Our closest Earthlike planet appears to be "covered" in water and other top stories.

• Our closest Earthlike planet appears to be "covered" in water

  Back in August, astronomers announced the discovery of what appears to be an Earthlike exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri - a red dwarf star in our closest neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri. Named Proxima b, the planet is just 4.25 light-years away, and there were early signs that it’s rocky just like Earth, and is the right distance from its star to sustain liquid water. Now scientists have found evidence that it could in fact be "covered" in oceans of liquid water.  Just to put in per..

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• Whale frees itself following stranding off Queensland's Stradbroke Island

  

  Whale frees itself following stranding off Queensland's Stradbroke Island Updated October 07, 2016 12:27:40 A whale has finally managed to free itself after spending hours stranded on a sandbar in waters off Stradbroke Island, east of Brisbane.A Queensland Parks and Wildlife (QPW) spokesman said they first received reports on Thursday night of a mother and calf stranded on the sandbar at Dunwich, on North Stradbroke Island.He said they managed to free themselves before ..

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• Caloundra Cricket Club bowled over by national-standard indoor training facility

  

  Caloundra Cricket Club bowled over by national-standard indoor training facility Published: 7th of October 2016 Comments: Community Sport and Fitness Sunshine Coast Council Caloundra Cricket Club indoor trainingCricketers across the Sunshine Coast have welcomed a new indoor training facility at Caloundra Cricket Club which will be used by local clubs, Cricket Australia and Queensland Bulls for training and events. Division 2 Councillor Tim Dwyer said the new building would benefit all..

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• Hubble reveals Mars-sized plasma balls shooting from a dying star

  

  Data from the Hubble Space Telescope has helped solve the mystery of a seemingly impossible star. The red giant V Hydrae is the wrong type of star to be shedding gigantic "cannonballs" of energetic plasma, but that's exactly what it has been doing once every 8.5 years over the past 400 years. Now on closer examination it appears the culprit is its invisible companion.V Hydrae is an unremarkable star – or should be. Some 1,200 light years from Earth, it's an ancient red giant that long ago burned..

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• Australian-first artificial insemination experiment hopes to save shark species

  

  Australian-first artificial insemination experiment hopes to save shark species By Jasmin Midgley Updated October 07, 2016 19:06:35 Marine scientists have taken an unusual and unprecedented step to ensure the future of the critically endangered Australian grey nurse shark.In a first for Australian research, a female shark living in an aquarium on the Sunshine Coast has been artificially inseminated by semen from a male shark housed in a Melbourne Aquarium. Aaron S..

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• Tech billionaires say we may be living in the MATRIX

  

  The world’s handful of super-rich tech entrepreneurs seem to have it all, with enough cash to develop reusable rockets, shape the entire online world, and run social media empires.But it seems a number of these technology billionaires can’t seem to shake the feeling that none of it is quite real.While some may believe we may be living inside a Matrix-style computer simulation, a small number of these tech giants may be secretly funding research to help break us out.Scroll down for video  The lat..

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• Apes share cognitive ability of humans' to recognise perspective of others

  

  Apes share cognitive ability of humans' to recognise perspective of others Updated October 07, 2016 13:50:48 Scientists using homemade videos featuring a person in a King Kong costume have documented a remarkable cognitive skill shared by chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans: the human-like ability to recognise when someone else's beliefs are wrong.The research demonstrated that these great apes — humankind's closest-living evolutionary cousins — possess a capabilit..

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• Scientists have trained bees for the very first time

  

  Scientists have trained a bee to pull a string for a reward. Pulling a string is a popular problem-solving task given to animals, but it’s never been tested on insects – until a team from Queen Mary University in London found that bumblebees can be trained. Artificial flowers soaked with sugar water were placed under plastic discs, attached to a string. “Quite quickly”, according to Lars Chittka, the bumblebees were trained to access the sugar water. Look at him go: There’s science to be lea..

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• Swift parrot egg safe havens a 'bonanza' for endangered species

  

  Swift parrot egg safe havens a 'bonanza' for endangered species Updated October 07, 2016 14:02:47 The sight of eggs in experimental nesting boxes has brought joy to researchers who say it marks a turning point in the fight to save the rare migratory swift parrot from extinction. The species, described as "bigger than a budgerigar but smaller than a rosella", is dispersed through Victoria and New South Wales, but only breed in eastern Tasmania where the logging has reduc..

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Canberra Olympic fire into FFA Cup semi .	Video: NASA Fermi telescope spots LMC P3 the most luminous such system known in gamma rays .
The national anthem went off without a hitch at the AFL Grand Final .	Storm forward Jordan McLean's return from injury a boost for NRL finals charge .