Fibres from the Australian native spinifex grass are being used to improve latex that could be used to make condoms as thin as a human hair without any loss in strength.

Working in partnership with Aboriginal traditional owners of the Camooweal region in north-west Queensland, the Indjalandji-Dhidhanu People, researchers from The University of Queensland have developed a method of extracting nanocellulose -- which can be used as an additive in latex production -- from the grass.

Professor Darren Martin from UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) said the spinifex nanocellulose significantly improved the physical properties of latex.

Planes flying between Europe and North America will be spending more time in the air due to the effects of climate change, a new study has shown.

By accelerating the jet stream -- a high-altitude wind blowing from west to east across the Atlantic -- climate change will speed up eastbound flights but slow down westbound flights, the study found. The findings could have implications for airlines, passengers, and airports.

This is a flight time infographic (c) University of Reading. Credit: University of Reading

A higher nurse to patient ratio is linked to a reduced risk of inpatient death, finds a study of staffing levels in NHS hospitals, published in the online journal BMJ Open.

In trusts where registered (professionally trained) nurses had six or fewer patients to care for, the death rate was 20 per cent lower than in those where they had more than 10.

Policies geared towards substituting registered nurses with healthcare support workers (healthcare assistants and nursing auxiliaries) should at the very least be reviewed, conclude the researchers

Previous research suggests that the nurse to patient ratio has some bearing on outcomes, but few studies have taken account of the impact of other members of medical staff.

Horses have been shown to be able to distinguish between angry and happy human facial expressions, according to psychologists who studied how 28 horses reacted to seeing photographs of positive versus negative human facial expressions.

Boulder, Colo., USA - Seismic, deformation, and gas activity (unrest) typically precedes volcanic eruptions. Tracking the changes of this activity with monitoring data makes it increasingly possible to successfully forecast eruptions from stratovolcanoes. However, this is not the case for monogenetic volcanoes (usually the result of a single magmatic pulse). Eruptions from these volcanoes tend to be small but are particularly difficult to anticipate since they occur at unexpected locations, and there is very limited instrumental monitoring data.

A new paper finds that China's new efforts to price carbon could lower the country's carbon dioxide emissions significantly without impeding economic development over the next three decades.

Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in being able to understand what the future will look like when it comes to scientific and technological emergences.

Sociology scholars say the stereotype that Native Americans are genetically or psychologically predisposed to alcoholism are all smoke and no firewater. 

Instead, Native Americans were more likely to abstain from alcohol use than Caucasian Americans and there was no difference in Native Americans' binge and heavy drinking rates, according to surveys.