Julia Gillard controversially claimed in her recent Whitlam oration that “the Greens will never embrace Labor’s delight at sharing the values of everyday Australians, in our cities, suburbs, towns and…
The world’s population will be 9 billion by 2100. How will we feed ourselves?
Herry Lawford/Wikimedia Commons
FOOD SECURITY - Here’s how things stand. More than 500 million farmers produce crops and livestock that can feed nearly 7 billion people, and yet 1 billion still go hungry. It’s estimated that the world’s…
Innovation takes place in a global ecosystem.
EPA/Adrian Bradshaw
Innovation is not a topic that attracts much serious political debate in Australia. It improves living standards and the economy, but we’re missing out because of the government’s short-sighted approach…
The SA legislation aims to end intolerable suffering.
Timothy K Hamilton
With the South Australian parliament passing its latest euthanasia bill to committee stage, there is a real possibility locals will be given the right to end their life. And with an unprecedented number…
The environment is as much in our heads as “out there”.
Flickr/dragonmage 06
Sometimes it feels like nature is out to get us. Fires, earthquakes, hurricanes and floods make paranoid types think that the world is coming to an end. Rationalists blame news media for causing us to…
FOOD SECURITY - The World Bank has warned rising food prices have risen 36% in the last year, reaching dangerous levels and pushing millions into poverty. The unrest in the Middle East, Africa and Haiti…
Viewed from afar, the Milky Way might appear similar to the galaxy known as NGC 7331.
R. Jay GaBany/NASA
Where are we within our galaxy? How did our galaxy form? How did it evolve over the aeons? Astronomers have been asking these questions for the past century, and have recently begun discerning the answers…
Viruses, parasites and bacteria have all developed resistance to current drugs.
AAP
Marc Pellegrini, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
The World Health Organisation’s World Health Day is dedicated to the threat posed by the rapid emergence of drug resistant organisms. Viruses, parasites and bacteria have all developed some resistance…
The Tarkine is our largest cool temperate rainforest, but will that be enough to save it?
Flickr/leonrw
Once a place is heritage listed, it’s protected, right? Wrong. Politics and a flawed statutory regime are undermining the independence of the listing system, and threatening Australia’s national treasures…
A national biography should include all Australian experiences.
AAP
The Australia Dictionary of Biography has rightly been described as a national treasure. Established over 50 years ago, it has generated 18 volumes of over 11,500 biographies of notable and representative…
This time around Obama must run on his record.
AAP
Was it a surprise that President Obama’s launch for the 2012 election was so low key? That he tweeted his intention to raise US$1billion? That he posted what the New York Times called an “understated…
Government should strive to work better with the Third Sector.
AAP
Australian governments have never been so dependent on the organisational capacity of not-for-profit (NFP) enterprises to deliver their policies. Conversely, Australian NFPs have never been so dependent…
Music improves discipline and social skills.
Juanedc/Flickr
Despite savage public sector cuts, the British government has ring-fenced money for musical education. While music may not appear to have as significant a hold on the Australian cultural imagination as…
The drugs don’t work. But a swifter way of identifying bacteria could reduce the need for antibiotics.
AAP
Antibiotics started out as the biggest medical breakthrough of the 20th century but overuse in humans and animals has led to resistance and reduced efficacy. We’re now at risk of reverting back to a pre-antibiotic…
Our obsession with growth stops us taking meaningful action on climate change.
Flickr/hfabulous
While global warming deniers have been effective in their aim of sowing doubt in the public mind, the most powerful argument used over and over has been that cutting emissions will cut growth, and that…
Ipswich residents clean up January’s flood damage.
AAP
As many Queenslanders affected by January’s floods are realising, riverine flood damage is commonly excluded from household insurance policies. And this is unlikely to change until councils - especially…
Since 1950, more than 150,000 people have died in motor vehicle crashes in Australia. The worst year was 1970, when 3,798 people lost their lives – more than 10 deaths each day. Annual deaths are now below…
Is the “Z-prime” lurking within a “jungle” of particles at the LHC?
Argonne National Laboratory
There’s nothing like an unexpected result to get physicists excited. So in 2008, when some strange behaviour was detected from a rarely-produced particle known as the “top quark”, there was much interest…
Building your Personal Brand is critical to professional success.
Semantic Will/flickr
In the late 1980s and early 1990s social and cultural researchers and thinkers began to articulate how changes in the organization of global capitalism were affecting cultural life. The shift toward networked…
Or can they? Some families may not be any worse off.
AAP
When we read that a carbon tax will hit the average hip pocket, should we worry? Will the ETS push us all into penury? And will it make any difference to our emissions at all? Can we know the cost to households…
Woolworths chief Michael Luscombe is leaving, but our retail problems remain.
AAP
This week’s change of leadership at Woolworths has managed to temporarily deflect the vitriolic criticism being heaped on Australia’s two grocery retailers as they engage in their so-called ‘milk’ wars…
People who live on busy roads are at greater risk of pre-term births.
The body of evidence on the unhealthy effects of traffic pollution is now longer than a stretch limo. Our recent Queensland study found pregnant women exposed to greater levels of traffic pollution had…
Students aren’t as passionate about Australian universities as those in other countries.
Kevin Coles/Flickr
Australia has many world class universities but some are failing their students by not providing the on-campus, life changing experiences available elsewhere. Many students live a protected life at home…
The hairy-nosed wombat is just one of the species at Australia’s “frozen zoo”.
Fleshpiston/Flickr
Let’s be clear: the world’s animal resources are rapidly declining. Globally, more than 5,000 wildlife species are threatened with extinction. Some 25% are mammals, and 11% birds. Of the reptile, amphibian…
Calling indigenous footballers “magic” denies their hard work.
Flickr/witness1
Let me begin by asking a question. Why is it when we think of Indigenous footballers we do so in a way that sets them apart? To put it simply, why do many of us think that there is an inherent genetic…