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There were disturbances in Sydney over the weekend in response to a movie portraying Muhammad. AAP/Louis Allen

Sydney riots: Muslim responses to provocation must be more considered

Samina Yasmeen, The University of Western Australia

News of the movie “Innocence of Muslims” and the dissemination of its clips on YouTube have inflamed emotions across the Muslim world. It triggered a spate of violent demonstrations, including an attack…
Detail from Life Of Raymond Lull, 14th century print. The first computer scientist? Wikimedia Commons

20th century toy? Computing is a 13th century beast – at least

John Crossley, Monash University

When did computers begin? When you look more closely at the question it dissolves into dust, almost literally, because people calculated with pebbles in the dust millennia ago. When you look at the origins…
Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s speech to his party’s convention last month attracted heavy scrutiny from political ‘fact-checkers’. EPA/Justin Lane

The lost cause of American political fact-checkers

David Smith, University of Sydney

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. – Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Political fact checkers seem to perform a vital public service for American democracy. Websites such as FactCheck.org…
Australians love shopping online: so retailers must get to grips with the concept. AAP

The great online shopping debate — how the locals can win

Scott Ewing, Swinburne University of Technology and Julian Thomas, Swinburne University of Technology

Australians are among the most enthusiastic online shoppers in the world. Our most recent survey, published in the CCi Digital Futures report, The Internet in Australia 2012, has found a quarter of Australian…
We are really just beginning to learn what’s gone wrong for native species like the Murray Cod. Biodiversity Heritage Library

Native fish - and recreational fishers - need native fish funding

Paul Humphries, Charles Sturt University

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s Native Fish Strategy (NFS) is at serious risk of winding up, after NSW announced it is cutting its financial contributions. This is a serious blow to the conservation…
Reduced ozone means increased UV radiation, and that leads to skin cancer. Tracey Lawson

Saving the ozone layer saved human lives

Olaf Morgenstern, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and Peter Braesicke, University of Cambridge

SAVING THE OZONE: Part seven in our series exploring on the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – dubbed “the world’s most successful environmental agreement” – explains how the…
Of all the teenagers with flu-like symptoms, GPs need to find the one with a lymphoma in his chest. Joey Yee

Over-diagnosis: the view from inside primary care

Jenny Doust, Bond University

OVER-DIAGNOSIS EPIDEMIC - We kick off the second week of this series with Jenny Doust looking at some drivers of over-diagnosis in general practice. It’s easy to dismiss general practice as being about…
A Syrian woman in Turkey prays for those left behind. EPA/Tolga Bozoglu

Rape in Syria: a weapon of war or instrument of terror?

Sara Meger, The University of Melbourne

In Syria, rape is being used by armed groups as a means to an end. In this context, reports have emerged detailing the use of sexual violence by Syrian armed forces and paramilitaries loyal to Assad. Last…
What does the Armstrong case tell us about anti-doping regulation in sport? Jasper Juinen/EPA

Punishing doping athletes isn’t a long-term solution

Kathryn Henne, Australian National University

There has been much discussion in recent weeks about Lance Armstrong, his legacy, and charges levelled by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that the Texan cyclist spearheaded a systematic doping…
What’s the real effect of NAPLAN testing? AAP Image/Paul Miller

Anxious kids not learning: the real effects of NAPLAN

Greg Thompson, Murdoch University

Australian teachers are not convinced that NAPLAN improves the reading and maths skills of students. Over the next week, NAPLAN results will be arriving at students’ homes around Australia. But new research…
Illegal hunting is a severe threat to wildlife in many protected areas. Shown is the skull of a young forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) killed in southern Gabon. Ralph Buij

Are nature reserves working? Take a look outside

Bill Laurance, James Cook University

You couldn’t have witnessed the recent massacre of elephants at Bouba N’Djida National Park and not be worried about the future of biodiversity. The park, in northern Cameroon, is supposed to be a refuge…
Understanding Venus’ atmosphere helps us understand Earth’s past, present, and a potential future. Keith Mosley

What Venus has taught us about protecting the ozone layer

Frank Mills, Australian National University

SAVING THE OZONE: Part six in our series exploring the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – dubbed “the world’s most successful environmental agreement” – looks at the atmosphere…
Protesters outside the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany express their anger over Germany’s support of the ECB’s debt buy-back scheme. AAP

Balancing stability and sovereignty will prove challenging for the Eurozone

Harald Sander, Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS)

The past few days have seen economic crisis management — if not the political landscape in the Eurozone — change fundamentally. On September 6, the ECB announced it would buy-back unlimited government…
The CSIRO’s last and most ambitious megatrend: that people of the future will have a greater expectation of happiness through experiences over material consumption. Flickr/Goodncrazy

Megatrends: great expectations and the quest for happiness

Stefan Hajkowicz, CSIRO

Welcome to The Conversation’s series on megatrends, on six of the most compelling economic, social, environmental, political and technological changes Australia must grapple with, according to the CSIRO…
Certain types of media reporting may trigger further suicidal behaviours among vulnerable people. garryknight

The facts about safe reporting of suicide

Kairi Kõlves, Griffith University

The issue of media reporting of suicide was once again thrust into the spotlight this week, with mental health researcher, clinician and former Australian of the year Pat McGorry renewing his calls for…
Bad NAPLAN results can lead parents to seek help, but which learning programs can they trust? Test image from www.shutterstock.com

Nasty NAPLAN results: what should parents do next?

Anne Castles, Macquarie University

The latest NAPLAN results have arrived, and soon enough thousands of Australian parents will tear open the envelope containing their child’s NAPLAN results. They will be faced with a series of graphs that…
Families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster have never given up their campaign for justice. EPA/Lee Sanders

Cruel summer: how Hillsborough brought Britain down to earth

Andy Ruddock, Monash University

The release of Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report into the death of 96 football fans at the 1989 FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest is not just a landmark in British history…
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, is hoping that a third round of quantitative easing can bolster confidence in the US economy. AAP

Bringing out the big guns: Bernanke unleashes QE3

Geoffrey Garrett, UNSW Sydney

Finding bright spots in the US economy is a seemingly thankless task. The unemployment rate, despite dipping slightly in previous months, remains above 8%; last month, employers could only add 96,000 jobs…
Aged-care residents are among the most vulnerable in our society, with many reliant on pensions. Kariobinja/Flickr

It’s complicated: why aged-care funding is still a problem

Stephen Duckett, Grattan Institute

Recent media reports have highlighted an anomaly in residential aged-care funding in Australia: that day-to-day operations of facilities are governed by both Commonwealth and state government policies…
Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton arrive at a press conference for the death of the US Ambassador to Libya. AAP/Michael Reynolds

Race to the White House: Dennis Altman, David Malet

Dennis Altman, La Trobe University and David Malet, The University of Melbourne

Welcome to part two of our Race to the White House podcast series. Each week we’ll be talking to Australia’s top US experts on the ins and outs of the 2012 US presidential campaign. This week, Dennis Altman…
Looking to Asian schools is exactly what we shouldn’t be doing. Chalkboard image www.shutterstock.com

Our Asian schooling infatuation: the problem of PISA envy

Stephen Dinham, The University of Melbourne

It was fun while it lasted Finland, but we’re going cold on you. We thought your schools had the secret but our new infatuation is with Asian school systems. The Prime Minister seems to agree. The government…