How do you tell if your plants need water? Recently, I asked this question of a group of about 40 biologists at the Australian National University.

To measure the speed of adaptive evolution in the wild, we studied 19 populations of birds and mammals over several decades. We found they were evolving at twice to four times the speed suggested by earlier work.

Meet the PhD researcher exploring how bacterial proteins could hold the key to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.

Mention the superb lyrebird, and you’ll probably hear comments on their uncanny mimicry of human sounds, their presence on the 10 cent coin, and their stunning tail. Far less known – but equally, if not more, impressive – is the Albert’s lyrebird.