human interest

How to shoot wildlife (with a camera) like a pro

His "bread and butter" as a wedding photographer pays the bills, but his real passion is wildlife.

The Sydney-based photographer was a finalist in this year's Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Awards with a portrait of a family of brolgas that had just returned to their nest to settle in for the night in Victoria.

He won the award in 2015 with an incredible symmetrical shot of a white-winged tern about to take off.

"I grew up with parents who took us camping, so I loved nature, I loved being in the bush from a very young age," Mr Stowe said.

The most important thing your doctor should do

It involved using a camera to look for abnormal growths inside my bowel.

But, lying on the operating table waiting to be put to sleep, I suddenly realised the surgeon about to do the test hadn't introduced themselves.

Maybe they would speak to me afterwards, I thought.

But I was mistaken — not even a quick "hello".

The relationship between patient and doctor is as old as medicine itself.

Despite advances in drugs, surgery and scans, the process of getting better always starts with a conversation.

What you should do with expired and unwanted medicines

Not only are these out-of-date and no-longer-required pharmaceuticals taking up space, they are also potentially dangerous.

"The ingredients may not be active, so they might be ineffective or could potentially make you sick," said Toni Riley from the Return Unwanted Medicines national scheme, aka the RUM Project.

"The active ingredients can go off easily.

"Medicines are designed to be stored in specific temperature conditions and most of our homes don't comply with that and where people keep their medicines is not ideal."

Why rain can make the sunrise and sunset burn more brightly

The colours in sunrises and sunsets are caused by the light from the Sun being scattered through the atmosphere.

Meteorologist Rachel McInerney from the weather bureau (BoM) explains that as sunlight comes through at a lower angle through the atmosphere, the blue colour in the light spectrum gets weaker and weaker.

"Light is made up of different wavelengths ... and as the light of the Sun passes through our atmosphere we get what's called scattering of those light particles," she said.

Heart attack shock for one half of Queensland music duo Busby Marou

The 34-year-old — one half of Busby Marou — was playing touch football in Rockhampton last week when he started feeling light-headed.

"I just thought I was puffed and unfit," he said.

"There was tightening across my chest ... it was all the things I had read about, all the signs.

"I still didn't think that was it, but I had a good crew around me that got me to the hospital."

Female shop mannequins are 'medically unhealthy'

Researchers looked at the displays in female fashion shops in two UK cities.

They concluded that if people were the same size as the mannequins they would be "considered medically unhealthy".

"There is clear evidence showing that the ultra-thin ideal is contributing to the development of mental health problems and eating disorders," writes Dr Eric Robinson, the study's author.

Dance me to the end of adulthood

From leg irons to tap dancing

David Watson, 83, took up tap dancing in his 40s, and has danced ever since.

He took up it up by chance, after accompanying a friend from work to a dance class in Melbourne.

The ex-architecture lecturer recalled the very first lesson on a "lousy" floor located above a porn shop in Swanston Street.

"I used to have to hide my face as I walked in," Mr Watson laughed.

How to teach kids about consent

But waiting till the pre-teen "sex talk" to start teaching young people about consent is far from ideal.

Sexual consent is the seeking and giving of permission for a sex act. It must be a clear communication of "yes, I want this" and not merely the absence of "no".

The good news is you can start teaching kids about consent from a very young age, without confronting discussions about rape or sexual violation.

Singers wanted for choir to beat Parkinson's

The Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre is going to put this question to the test as part of its Sing to Beat Parkinson's program.

The Australian-first study encourages program participants diagnosed with Parkinson's to sing on a weekly basis as part of a group.

Irene Bartlett from Griffith University said they would study each of the participants' lives closely to see what benefits came from singing.

"We're wanting to get empirical evidence that singing is helpful and useful for quality of life," Dr Bartlett said.

Needle phobia: Can you overcome a fear of jabs?

She'd felt sick and fainted after a routine meningococcal vaccination. She didn't really think of this reaction again, until the next time she encountered a needle at the dentist. Again she felt sick, but panic set in as well.

Her fear of needles grew to the point where she avoided medical treatment altogether and fell years behind with her vaccinations.