Science is like high-performance racing: today’s Formula One machine is all too soon the jalopy of tomorrow. The Australian Synchrotron, opened in 2007 and located in Melbourne, is currently at the F1…
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The first Australians hunted giant kangaroos, rhinoceros-sized marsupials, huge goannas and other megafauna to extinction shortly after arriving in the country more than 40,000 years ago, new research…
The death of 21-year-old Brazilian national, Roberto Laudisio Cruti, on a Sydney street after being tasered by police has ignited questions about the safety and police use of these weapons. Tasers, the…
In one respect, science and religion have been largely reconciled since the 19th century, when geologists such as Charles Lyell recognised the evidence for a very old Earth. Within a few decades, most…
After decades in the wilderness, industry policy is back centrally on the economic agenda in the UK. What is striking is how the policy is being driven by strong evidence on what works from years of accumulated…
Elephants in the room, part one For all our schemes and mantras about making this or that part of our lives environmentally “sustainable”, humanity’s assault on the planet not only continues but expands…
With every recent election, in Australia as well as elsewhere, parties and politicians are adding further to their arsenal of digital campaigning tools. In the 2010 federal election campaign, my colleagues…
Imagine if the indigenous people of this country didn’t play Australian football, the only truly unique sport this continent country has ever created. As a percentage of the population, indigenous people…
Exposure to arsenic in soil and gold mining waste may have contributed to a slight increase in past cancer risk in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in the Goldfields region of Victoria, according…
It has been a summer of flooding for farmers in northeast Victoria and NSW. Reporters talk about the effect on crops, pastures and yields. But what about the effect on farming households? How do they cope…
Suicide attacks and car bombings across Iraq this week have killed at least 43 people and left 255 wounded. We are sadly now very familiar with the phenomenon of the suicide bomber, but the particular…
We have had the Singing Detective. Now we can have singing intelligence. We can also have the circular argument that grounds it: we can sing because we have singing intelligence, and we have singing intelligence…
“I’m still trying to understand the whole thing but there must be something to it. It’s really popular!” That’s my sister-in-law writing on Facebook in late January about Pinterest – one of the real up-and-comers…
The film adaptation of the first of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy, The Hunger Games, will premiere nationally tomorrow. The books and film are set in a post-apocalyptic America, where teenagers are forced to…
“Where’s the party?” “Can I join?” “Is this legitimate?” These were just a few of the questions I was asked during my eight-hour shift as a volunteer for The Australian Sex Party (ASP) at their booth in…
The first of the yearly “fashion weeks” has just ended in Melbourne. Along with the glamour and excitement, the models were out in force showcasing the latest fashion to the undivided attention of the…
As the once-in-a-decade transfer of political power in China looms, the consequences for the country’s foreign policy, economic development, political reform, and military affairs is hard to overstate…
The Tasmanian forests agreement is hanging by a thread. Political parties have reverted to their old adversarial ways, people who should be getting a say have been excluded from the process, and the large…
Fans of science fiction must be disheartened when introduced to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity. Dreams of galactic empires, criss-crossed by roguish princesses and beautiful smugglers, go out…
Last month’s review into school funding by esteemed businessman David Gonski was released with much fanfare. But as the dust settles, it is increasingly clear that the report is, overall, a disappointment…
No matter who wins the Queensland election this Saturday, the next premier of Queensland will have to face up to some serious challenges within the state’s health system. There were improvements made under…
On the face of it, a sperm’s work seems pretty straightforward: locate an egg and fertilise it. Job done. But in the world of a sessile broadcast-spawning marine invertebrate – immobile organisms in which…
The past five years have seen record rainfall and flooding in many towns and cities across eastern Australia. The floods themselves are dangerous, but so are the health hazards associated with the indoor…
Australia’s agriculture and forestry - land-based abatement - can make a valuable contribution to lowering Australia’s greenhouse emissions. The scale of contribution has been widely discussed. But the…
Against a backdrop of international economic uncertainty, there are pressures for greater labour flexibility as employers complain of costs and reduced competitiveness with the high Australian dollar…