BBC News has revealed that a shipwreck containing 200 tonnes of silver has been found in the Atlantic Ocean, 500 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland. It’s the largest haul of precious metal ever discovered…
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The phrases “real world scientific progress” and “the power of online games” are strange bedfellows. Yet surprisingly, they found themselves thrust together in the media last week due to the publication…
Rice is the primary source of food for roughly half the world’s population. But it falls well short of providing enough iron, zinc and pro-vitamin A to meet daily nutritional requirements. Iron deficiency…
There is a contradiction at the heart of tax reform. Timid governments, worried about a voter backlash, do too little, too late. Yet in the medium to long term, major structural changes in the economy…
Non-communicable diseases – Jacqui Webster looks at strategies for reducing the salt content of our diets. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – typically cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases…
The decision last month by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to severely restrict the practice of “pairing” votes in Parliament is another demonstration of the fractious and polarised state of federal politics…
One of the few positives put forward by smokers to justify their habit is that it helps keep their weight in check. And while smoking may be harmful to their health, so is obesity. So how does this claim…
The National Water Commission released its Third Biennial Assessment of the 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI) in September. The NWI is an agreement between all state and territory governments and federal…
The chief executive of Swiss banking giant UBS, Oswald Gruebel, has quit following revelations of a $US2.3 billion fraud by “rogue trader” Kweku Adoboli. But the news will come as cold comfort for investors…
The Federal Government’s plan to introduce pre-commitment systems on pokie machines in order to reduce problem gambling has become a major political headache. A campaign by Clubs Australia targeting Labor…
The bartender says, “We don’t serve your kind in here” A faster-than-light neutrino walks into a bar … The media is champing at the bit to proclaim a discovery of faster-than-light travel by a subatomic…
Non-communicable diseases – Philip Soos examines the importance of essential drugs and technologies to the world’s poor, a priority action area noted by the Lancet NCD Action Group and the NCD Alliance…
In the past few years, there has been growing interest in geo-engineering our climate. Geo-engineering means making sometimes planetary-scale physical or chemical changes to alter the amount of heat coming…
It is a shame that the GST is off the menu at October’s Tax Forum, because one of its central tenets – the exemption of basic food and beverages – deserves to be debated again. The exemption is basically…
Scientists – myself included – are increasingly frustrated by the outmoded academic publishing system. The situation as it stands made sense in the pre-internet era, when one needed a printing press to…
President Mahmoud Abbas has formally submitted Palestine’s application for full member status of the United Nations. The United States has already promised to veto the application at the Security Council…
The world is currently embroiled in on- and offline discussions about changes that are affecting the lives of millions. The subject is not climate change, the global financial crisis, political upheaval…
Global markets have tumbled again this week, following the downgrading of Italy’s debt rating and a series of negative comments from leaders of the world’s financial institutions. International Monetary…
There is a threat to Nato forces in Afghanistan which the world is ignoring. Violent gangs have been killing indiscriminately in Karachi, the Pakistani city vital to the supply chain which sustains ISAF…
Voltaire was right when he said “doctors prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less”. Almost 300 years later, this still rings true for depression. Antidepressants…
Several individuals have required medical attention after a mystery disease appeared to spread to humans from fish in waters near Gladstone, Queensland. Fishing bans are currently in place and local residents…
This week, a committee of six scientists (including Dr Enzo Boschi, formerly president of Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology) and one government official, whose role was to advise…
We humans had sex with Neandertals; we bonked the relatives of Neandertals; we got down and dirty with members of an as-yet unrecognised African population; and we, of course, got jiggy with each other…
Media commentators, regulators, and the judiciary continually express their concerns over the independence of auditors and other accounting professionals when they prepare expert reports. Typically, this…
Europe is in crisis once again and this time it is deadly serious. At stake is not only the survival of the European currency, but also of the entire integration project. Collapse of the Euro could trigger…