Want to quit smoking, lose weight, manage your diabetes or get a good night’s sleep? No worries. There’s an app for all of that. But it’s not always clear which medical apps are based on solid evidence…
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Displaying 6126 - 6150 of 6591 articles
Archaeology is the study of the remains of the past but has long been predatory on the sciences and their ever-growing technologies. I was brought up as a student in 1970s Britain, when we learned of the…
Around this time of year you see plenty of articles (such as this one) reflecting on notable technologies and events of the year now gone. Such pieces will also attempt to predict the events of the year…
For many of us, the start of a new year heralds a new beginning, and an important opportunity to commit to significant personal changes. But why does this single moment in the year hold almost superstitious…
And so in March we pushed the button and away we went. Back then the big stories were: Artificial intelligence, what with Watson, IBM’s supercomputer, taking on challengers in the US TV show Jeapordy…
Recently there was an excellent, and much read, article on The Conversation entitled There’s no place for pseudo-scientific chiropractic in Australian universities which made the case against chiropractic…
Few individuals in the Star Wars universe inspired more fear than the Sith Lord, Darth Vader. But beneath the dark exterior, the commander-formerly-known-as-Anakin-Skywalker might have been hiding a dark…
You may have read the British Government is being petitioned to grant a posthumous pardon to one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and most successful codebreakers, Alan Turing. You may also have…
Christmas is fast approaching and there’s a (very big) chance you’ve got some last-minute shopping to do. You won’t be the only one, and with shopping centres packed to capacity, it’s easy to get lost…
We live in a privileged time, when travel around the world is easy and cheap. It’s commonplace for Australians to see Times Square in New York, the Great Wall in China, or trek in Nepal. But one continent…
In less than two months, Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, has insinuated herself into western culture. This has been less because of Apple’s marketing and more due to the public’s general interest in the…
We all know somebody like Dick: a bloke who rates himself for no apparent reason and who optimistically reckons every woman – especially every attractive woman – is interested in him. Most of us have met…
If you’ve ever been caught in a traffic jam – and who hasn’t? – you’ll know Australia’s urban road networks are fast approaching full capacity. With the holiday season not far away, traffic jams and road…
Does the thought of p-values and regressions make you break out in a cold sweat? Never fear – read on for answers to some of those burning statistical questions that keep you up 87.9% of the night. What…
I can guarantee you that some time in the next two weeks, someone at a barbeque I’m attending will ask me about the Higgs boson. I don’t blame them – it’s interesting stuff – but it’s not “answer-in-30-words-or-less…
“There is [a worldwide] audience of approximately 600 million gamers who may be virtually violating International Humanitarian Law,” read the Daily Bulletin of the 31st International Conference of the…
Almost every aspect of our lives is in some way touched by space science and technology. As such, the public policy implications are many and varied. Services provided via space-based technologies are…
The question of why human beings have virtually no body hair – as discussed yesterday on The Conversation – has puzzled evolutionary theorists since Darwin’s Descent of Man (1871). It’s puzzling because…
Writing almost 140 years ago in his book Naturalist in Nicaragua, the European naturalist Thomas Belt engaged in a lively debate about why certain breeds of dogs in tropical America were hairless. The…
Australia’s Chief Scientist Ian Chubb has more than once described the Australia of the past as a “mendicant country” regarding science. While this is a controversial, perhaps overly-broad, generalisation…
Now that the hoopla associated with the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) has died down somewhat, I’d like to discuss one of the significant opportunities by drawing a line between the NBN and…
Space exploration is one of the few science-rich human endeavours that captivates both expert and layperson alike. There is a mystery – a romanticism – associated with space research and technology that…
At approximately 1pm on Friday, a customer of Telstra BigPond – Australia’s largest internet service provider – posted on a forum that: “If you do a Google search for that number [the number for Telstra’s…
E-waste from used electrical and electronic gadgets such as desktop computers, laptops and iPhones is one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world. Rapid uptake of information technology around…
Black holes have long been the staple of science fiction, being monstrous beasts with a gravitational pull that prevents even light from escaping. As well as being useful plot devices, offering mechanisms…