It won’t surprise many people that world carbon emissions have failed to slow down, but the fact we’re now at risk of surpassing targets set for nine years hence, intended to limit the global rise in temperature…
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Displaying 6401 - 6425 of 6534 articles
Ever noticed that computers become outdated remarkably quickly? It’s nice to have increasingly powerful computers available, and very profitable for the computer industry to have a new model available…
You’ve just died. Your family is distraught. Before passing on, you made arrangements to donate your body to your local university for the purpose of scientific training. Your family and friends respect…
Corruption in the developing world is a major cause of poverty. Corruption is certainly not limited to poor nations, and since the 1980s, western countries have been able to use Information and Communications…
Iconic Aussie entrepreneur Dick Smith is feeling intimidated. Not by growing population pressures, nor by climate change or carbon prices, but by the bullies at News Limited. In a recent interview, Smith…
The World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has classed mobile phones as Group 2B or “possibly carcinogenic” in a new report. In this Q+A Rodney…
Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has released his final report to the government on climate change and the economy. The report says global warming is expected to continue and estimates that a $26 per tonne…
It’s the sort of news conservative politicians and commentators latch on to as a sure-fire sign that the end of civilisation is nigh: marriage rates are in continuing decline. But is this really such a…
Last week, scientists set a new distance record, seeing a burst of gamma-rays from a star that exploded when the universe was only 520 million years old. The light from this distant source has been travelling…
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Radio 2GB commentator Alan Jones demonstrated this adage last week when commentating on a recent technology breakthrough by a group of international…
The belated disclosure by Sony last month that hackers had accessed millions of customers’ identity and credit card data worldwide has put the security of personal data once again into the spotlight. Warnings…
Computer crashes and software bugs are infuriating and – usually belatedly – teach us the value of regular back-ups. But could they be a thing of the past? We’ve all been there: the work of days or weeks…
Advanced surveillance and social media might seem like strange bedfellows. Until you look a bit closer, that is. Technologies developed for surveillance applications are typically designed with robustness…
We know that most fears about cybersafety originate from a lack of understanding. We also know that social networking is a mystery to many people outside of Generation Y. So it should not come as a surprise…
Sexual orientation has long been cause for discussion and controversy, but just where does our sexual orientation come from? Are people “born gay” or are environmental causes at play? Historically, many…
Police lineups have long been used in criminal investigations. We have all seen TV shows depicting a witness trying to identify a bad guy from an array of people in a lineup. But in some areas using photos…
Commercial ports, railway stations and other crucial infrastructure are at constant risk from security incidents that can halt operations and, more worryingly, put you and I in harm’s way. This is a reality…
Braying climate naysayers are annoying; but so are all those well-intentioned carbon tax advocates who fail to address the core problems and make the same mistakes time and time again. If we’re going to…
Wind turbines are often billed as one of the world’s best solutions to climate change. And why not? They are a mature and effective means of generating large amounts of electricity with next to zero carbon…
In the surveillance world there are certain grand challenges – holy grails that researchers and those who use surveillance pursue doggedly, spurned on by the technical issues such challenges pose. Paramount…
Australia has a huge solar energy resource. Solar collectors spread out over a square 50 km could generate all of Australia’s current electricity demand. Of course in practice, we would need a mix of renewable…
Coffee prices are rising again, and you might be wondering how much more you’ll soon pay for your morning coffee. Although coffee prices are fickle the fluctuations affect most of us very little compared…
In questioning the fundamental nature of the universe, cosmology regularly grabs the public’s attention. But in an era in which we are observing deeper and more widely than ever before, our knowledge of…
It’s hard to discuss public surveillance without immediately being asked about privacy issues. As technologists working on computer-based surveillance, it’s tempting to say this is outside our area of…
If you’ve been for a leisurely stroll in your local park recently, you’ve probably noticed that autumn is in full swing. All manner of brightly coloured leaves cover the ground and this fact alone is cause…