If closing brown coal power plants is part of the lowest cost mix of emissions reduction opportunities, then they will close without additional payment from the government.
ccdoh1/Flickr
This week the Australian Government announced that the “payment for closure” element of the Clean Energy Future package would not proceed. The decision has saved taxpayers a multi-billion dollar outlay…
Music can create a vortex – and a coupling of cortexes.
AlicePopkorn
Music is an emotional business. But is it also a natural law, bound in with our bodies and ideas of motion we’re only beginning to understand? I am in the unique position of studying with both Professor…
The ABC has multiple roles as the national broadcaster.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
The first public performance by the new ABC chair Jim Spigelman, rehearsed at the RIPE2012 conference on Wednesday morning , and reprised in a Tony Jones interview on Lateline on Wednesday night, opens…
A vaginal ring could one day prevent pregnancy and STIs… but it’s still a long way off.
Flickr/dhammza
By 2020, 1.2 billion people or 16% of the world’s population will be entering their childbearing years, with 90% of these in the developing world. Along with education, the availability of effective contraception…
The Crusader fortress of Krak De Chevalier has been damaged by shelling after rebels used it as a defensive position.
AAP image
The looting of the Baghdad Museum in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq is an example the consequences of war on national heritage. Almost a decade on, the civil war in Syria has seen history repeating itself…
The links between the military and disability sport are being cast anew.
Corporal Jamie Osborne, Department of Defence
In the past five or six years there has been a marked increase in the overt use of disability sport in the rehabilitation of soldiers injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – which, in a sense, is…
The theory of plate tectonics is the foundation for understanding geodynamics.
rgordon
Tomas Næraa, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
Exactly 100 years ago, German geophysicist Alfred Wegener presented his theory of continental drift – the idea that the continents of Earth are gradually drifting apart. And now we have some compelling…
The new government campaign misses the mark.
Australian government
With 5,459 attempted boat arrivals to Australia in the first half of 2012, an increase of 894 since last year, it is no wonder the prime minister is desperate to demonstrate she is combating people smuggling…
There are numerous allergic causes of hayfever symptoms in cities, including grasses in local parks.
Mislav Marohnić
Spring brings with it hay fever and red eyes for many inner-city residents and in absence of fields of flowering grasses, people turn their attention to other possible causes. The most suspicious candidate…
Bumping into a jaguar in Mexico’s cloud forest could soon be a thing of the past.
Kjersti Holmang/Wikimedia Commons
The chances of being roared at by a jaguar in a Mexican cloud forest are already low, but that is precisely what happened to me during a recent fieldwork expedition. I was very lucky to see a jaguar close…
Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals announced this week it was delaying $1.6 billion in investments as iron ore spot prices continued to fall: but is it really time to panic about China’s manufacturing sector?
AAP
This week we learnt that Australia’s GDP growth fell significantly in the second quarter compared with the first. The fact that GDP growth is a lagging indicator raises serious questions about the current…
The Autism Enigma presents one of many theories about the causes of autism.
hepingting/Flickr
ABC’s Four Corners recently aired a controversial documentary (The Autism Enigma) on how gut bacteria might affect autism. Here we review some of the science surrounding what it suggested caused autism…
An attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo in September.
EPA/Khaled Elfiq
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak has described his country as “a villa in the middle of a jungle”. But Barak’s “jungle” has become increasingly dangerous. What happens to the villa when a wind of change…
In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence for climate change, people find ways to reject that evidence if it does not fit with their world view.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre
In a previous article on The Conversation, Stephan Lewandowsky asked, why do people reject science? I’m going to take a slightly different angle and consider how people are able to reject climate science…
Will the Qantas-Emirates alliance restore the beleaguered Australian airline back to profitability?
AAP
Today, Alan Joyce has announced that Qantas and Emirates have struck a joint venture alliance for the next 10 years. As a result, Qantas will be taking its passengers to Europe through Dubai, instead of…
The internet of the future could consume 10% of the world’s electricity supply.
rachel_titiriga
Despite its new economy sheen, the internet represents a surprisingly large old economy drain on energy resources. Industry and academia must work together to ensure the internet is a positive contributor…
Sometimes having no legs is better than having one.
EPA/Jonathan Brady
There has been a considerable amount of media coverage surrounding South African amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius who competed at the London Olympics and is now competing at the London Paralympics. The…
The United Nations estimates the world must increase food production by 75% by 2050 to cope with a projected population of 10 billion people.
p3anut/Flickr
Welcome to The Conversation’s series on megatrends. What are the compelling economic, social, environmental, political and technological changes Australia must grapple with over the coming decades? In…
Research shows post-natal depression to be nearly as common in men as in women.
remysharp/Flickr.
The birth of a new baby is usually an exciting and joyous experience for parents. But it can also be a busy and exhausting time as they struggle with the demands of baby care, disruptions to sleep, and…
With the war in Syria having no end in sight, is it time to support a no-fly zone?
EPA/CEM
Syrian opposition fighters and members of the aid community have called for a no-fly zone in recent months, amid an increasingly vicious armed rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. With thousands…
The government can’t wait any longer, it needs to make changes now to improve Indigenous education.
Aboriginal Art image www.shutterstock.com
In all the discussion, media releases, press conferences and TV coverage of this week’s government response to the Gonski review, it was fascinating that the issue of Indigenous education rated such little…
Things may not be as they’d previously seemed regarding the moon’s formation.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
New research published in the planetary science journal Icarus, shows the moon may have been formed by a glancing collision with an “impactor” in the violent days of the early solar system. Contrary to…
Jane Ashton successfully campaigned for the provocation defence to be abolished in Victoria after James Ramage used the defence for killing her sister Julie.
AAP Image/ Brent Bignell
In Parliament last week, NSW took steps towards better understanding, and potentially solving, the problems posed by the partial defence of provocation. A defence predominately used by men, provocation…
The blogosphere is a sewer of frothing, often anonymous, swill.
Flickr/joeshoe
The Charlotte Dawson troll saga shocked many Australians, with revelations of vile tweets, death threats and online intimidation. Nobody should have to endure this kind of abuse, but unfortunately it’s…
Native or not? Red cabbage palms found in Palm Valley in the Northern Territory were introduced by Aboriginal people thousands of years ago.
Jurriaan Persyn
New molecular techniques show that an iconic palm only grows in central Australia because humans moved it there thousands of years ago. It poses the question: should we still regard this as a native species…