Somewhere out past Mars in the early hours of Easter Monday, a space probe called Lucy whizzed by an asteroid named Donaldjohanson.

Lucy then sent back images showing Donaldjohanson is about five kilometres wide and shaped like a peanut.

It's one of a handful of asteroids on Lucy's 12-year itinerary.

So what does the billion-dollar mission hope to achieve?

Palaeontology helps reveal why some animals are in desperate need of help while others thrive.

Gout Gout is fast becoming the face of Australian athletics, regularly clocking blisteringly quick times over 100- and 200-metre sprints.

And he's only 17. Many think the best is yet to come.

So what is it about Gout that makes him such an impressive sprinter at such a young age?

A protein in the immune system, DECTIN-1 - primarily responsible for defending the body against fungal infections, has been found to control the severity of autoimmune diseases such as irritable bowel disease (IBS), type 1 diabetes, eczema, and other chronic disorders.

We've been hearing a lot about a certain proposal to get nuclear power up and running in Australia, but little's been said about what happens when plants reach the end of their life.

Decommissioning a single nuclear power plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take decades.

So what's involved, and why is the process so long and expensive?

Soils are too often neglected but caring for them brings many benefits for plant nutrition, human health and a boost for the farm economy.

Hearts, kidneys and now livers — over the past couple of years, surgeons have taken all these from gene-edited pigs and put them in people.

Nick Rowley reviews out progress towards net zero carbon emissions, Jared Diamond proposes mining the sea floor, and California’s legacy of Albert Einstein.

As far as planets go, they don't get much more iconic than Saturn. A huge golden ball encircled by gigantic rings.  But those distinctive rings — the very things that give Saturn its pizzazz — have seemingly disappeared. 

So what’s going on, and when will they be back? 

Lord Howe Island may appear an island paradise, but its ecology has been under intense pressure from invasive species such as rats and pigs. Now birds are being found with stomachs full of plastic.