The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed 2013 as Australia’s hottest year since records began in 1910. Average temperatures over the continent have been 1.2C above the 1961-1990 average, breaking the previous…
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I was somewhere in the middle of Howard Jacobson’s 2010 Man Booker Prize winner The Finkler Question and finding it uncompelling. (Sorry, Howard.) I needed a potboiler pick-me-up stat. What better than…
I once asked a group of my students if they knew what the term postmodernism meant: one replied that it’s when you put everything in quotation marks. It wasn’t such a bad answer, because concepts such…
To a large extent, mining has made the Australian nation, but while aware of its importance many Australians are uncertain or hesitant about its respectability as an industry. ‘Boom’ illustrates and helps…
In 2008, historian Dr. Anna Clark conducted a survey of the state of history education in Australian classrooms. The book that resulted from this study — History’s Children — presented a bleak image of…
Bioenergy is currently the fastest growing source of renewable energy. Cultivating energy crops on arable land can decrease dependency on depleting fossil resources and it can mitigate climate change…
We’ve all felt sad, anxious or down at one time or another, but where does the normal experience of emotion end and the clinical picture of a mood or anxiety disorder begin? Psychiatry has two widely used…
On average 21 people drown each year in rip currents on Australian surf beaches. This value exceeds the long-term annual average of fatalities caused by bush fires, floods, cyclones and sharks combined…
Do you know someone who has lost their job in the last few years working in IT, media, finance or retail? These industries and many others are already feeling the pinch of “online gravity” - a special…
With temperatures starting to climb, it’s time to think about how we will stay cool this summer. The stakes are getting higher when it comes to hot weather. As the Australian Medical Association has warned…
Ever been unable to sleep because you can’t switch off that stream of thoughts that seems to flow incessantly, mercilessly through your head? When your mental noise distracts you from the task at hand…
Recent state election results in India point to the Congress Party losing power in national elections this year. The Indian National Congress has led India as the biggest party in a national coalition…
Ciphers, conspiracies, secret societies, the dark web - intrigued yet? Of course you are! As curious animals, there is nothing we love more than a mystery, especially one with a hint of the secret underground…
We’re often told networking is essential to our careers, but how many people actually use their contacts? Perhaps filling a LinkedIn or Facebook profile is more of a comfort feeling than a useful resource…
In 1926, just outside of St Petersburg in Russia, botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov set up the Pavlovsk Experimental Station. It was one of the world’s first “seed banks”. The term “seed bank” or…
Few people would argue with the idea that sleep is good for us, but not many of us know that a lack of sleep can cause weight gain. The health benefits of sleep are extremely well-documented. It provides…
In 2014, we will see more intelligent, less expensive versions of autonomous vacuum cleaners, pool cleaners, lawnmowers and gutter cleaners. We will hear more about gadgets that track eyes, customers…
I’m standing in a line at Brisbane Supanova 2013, a pop culture convention, when I’m approached by a young family with a tiny girl in a sparkly Snow White gown, complete with bright red hair bow. “We were…
Big Data has a reputation for being creepy; the domain of “Big Business” and “Big Government”. At best it’s the driver of relentless advertising, uniquely targeted and eerily reminiscent of our most recent…
To mark the beginning of a new year, I have put together a list of some of the major issues and events expected to influence climate change policy-making in 2014. From 1 to 8, these are my top predictions…
Research has shown that the benefits of a holiday tend to last only two to four weeks. After that, you’re left just as burned out as you were before your holiday.
With Australia experiencing declining fertility rates over the past four decades, governmental concern has increased over the consequences of the falling birth rate and how the trend might be reversed…
Cinema did not emerge from a eureka moment, but rather through the incremental innovations of pioneers such as the Lumière brothers, Étienne-Jules Marey and Thomas Edison. So it is unsurprising that filmmakers…
It’s not been a long year for arts and culture – at least, not on The Conversation. We launched the section on October 28, sneaking in at the end of festival season like someone who sneaks in at the end…
In 2005, Parliament House’s security guards were banned from using the address term mate. This decision was quickly rescinded when talkback got wind of the ban. The objection? “This is Australia, mate…