The annual Lorne conferences begin this weekend. First up, protein structure and function, where we learn the tricks of the bacterial toy trade.

Professor Emeritus Jack Pettigrew has argued for more than two decades that fruit bats are actually flying primates, distant relatives of monkeys, lemurs and us.

Matt Padula is part of a team at UTS that is using de novo peptide sequencing of the proteins and enzymes in a common tick to look for candidate antigens for a potential vaccine against one of Australia's deadliest parasites.

Australia's durum wheat growers have extra reason to be worried as the worst drought in two centuries provides a grim foretaste of the Infernal Century. However, a chance discovery of a salt-tolerance gene from decades-old seed lines is looking promising.

The Australian National University (ANU) is conducting a world-first program to digitally map the southern sky using a specially constructed telescope called Skymapper, and in another global first will provide the data free to the world via a virtual observatory.

Neurologist Ken Kosik and his team are profiling neuronal miRNAs to identify those potentially involved in neuronal plasticity and the function of those that are unique to dendrites.

Australian researchers are looking at harnessing RNAi to silence cancer genes and then activating the immune system as a second line of defence

The elusive molecule responsible for spreading gene silencing through plants is still unknown, but the pioneers of RNAi research at CSIRO Plant Industry are close to tracking it down.

The annual Research Australia Thank You Day awards have been announced.

Stem Cell Sciences adds pericyte cell types to list of products for research.

As it begins Phase IIa clinical trials, Mesoblast is riding high: its share price is climbing, its market capitalisation is booming and all that promise seems to be coming good.