Menu Close

Home – Research and News

Displaying 1376 - 1400 of 2733 articles

The Conversation’s US launch extends global reach

I wanted to let you know The Conversation launched its US service today. The US service is the third in The Conversation’s global network, following the UK launch last year and the 2011 launch in Australia…
Gough Whitlam speaking to crowds outside parliament house on the day of the dismissal. National Library of Australia

The nation loses one of its most iconic leaders: Whitlam dead at 98

Former prime minister Gough Whitlam has died at the age of 98. His family said in a short statement that he died this morning. “A loving and generous father, he was a source of inspiration to us and our…
Speaker of the House Bronwyn Bishop has backed down on her proposal to segregate people wearing head coverings in Parliament. Lukas Coch/AAP

Bishop backs down on burqas, with a twist

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry have reversed their decision to segregate veiled women watching parliamentary proceedings – but the women will have to show their faces on entering…
Treasurer Joe Hockey wants Australia to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. EPA/DREW ANGERER

Division over bank as Australia caught between China and US

Senior cabinet ministers are believed to be divided over whether Australia should sign up to an internationally funded infrastructure development bank that China is set to launch next month. Treasurer…
An artist’s concept of Comet Siding Spring (2013 A1) and Mars. NASA

Comet Siding Spring’s close encounter with Mars draws near

Astronomers world-wide are gearing up for what NASA calls a “once in a lifetime” event: the Comet Siding Spring will swing past Mars on its maiden voyage through the solar system in the early hours next…
Intuitive processes may underlie decisions of those who help others while risking their own lives. AAresTT/Shutterstock

‘Extreme altruists’ motivated by gut instinct: study

If you noticed a person in grave danger would you act first and think later in order to save them? New research suggests people who put their own lives in danger to help others make the decision to do…
Fracking for gas - not a silver bullet for emissions reduction. US Geological Survey/Wikimedia Commons

Natural gas boom is ‘not the answer for cutting emissions’

The boom in natural gas supplies brought about by techniques like fracking will not automatically deliver the anticipated cuts to greenhouse emissions, a new analysis has warned. Burning natural gas produces…
Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Prime Minister Tony Abbott are looking to put science at the centre of industry policy. AAP/Lukas Coch

Industry growth centres to link business and science

The federal government will fund industry growth centres in five sectors that will encourage better use by business of Australian research, as part of a $400 million innovation and competitiveness policy…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has faced criticism from both sides of Australian politics. EPA/ALEXEY NIKOLSKY / RIA NOVOSTI / KREMLIN POOL

Abbott vows to shirt-front Putin as Russian diplomat recalls better times

A senior Russian diplomat says Australia-Russia relations are at a “historic low”, as Tony Abbott has pledged to “shirt-front” Vladimir Putin at the G20 next month over the downing of flight MH17. In a…
Governor-General Peter Cosgrove appealed to all Australians to focus on people living in poverty. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

Poverty findings sound warning on budget changes: ACOSS

More than 600,000 children – 17.7% of all children in Australia – were living below the poverty line in 2012, a report released by the Australian Council of Social Service has found. Just over one third…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there were dozens of Australian doctors and nurses working with non-government agencies in the fight against ebola. AAP/Phillip Biggs

Too risky to send people to assist with Ebola: Abbott

Tony Abbott says the government won’t send doctors and nurses to help with the Ebola crisis without being “absolutely confident” all the risks are being properly managed. “At the moment, we cannot be confident…
John Faulkner says factions, affiliates or interest groups binding parliamentarians in caucus votes or ballots must be banned. AAP/Paul Miller

Cut union representation in Labor conferences: Faulkner

Labor elder John Faulkner has called for a radical overhaul of the party’s structure that would drastically reduce union representation at its state conferences. Faulkner, who has been a continuing voice…
Bad news for icebergs: oceans in the Southern Hemisphere have been soaking up more heat energy than previously thought. Andrew Meijers/BAS

Southern oceans heating up faster than scientists realised

The upper layers of the world’s oceans have been warming much faster than oceanographers realised over the past few decades, according to a new study. Sparse sampling of the Southern Hemisphere’s oceans…
Commissioner Dyson Haydon said there were dimensions of criminal conduct suggesting a more thorough examination of the unions was desirable. AAP/Paul Harris

Government extends union probe amid criminal conduct evidence

The royal commission into union corruption has been extended for a year and given wider terms of reference, after finding evidence of criminal conduct by union officials. Attorney-General George Brandis…
Paediatricians says children’s trauma is compounded when they are placed in mandatory detention. Australian Human Rights Commission/AAP

Paediatricians say mandatory detention is child abuse

More than 80% of Australian paediatricians believe mandatory detention of asylum seeker children constitutes child abuse, according to survey results published today in the Medical Journal of Australia…
Immigration minister Scott Morrison and Australian Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs clashed at a public hearing of the committee. AAP/Lukas Coch

Child detention report timetable tight for tabling this year

Damning levels of mental illness and self harm are documented in the Human Rights Commission’s draft report on children in detention, which went to the government on Friday. The inquiry has concluded…
Like some other viruses, HIV hides in various places in the body, including in long-lived immune cells like this one. NIAID/Flickr

End to HIV no closer as early treatment fails to cure baby

A second case of a baby who was ostensibly “cured” of HIV after early treatment has been discounted as a possible breakthrough in fighting the disease. The case of an Italian baby who relapsed after appearing…
Australia’s Super Hornets, like these US planes, will be used against ISIL targets. AAP/EPA/DOD/US AIR FORCE/SGT. SHAWN NICKEL

Cabinet approves Super Hornet strikes against ISIL

Cabinet has given the go-ahead for Australia’s Super Hornet fighter jets to strike ISIL targets in Iraq, as well as for its special forces to start working with the Iraqi military as soon as legal documents…
People are becoming more aware of the wold’s biodiversity, but the crisis continues. Chris Ford/Flickr

World failing to meet biodiversity targets: study

Globally, biodiversity is in trouble, and new research shows that the situation is unlikely to improve over the next five years. Researchers from around the world analysed global progress towards meeting…
The curious want to know more and can remember more. Flickr/Wagner T Cassimiro Aranha

Curiosity changes the brain to boost memory and learning

The more curious we are about a topic, the easier it is to remember not only information about that topic, but also other unrelated information shown at the same time. A study published today in Neuron…
Senate president Stephen Parry said people needed to be able to be identified if they caused an incident. AAP/Alan Porritt

Abbott intervenes on parliament burqa segregation

Update: Tony Abbott is effectively overruling Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate president Stephen Parry’s decree that would see Muslim women with facial coverings confined to glass boxes when they observed…
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is revisiting well-trodden telecommunications competition issues. Gary Schafer/AAP

Turnbull leaves door open to break up NBN Co

Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has not ruled out a proposal by the expert panel reviewing the telecommunications industry to break up and sell off parts of NBN Co. However Mr Turnbull, responding…