Wilson da Silva

Rising sea levels, coupled with the natural variability of coral reefs, is creating new uncertainty in international law, with geopolitical implications. By Wilson da Silva CORAL REEF islands and their reefs — found across in the Indo-Pacific —…

Electric vehicles are finally taking off in Australia, but sales will need to grow much faster to reach Australia’s emissions targets. By Wilson da Silva SALES OF NEW electric vehicles in Australia rose 86 per cent in 2022 to 39,353 – or about 3.8…

New technique developed by geoscientists can determine the health of coral reefs from space. By Wilson da Silva HOW HEALTHY are coral reefs? And how are they responding to climate change? After more than 10 years of monitoring the Great Barrier Reef,…

The Lord Howe Island wood-feeding cockroach — long thought extinct — has been rediscovered. By Wilson da Silva A LARGE WINGLESS wood-eating cockroach, unique to Australia’s Lord Howe Island and thought extinct since the 1930s, has been rediscovered…

We need to expand beyond Earth, but not abandon it — just stop relying on Earth as our only quarry and only site for factories. By Wilson da Silva FEEL ANGUISHED about the state of our planet? Care about the future of human civilisation? Then you…

They should have died out with the dinosaurs, but their seedlings are now being nurtured back from oblivion. IT HAS BEEN CALLED the botanical find of a century: a lonely stand of conifers, the last of their kind and thought to have been extinct for…

On a clear day 66 million years ago, the sky abruptly caved in and 75% of all life became extinct. SIXTY-SIX MILLION years ago, in one cataclysmic flash, the Earth changed forever. Without warning, a mountain-sized rock pierced through the 480 km…

Our energy system is based on a rickety 19th century concept, but a revolution in energy storage is changing that. IT WAS THE YEAR the Soviet Union collapsed, Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda, and the lauded American physicist Richard Feynman died.…

Simply presenting people with evidence does not alter beliefs, especially those that are deeply held. But that doesn’t mean you have to tolerate quackery. FACTS DON’T WIN, it turns out: Ideas are more powerful than facts, especially ideas that…

New research shows how the outdoors makes us healthier – and how it can save our cities. EVEN ON A BLUSTERY winter’s afternoon, Mount Lofty flaunts its splendour as a bushland oasis, one of the last vestiges of the original forests and woodlands…

They should have died out with the dinosaurs, but their seedlings are now being nurtured back from oblivion. IT HAS BEEN CALLED the botanical find of a century: a lonely stand of conifers, the last of their kind and thought to have been extinct for…

Even as climate change is boosting rainfall, water supplies are waning globally. The culprit? Drying of soils, say researchers. GLOBAL STUDIES are finding a paradox: water supplies in rivers, lakes and catchment areas are declining at the same time…

Why are rural people healthier than city folk? It turns out it’s the diversity of bacteria in the soil — and that those benefits can be brought to the city. By Wilson da Silva MEANDERING DOWN the narrow tracks from the summit of Mount Lofty, near…

The more diverse the microbe community in the soils around us, and the more you are exposed to it, the healthier you become. By Wilson da Silva EVEN ON A BLUSTERY winter’s afternoon, Mount Lofty flaunts its splendour as a bushland oasis, one of the…

Their biggest drawback is safety. The electrolyte fluid sitting between the positive and negative electrodes is flammable, and only a thin plastic membrane keeps the two electrodes apart. If overcharged, or if an internal…

Our energy system is woefully antiquated and based on a preposterously rickety 19th century concept. But a revolution in finally under way. Wilson da Silva reports.IT WAS THE YEAR the Soviet Union collapsed, Osama bin Laden founded al-Qaeda,…

Stuart Wenham, UNSW solar cell researcher. Born July 15, 1957. Died December 23, aged 60.By Wilson da SilvaTwo days before Christmas, Professor Stuart Wenham — a pioneering Australian researcher and inventor who revolutionised solar cell technologies…

By Wilson da SilvaIn an energy-hungry world, battery storage is the way of the future. But not all technologies are equal.IT’S BEEN the missing link in the world’s electricity system for more than a century, and now energy storage is…

Wilson da Silva looks at some innovative ideas in energy storage. NOT ENOUGH, AND TOO much: that’s the core problem we face globally when it comes to energy and climate change. Demand for energy is booming: it’s forecast to rise 56% by 2040 from 2010…

Australia's Chief Scientist is fighting the good fight, spearheading the effort to have science taken seriously in policy circles. But with budget cuts and an antagonism to climate science in Canberra, Wilson da Silva wonders if he is tilting at…