An AI model was handed the opening fragment of a virus genome and asked to write the rest. It produced thousands of designs. Sixteen came alive in a dish, and a mixture of them conquered a seriously bad-ass bacterium.

The Guardian's Invertebrate of the Year countdown is on again and as always it is an incredible peek into the world of the spineless. NerdNews gives an Aussie legend some props, and finds, perhaps, an even cooler, immortal, invertebrate.

1990 Milli Vanilli were exposed as Mimey Vanilli. The Monkees were actively banned from playing on their early albums. Marvin Gaye’s estate took Robin Thicke and Pharrell to court over blurred lines and won. Pop is full of controversy. Well 2026 doesn’t disappoint … with an AI twist.

As Claude has evolved as an AI system, it has created its own inner space, wherein it, in a way, ‘thinks’. Anthropic has taken a look and the operation of this ‘J-space’ is fascinating.

A French team has gone looking for the brain cells that hold our earliest smell memories. But do these memories lay dormant for decades only to burst back to life? Or are we subtly topping them up across the years?

Are you one of the one in six Aussies who reaches for a quick hit of the sticky icky icky before drifting off to sleep? Does it help? What if the calmness it gave switched off your ability to dream? Should that matter? Should you care?

One year on, the Grand Canyon's giant penis worm gets a sober second look. NerdNews asks ‘how does it measure up’?

AI is now hacking other AI!!!Breathless headlines. I’m doing radio and tv interviews. NerdNews takes a breath and asks ‘what really happened’ when some AI got out of its sandbox’?

If one of the most famous open problems in graph theory has been solved, in under an hour (!!!), not only is it incredibly quick. It would be the first time a maths proof of this stature would have a machine as its sole author.

A Sydney PhD student has traced one of space's most baffling radio signals to a white dwarf feeding off its neighbour, the clearest clue yet to a mystery that has held out for years.

They came, they ran (sort of) and a hairy huntsman flogged them. The world's fastest spider is an Aussie.

Most neuroscientists locate consciousness in our wrinkly cortexes, the outer layer of our brains where thought and sensation are supposed to live. But a growing band of rebels says the lights of experience may switch on far deeper, in the brain’s ancient core. And that cracks the door open to an even stranger idea. Could awareness be everywhere?

The biggest AI companies on Earth have started investigating whether their own chatbots have feelings. The sharpest sceptics say we cannot even frame the question properly. Either way soon we probably won't be able to tell the difference. Ethical dilemma anyone?

How do you read a 2,000 year old scroll cooked to a crisp by no less than Mt Vesuvius? Hint, it’s the same imaging tech we use to design cutting edge cancer drugs.

On 29 June, the Large Hadron Collider smashes its last protons for four long years. NerdNews raises a glass to the 27-kilometre marvel that caught the Higgs, and peers down the tunnel at what its supercharged successor might find.

it’s time to strip down, grit your teeth, and ask the question: is jumping into freezing water actually good for you, or are we all just performing wellness theatre for Instagram?

Australia was the last continent on Earth free of the bird flu strain that has killed wildlife by the million. As of mid-June 2026, that run is over. Here is what it means, and why the sensible response might involve a human flu shot.

The claim is that a peace deal has been brokered. Truth is only time will tell. But one thing we do know. 20 years ago the US went about the whole “let’s disrupt Iran’s nuke program” a completely different way.

Why aren't we living in the metaverse?

Apple SWEARS Siri Is About to Get Smart. We've Heard This Song Before.