s ability to remain an attractive destination for capital.

But the deputy opposition leader, Tanya Plibersek, said none of Labor’s criticism should harm Australia as an investment destination.

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The entrepreneur growing greens in shipping containers.

Photographer Joshua Smith’s latest project, The Reef, is an aerial exploration of his experience with Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef. Smith’s hope is to raise awareness of Australia’s connection with the reef and the impact humans have on it. The series is the the fifth instalment of Down Under from Above, a captivating film and aerial photo series sharing unique perspectives of Australian landscape while highlighting the importance of preservation

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North Yorkshire project halted for inquiry into stability of Third Energy, whose chairman is former chief executive of outsourcing giant

A controversial plan to start fracking for shale gas in rural North Yorkshire has been thrown into doubt amid mounting concerns over the finances and management of the company behind the scheme.

In a move that has encouraged anti-fracking protestors, energy secretary Greg Clark has ordered the start of drilling at Kirby Misperton to be put on hold pending an investigation into the “financial resilience” of Third Energy.

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Researchers have created a simulation of the red planet with the hope humans will one day live there.

Popular species like grouper and wrasse could be gone from dining tables in decades as trade drives wild populations to the brink of collapse.

The US$1 billion a year Live Reef Fish for Food Trade (LRFFT) is threatening the future of key reef predator species like grouper, coral trout and Napoleon wrasse, according to a recent study.

The study - published by WWF, the Swire Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and ADM Capital Foundation - urges swift action towards regulating an industry that’s decimating stocks of these species across the Coral Triangle, threatening poor communities that rely on the fishery for their livelihoods.

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Photographs of rare species from unexplored area of Antarctic seabed highlight need to protect life in one of the most remote places on the planet

The images below are the first of creatures found in a previously unexplored region of the Antarctic seabed offering a fascinating glimpse of life in one of the most remote and pristine places on the planet.

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Airedale, West Yorkshire: Neck held straight, upright and officer-like, the drake appears dressed in close-fitted tweeds, a fine houndstooth of tan and grey

I don’t know a bird book that has much to say about the gadwall (Anas strepera). Generally this unobtrusive winter duck is compared with the more common mallard, and comes off worse: smaller (just), duller (much), either shriller (the duck) or coarser (the drake) in quack. But like many a winter bird – think of the intricate copper-trimmed scalloping of a starling’s non-breeding plumage – the gadwall repays a little close attention.

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A water dragon with dappled markings like shadows through leaves tilts her head and waves her arm. It’s not a friendly wave. It’s the water dragon equivalent of the middle finger.

A water dragon with dappled markings like shadows through leaves tilts her head and waves her arm. It’s not a friendly wave. It’s the water dragon equivalent of the middle finger.

Elon Musk just launched the world's most powerful rocket. It's only a fraction of what he's up to.

Romeo, a 10-year-old Sehuencas water frog, has been given a dating profile as part of the search.

Figures released by the EPA show that 115 crime cases were opened in 2017, down from a peak of nearly 400 in 2009

The Environmental Protection Agency’s enforcement activity against polluters has fallen to its lowest level in a decade, with the first year of the Trump administration seeing a sharp drop in fines for companies that break environmental rules.

Figures released by the EPA show that 115 environmental crime cases were opened in the 2017 financial year, down from a peak of nearly 400 in the 2009 financial year, which was largely under the Obama administration.

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