Fortnite was the most outstanding and unexpected success of 2018, hitting 78.3 million players in August, and bumping developer Epic Games to a US$15 billion dollar valuation.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Lucinda Beaman, The Conversation
Speaking with: Hugh Mackay on 2017, ‘a really disturbing year’
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Author and social researcher Hugh Mackay says fragmentation was among the key themes of 2017 – but he has some concrete suggestions on how we can do better in 2018.
Trump embraced evangelicals in his first year as president. Here, scholars provide historical context to how the religious right has shaped American politics over the past decades.
President Trump’s first year was a rough one for scientists and others who value truth and expertise. Many rallied to the cause, while others used research to make the case for the value of science.
Trump administration rollbacks dominated news about the environment in 2017 – but beyond Washington D.C., many researchers are developing innovative visions for a greener future.
How do diverse movies fare in the international box office? What time do trolls like to post their comments? We look back on some of this year’s most intriguing graphs and maps.
With studies from the past year exploring the relationship between smartphone use and mental health, sleep, learning and romance, a more nuanced portrait of the device has emerged.
Michael Lund, The Conversation; Sarah Keenihan, The Conversation, and Shelley Hepworth, The Conversation
The year is up, the numbers are in and we’re about to go on summer holidays. Here’s a snapshot of the Science and Technology articles you enjoyed the most in 2017, month by month.
In a year of coral bleaching, power blackouts, electricity arguments and Donald Trump, 2016 made the previous year’s climate of environmental optimism rather difficult to maintain.
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Lucinda Beaman, The Conversation
Bald-faced lies are fairly rare in Australian politics but, in 2016, weasel-words and cherry-picking were common. Politicians and public figures are experts at disguising opinion and ideology as fact.
The year 2015 escalated many of the tensions that have existed on university and college campuses for a long time. It will be remembered as the year of student activism.
Paul Dalgarno, The Conversation and Madeleine De Gabriele, The Conversation
It’s another year in Arts + Culture, so in case you missed it we’ve collected all the best coverage of screen, theatre, music, books and culture in one place.
This was the year of the health review – mental health care, Medicare, private health insurance, the pharmacy industry … and the list goes on. But how much movement was there on policy?
From California’s drought and fracking in the US to the pope’s encyclical and the post-Paris future of climate change, environment and energy stories rose to global importance this year.