Remote working is about to surge as companies around the world advise employees to stay away in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But nothing beats the effectiveness of face-to-face interactions.
Perhaps in 50 more years we will be sick of hearing stories from people who have travelled to the moon and back.
tdlucas5000 / AAP
In the future we might get sick of hearing people tell their stories about going to the Moon. Perhaps the Moon will just be like thinking about today’s Antarctica – a remote but accessible place.
Out of the science labs, our internet connectivity is now part of our everyday lives.
Shutterstock/AngieYeoh
Athlete Caster Semenya will need to take hormone-lowering agents, or have surgery, if she wishes to continue her career in her chosen events. But the decision to ban her is flawed on many grounds.
Relative sizes of planets that are in a zone potentially compatible with life: Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Earth (named left to right; except for Earth, these are artists’ renditions).
NASA
Genome editing technology has, and will always have, limits. Limits that are related not to the technology itself but to the intrinsic complexity of the human genome.
Signs of life on Mars? These are the tracks of NASA’s Curiosity rover exploring the Martian landscape.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
We will never see ‘Oumuamua again, and we may never know exactly what it is. But with the right kind of media coverage it could inspire some kids to take up a career in science.
The Tianshan mountains frame Sayram Lake in the Bortala Prefecture in Xinjiang, China.
Gilby Jepson
Setting the scene for ancient Silk Road trading and now China’s Belt and Road initiative, the Tianshan has changed humanity. Geological evidence shows us how this incredible mountain range formed.
Remains of meals at Haua Fteah cave reveal a lot about past climates in in the Gebel Akhdar region of Libya.
Amy Prendergast
Archaeologists are trash sifters. They use clues preserved in artefacts, plant and animal remains that people threw away or left behind to reconstruct the past.
Evolution and the art of motorcycle development, now that’s an interesting connection.
Shutterstock/The Conversation
Travel from Perth to Melbourne and every kilometre you go represents 100 million years of life on Earth. So let’s take a ride, on a motorcycle of course.
It’s just a tiny part of the Y chromosome that kickstarts the development of testes.
Kelly Searle/Unsplash
There are many cultural and social factors involved in making a baby into a man or a woman. But biologically speaking, sex starts when you’re just a tiny group of cells in your mother’s uterus.
It’s been 50 years since the find of burnt bones in ancient soil, eroded from deep in shoreline dune in NSW.
Jim Bowler
It’s been half a century since Jim Bowler discovered Mungo Lady, which changed the course of Australian history. But now he says the find has fallen off the national radar, leaving a legacy of shame.
Life in the human herd is complex, and we are unavoidably inter-dependent when it comes to our health. Population health science looks at the things that cause ill-health in the first place.
The Homeward Bound initiative works with women in science to enhance their opportunity to take up leadership roles globally.
Oli Samson
This year 77 women took part in the largest all-female expedition to Antarctica as part of a leadership training program. Rough weather enroute put group decision-making skills to the test.
Recent controversies associated with the impact, privacy and security of new technologies signal that we need better governance. The government alone can’t fix this. This is a job for everyone.
Lake Mungo and the surrounding Willandra Lakes of NSW were established around 150,000 years ago.
from www.shutterstock.com
Stephen Hawking raised the public profile of grand science, and speculated about the future of artificial intelligence, as well as contacting aliens. Does science mix easily with science fiction?
Australia’s Prime Minister and Minister for Jobs and Innovation meet with scientists at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Michael Chambers/AAP
Plato suggested we leave complex things to experts and Aristotle suggested we leave them to the people. That tension has carried through to modern debates about where expertise belongs.
Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford