Eventing is a sport enjoyed by many Australians, but what are the risks?
alan feebery/Flickr
How dangerous really is horse riding and sports like eventing? While there are risks, they can be managed, especially if we learn to understand horses better.
An artist’s concept of select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
NASA/W. Stenzel
The number of known exoplanets doubled this week to more than 3,200. But why have only a handful of these those new planets caught people’s imagination?
There’s a lot of incentive to hype scientific findings but in the end nobody wins. Overselling findings can undermine the authority of scientists as well as the credibility of the sources and ultimately deceive or even endanger the public.
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Sometimes scientists, the media and the general public inadvertently conspire to oversell science, and that is bad for us all.
Some people are still confused over what is paid or sponsored content in a typical Google search.
Shutterstock/Denys Prykhodov
Most Australians do not understand how the Google search engine works and what is paid or free content in any search results.
The polished surface was a sure sign this was no natural fragment.
Australian Archaeology
Getting a scientific paper published about a significant finding - like the discovery of the world’s oldest axe - is challenge in itself.
The DAO is so democratic that even the logo is up for popular vote. Here’s one suggested option.
The DAO
Distributed autonomous organisations, or DAO, are a new form of decentralised organisation using blockchain technology. The DAO is first off the block, and it’s already making waves.
Horse wearing crank noseband.
Luise Thomson
With the 2016 Olympics in Rio on the horizon, the practice of clamping together the jaws of horses has still gone unchecked.
The distributed nature of blockchain networks make them useful for many applications.
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While Bitcoin gets all the attention, the blockchain technology it’s based on could have applications across business and government.
Fans who go to the stadium or barrack from their living rooms need to be assured that sport is real.
Shutterstock/Oleksii Sidorov
As the business of sport booms why does this come with an increasing frequency of integrity scandals of bribery, corruption and cheating?
Integrity in sport should start from the bottom up.
Shutterstock/Paolo Bona
Efforts to wipe out doping, match fixing, corruption and other threats to sport integrity need to start at the local level.
Some of us can’t help moving to a beat.
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The reason why some of us can’t help but to dance, and others can’t hold a beat, might lie in the brain.
Salt seems common enough, but it has some astounding properties.
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That salt on your table can do amazing things chemically, and to the flavour of your favourite food. But don’t eat too much!
Could a robot raise a child without the need for a mother?
Shutterstock/Linda Bucklin
In the future some humans may be born without either a mother or father as we now know them, and with no other humans around to bring them up.
It’s not the first time attempts have been made to block WhatsApp in Brazil.
Chonlachai Panprommas/Shutterstock
It’s a battle of online privacy versus a crackdown on crime, but is a total ban on the popular app, WhatsApp, the right way to go?
Copyright is currently skewed in favour of producers, not consumers.
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The Productivity Commission’s report into copyright reform will be good for the public, good for innovation and good for Australia.
Tablets were not invented when the original rules on screen time for children were developed.
Shutterstock Angela Waye
Children’s use of screens for fun and education have changed a lot over the years, so why haven’t the rules on acceptable screen time kept up?
Nanophotonics uses photons to do amazing things.
Shutterstock
Nanophotonics deals with photons at the nanometre scale, and it’s set to transform everything from internet speeds to turning your smartphone into a portable science lab.
On the hunt for other cultures.
Shutterstock/Gorosi
Ask any anthropologist what they do and they will find it hard to give you a direct answer. But it ultimately comes down to studying people and their culture.
If these fish were released from farms, they might be hard of hearing.
Arturo Boyra
Farmed fish have a high rate of a deformity that hampers their hearing, and this can be a problem if they’re released into the wild.
Television in regional Australia is about to get a shake-up.
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The Nine Network’s partnership with Southern Cross Austereo doesn’t just impact regional television. It has ramifications for media ownership, television and what counts as ‘local content’.
Research expeditions, like this one to Antarctica, don’t have to rely on governments for funding.
A. Turney
In an atmosphere of declining government funding for science, researchers can drum up excitement and funding in other ways, just as they did in Edwardian times.
The French submarine, Shortfin Barracuda, designed by the DCNS group, to be the design base for Australia’s new fleet.
AAP Image/DCNS Group
Australia’s new submarine fleet will be designed for a range of different missions in our challenging maritime environment.
You can learn a lot about the cosmos in the kitchen.
Shutterstock/Wikimedia
From supernovae explosions to the expansion of the universe and why the sky is blue: you can learn a lot about the universe in the kitchen.
The DCNS Shortfin Barracuda is a large submarine, but that might suit our needs.
AAP/DCNS Group
Submarines possess a number of unique capabilities that make them ideal to protect Australia’s interests.
Wireless internet may have its uses but cable is still the way to go.
Shutterstock/Surkov Vladimir
Does Google’s plan for a high-speed wireless internet connection mean the current cable roll-out for the NBN will soon be obsolete?