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FOOD SECURITY - The World Bank has warned rising food prices have risen 36% in the last year, reaching dangerous levels and pushing millions into poverty. The unrest in the Middle East, Africa and Haiti…
Where are we within our galaxy? How did our galaxy form? How did it evolve over the aeons? Astronomers have been asking these questions for the past century, and have recently begun discerning the answers…
The World Health Organisation’s World Health Day is dedicated to the threat posed by the rapid emergence of drug resistant organisms. Viruses, parasites and bacteria have all developed some resistance…
Once a place is heritage listed, it’s protected, right? Wrong. Politics and a flawed statutory regime are undermining the independence of the listing system, and threatening Australia’s national treasures…
The Australia Dictionary of Biography has rightly been described as a national treasure. Established over 50 years ago, it has generated 18 volumes of over 11,500 biographies of notable and representative…
Was it a surprise that President Obama’s launch for the 2012 election was so low key? That he tweeted his intention to raise US$1billion? That he posted what the New York Times called an “understated…
Australian governments have never been so dependent on the organisational capacity of not-for-profit (NFP) enterprises to deliver their policies. Conversely, Australian NFPs have never been so dependent…
Despite savage public sector cuts, the British government has ring-fenced money for musical education. While music may not appear to have as significant a hold on the Australian cultural imagination as…
Antibiotics started out as the biggest medical breakthrough of the 20th century but overuse in humans and animals has led to resistance and reduced efficacy. We’re now at risk of reverting back to a pre-antibiotic…
While global warming deniers have been effective in their aim of sowing doubt in the public mind, the most powerful argument used over and over has been that cutting emissions will cut growth, and that…
As many Queenslanders affected by January’s floods are realising, riverine flood damage is commonly excluded from household insurance policies. And this is unlikely to change until councils - especially…
Since 1950, more than 150,000 people have died in motor vehicle crashes in Australia. The worst year was 1970, when 3,798 people lost their lives – more than 10 deaths each day. Annual deaths are now below…
There’s nothing like an unexpected result to get physicists excited. So in 2008, when some strange behaviour was detected from a rarely-produced particle known as the “top quark”, there was much interest…
In the late 1980s and early 1990s social and cultural researchers and thinkers began to articulate how changes in the organization of global capitalism were affecting cultural life. The shift toward networked…
When we read that a carbon tax will hit the average hip pocket, should we worry? Will the ETS push us all into penury? And will it make any difference to our emissions at all? Can we know the cost to households…
This week’s change of leadership at Woolworths has managed to temporarily deflect the vitriolic criticism being heaped on Australia’s two grocery retailers as they engage in their so-called ‘milk’ wars…
The body of evidence on the unhealthy effects of traffic pollution is now longer than a stretch limo. Our recent Queensland study found pregnant women exposed to greater levels of traffic pollution had…
Australia has many world class universities but some are failing their students by not providing the on-campus, life changing experiences available elsewhere. Many students live a protected life at home…
Let’s be clear: the world’s animal resources are rapidly declining. Globally, more than 5,000 wildlife species are threatened with extinction. Some 25% are mammals, and 11% birds. Of the reptile, amphibian…
Let me begin by asking a question. Why is it when we think of Indigenous footballers we do so in a way that sets them apart? To put it simply, why do many of us think that there is an inherent genetic…
We are entering an era of massive population transfer - a rural exodus of unprecedented proportions. In Asia and Africa farmers and peasants are being lured to mega-cities. This brings myriad benefits…
Being overweight in childhood, adolescence or during adulthood has traditionally been thought to increase the long-term risk of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular events and some cancers as well as…
The Henry Review released in May last year provided the Commonwealth and state governments with a wealth of good ideas for reform, yet so far the political processes have failed to deliver reforms. Why…
As our physical understanding of climate change has become more and more robust, public debate has become progressively more disconnected from the scientific literature. It’s unsurprising, then, that Hans…