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We have received a $14.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa.

This five year humanitarian project will develop tools to generate self-reproducing hybrid cowpea and sorghum crops to help millions of farmers become more self sufficient with higher yielding crops.

CSIRO will use the grant to partner with other world leading research teams from Switzerland, USA, Germany and Mexico to achieve this goal.

“Sorghum and cowpea originated in Africa and are important staple food crops, but suffer from low yields,

We came to the end of one more brilliant scientific week. What this weekly review brought us are the questions as follows. Can virtual reality make us better people? Could engineers mimic the amazing camouflage abilities of the octopus? How would Australia and STEM deal? And, finally, why wet feels wet? Please stay with us and you will discover these and much more in our newest editor’s selection.

Can virtual reality make you a better person?

I’m here at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University to see for myself just how powerful virtual reality technology has become, and I’m soon to find out that there’s some truth to the notion that virtual environments can change the way people behave in the physical world. In the day ahead, I’ll be both utterly terrified and behaving like a superhero – and the effects on my behaviour will linger for days afterwards.

Engineers mimic the amazing camouflage abilities of the octopus

At first glance, the thumbnail-size grids of 256 minuscule black squares seem to have nothing to do with the octopus, squid and cuttlefish that inspired them. But these hi-tech microconstructions of polymers, semiconductors, light sensors and heating elements are what you get when scientists attempt to replicate the camouflaging ability of the animal world.

Making STEM deadly

That’s why we’ve partnered with BHP Billiton Foundation to deliver a new education project for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students that aims to increase their participation and achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (also known as STEM).

Why wet feels wet: Understanding the illusion of wetness

Though it seems simple, feeling that something is wet is quite a feat because our skin does not have receptors that sense wetness. UK researchers propose that wetness perception is intertwined with our ability to sense cold temperature and tactile sensations such as pressure and texture.

This week brought us great things. Hope the next one will be that amazing, too. Until the next time, please stay curious and scientifically passionate.

Trekking the continuum of sleep and wakefulness in a journey into metaconsciousness.

As if the science of sleep and the emotional function of dreaming weren’t fascinating enough in and of themselves, things get even more bewildering when it comes to lucid dreaming — a dream state in which you’re able to manipulate the plot of the dream and your experience in it. But how, exactly, does that work and can you train yourself to do it? Count on AsapSCIENCE — who have previously explored such mysteries as how music enchants the brain, the neurobiology of orgasms, and the science of procrastination — to shed some light:

(Then again, the probability that you are dreaming this very minute might be one in ten, so it might all be moot.)

For a deeper dive into the scientific nitty-gritty of lucid dreaming, see Stephen LaBerge and Howard Rheingold’s 1991 bible Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming and LaBerge’s follow-up, Lucid Dreaming: A Concise Guide to Awakening in Your Dreams and in Your Life.

Then, treat yourself to this fantastic and mind-bending Radiolab episode about how one man cured himself of a recurring nightmare by learning lucid dreaming:

Source and image.

Scientists have produced the first detailed record of sea levels over the past 500,000 years and spanning five ice ages, using microfossils from sediments in the Red Sea.

The team determined accurate dates for the sea levels by linking wind-blown dust in the sediments to a climate record from stalagmites from caves in China. The research is published in the latest edition of Nature Communications.

The more precise dating method gives scientists new insights into natural rates of sea level rise.

“When large ice sheets melted at the end of ice ages, sea levels rose dramatically, up to 5.5 metres per century,

Closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement and employment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is the aim of a new CSIRO education program, funded by the BHP Billiton Foundation.

Launched today at Parliament House by the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, Minister for Industry, the $28.8 million, five-year project will deliver education programs, excellence awards, mentoring, summer schools and tailored university degrees, reaching students and schools across Australia.

CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Megan Clark said the new program would support students from primary school through to tertiary education, providing a pathway to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation in STEM related professions.

“CSIRO has delivered education initiatives across Australia for over 35 years and in parallel to this, we have a dedicated Indigenous science program that not only aims to get more Indigenous scientists working in CSIRO, but also delivers science projects for Indigenous communities,

Hay fever and asthma sufferers in Canberra will soon be able to receive daily counts and forecasts of pollen levels thanks to a free app released by ANU researchers.

Project leader Professor Simon Haberle says Canberra is a hot-spot for allergy-causing pollen, with up to one-in-five Canberrans affected.

“Canberra pollen sufferers are in for a tough time this year, with extreme pollen counts predicted for the late October and early November period,