the conversation
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Can Tiny Homes Really Be the Solution to the Housing Crisis?
Australia’s coastal cities and surrounding hinterlands have long been popular with tourists, sea-changers and retirees. But they have a darker side. In the early morning you will often find car parks crowded with cars, vans, caravans and even tents, where refugees from the housing crisis have spent the night. People of all ages, including families…
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Sure, Alien Life Could Exist on Mars, but Can a Rover Find It?
Robotic rovers are currently exploring the surface of Mars. Part of a rover’s mission is to survey the planet for signs of life. There might be nothing to find – but what if there is, and the rovers just can’t “see” it? New research published today in Nature Communications suggests the rovers’ current equipment might…
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Snakes Can Hear You Scream, New Research Reveals
Experts have long understood that snakes can feel sound vibrations through the ground – what we call “tactile” sensing – but we’ve puzzled over whether they can also hear airborne sound vibrations, and particularly over how they react to sounds. In a new paper published in PLOS ONE, we conclude snakes use hearing to help…
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8 Strange Signals AI Has Found in Its Search for Alien Life
Some 540 million years ago, diverse life forms suddenly began to emerge from the muddy ocean floors of planet Earth. This period is known as the Cambrian Explosion, and these aquatic critters are our ancient ancestors. All complex life on Earth evolved from these underwater creatures. Scientists believe all it took was an ever-so-slight increase…