ABC Science

EXOTIC ENVIRONMENT: Data from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet is surrounded by an atmosphere mostly made up of hydrogen and helium like a gas giant, such as Jupiter or Saturn.

COCKROACH EVOLUTION: Australian soil-burrowing cockroaches are adding weight to the idea that evolution is a much more predictable process than some believe.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Why are the Higgs field and dark energy so weak? Find the answer and you could earn yourself a Nobel Prize, says Dr Karl.

PRECIOUS PETAL: The discovery of a new species of ancient flower beautifully preserved in amber indicates that ancestors of today's daisies, mints and tomatoes flourished in Caribbean jungles up to 45 million years ago.

NEADERTHAL LEGACY: Having Neanderthal DNA in your genes may increase the risk for depression, nicotine addiction, stroke, pregnancy complications and many other health problems, a new study suggests.

INSECT HOMING: When sand wasps leave home in the morning they capture snapshots of the landscape around their nest to make sure they can find their way back later, a study using high-speed video has found.

HISTORIC DISCOVERY: Tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time known as gravitational waves first proposed by Albert Einstein 100 years ago have been directly observed for the first time, an international team of scientists has announced.

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES: What are gravitational waves, and what does their discovery mean?

COMMUNITY SPIRIT: Belief in an all-seeing punitive god motivates people to be more charitable towards strangers outside their own family and community, particularly to those of similar beliefs, researchers have found.

BUSHFIRE FREQUENCY: The number of bushfires per week in Australia increased by 40 per cent between 2008 and 2013, according to a new study, but experts say it's too early to link this to climate change.

GREAT ATTRACTOR: Hundreds of galaxies hidden from view behind the Milky Way have been unveiled in unprecedented detail for the first time by astronomers using Australia's Parkes Radio Telescope.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Next time you're at the lights, stop to appreciate the humble pedestrian button. The design is so beautiful that even Oscar Wilde would approve, says Dr Karl.

RESCUE ROACH: The hard-to-kill cockroach has inspired the development of a soft-bodied robot that can compress itself and crawl into confined spaces, and may help locate people trapped in buildings destroyed by disasters.

HUMAN MIGRATION: The population of Stone Age Europe underwent a radical transformation toward the end of the last Ice Age, according to a study of ancient DNA.

FUNNY NOSES: An ancient herbivore related to the wildebeest had a bizarre nose that was similar to a dinosaur that lived tens of millions of years earlier, researchers have found.

LAND MANAGEMENT: The use of fire by Aborigines to modify their environment had little if any impact on the natural erosion processes that shaped parts of south-eastern Australia, a new study has found.

TRAVEL SECRETS: Bull sharks not only spend a lot of time on coral reefs, they can swim surprisingly long distances down Australia's east coast in summer to give birth, radio tracking of sharks on the Great Barrier Reef shows.

HOT HOUSE: Very hot weather causes Australian zebra finch eggs to hatch earlier than normal, according to the first study to show how warming temperatures could affect the survival of chicks.

GENE SWEEP: Whether we prefer to get up at the crack of dawn or work late into the night may be influenced by genes connected to the circadian rhythm, a new study suggests.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: Cybercriminals have set up highly developed businesses in the shady world of the 'dark net'. Dr Karl explains how they make money from stolen credit cards.