Now that the Federal Government has finally succumbed to public pressure and suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia, it is worth considering why we were so caught off guard by the shocking revelations…
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Displaying 6401 - 6425 of 6545 articles
Sex is often viewed as a totally harmonious interaction between a male and female with the same innate goal – to produce offspring. But it is becoming increasingly clear to biologists that the reproductive…
Was Steve Jobs’announcement of the Apple iCloud yesterday music to your ears? It certainly takes cloud computing a significant distance further along the path of integration. All your devices – PC, iPad…
As you read this, researchers around the world are slaving away furiously to develop stronger, smaller and more cost-effective materials for a range of potential uses. But while there are many “nano-scale…
Apple CEO Steve Jobs emerged briefly from medical leave to introduce iCloud at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco yesterday (2am Australian EST). So how was it? In previous…
Does climate change seriously threaten to wipe out the human species if left unchecked? Examining our evolutionary past suggests it might once have been the perfect catalyst for our extinction. But now…
Recent high-profile cyber attacks have dented the image of Japanese technology giant Sony and left millions of customers worried about the security of their personal information. An attack in April resulted…
Predicting the future is a mug’s game. When I reflect back on what we thought we knew at the start of my research career in the mid-1990s, I sound like a wizened octogenarian, recalling a simpler time…
Today, Australia’s Labor Government announced it had started working on a national cyber security strategy, to be released as a white paper in the first half of next year. This comes amid growing concern…
The news that NBN Co has found a way to move forward from the crucial cost-of-construction issue must have surely lifted the Gillard Government’s spirits. NBN Co, the government-owned corporation in charge…
A combination of science and economics provide compelling reasons for policy initiatives and decisions by businesses and households to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The arguments are strongest…
It won’t surprise many people that world carbon emissions have failed to slow down, but the fact we’re now at risk of surpassing targets set for nine years hence, intended to limit the global rise in temperature…
Ever noticed that computers become outdated remarkably quickly? It’s nice to have increasingly powerful computers available, and very profitable for the computer industry to have a new model available…
You’ve just died. Your family is distraught. Before passing on, you made arrangements to donate your body to your local university for the purpose of scientific training. Your family and friends respect…
Corruption in the developing world is a major cause of poverty. Corruption is certainly not limited to poor nations, and since the 1980s, western countries have been able to use Information and Communications…
Iconic Aussie entrepreneur Dick Smith is feeling intimidated. Not by growing population pressures, nor by climate change or carbon prices, but by the bullies at News Limited. In a recent interview, Smith…
The World Health Organisation’s cancer agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has classed mobile phones as Group 2B or “possibly carcinogenic” in a new report. In this Q+A Rodney…
Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has released his final report to the government on climate change and the economy. The report says global warming is expected to continue and estimates that a $26 per tonne…
It’s the sort of news conservative politicians and commentators latch on to as a sure-fire sign that the end of civilisation is nigh: marriage rates are in continuing decline. But is this really such a…
Last week, scientists set a new distance record, seeing a burst of gamma-rays from a star that exploded when the universe was only 520 million years old. The light from this distant source has been travelling…
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Radio 2GB commentator Alan Jones demonstrated this adage last week when commentating on a recent technology breakthrough by a group of international…
The belated disclosure by Sony last month that hackers had accessed millions of customers’ identity and credit card data worldwide has put the security of personal data once again into the spotlight. Warnings…
Computer crashes and software bugs are infuriating and – usually belatedly – teach us the value of regular back-ups. But could they be a thing of the past? We’ve all been there: the work of days or weeks…
Advanced surveillance and social media might seem like strange bedfellows. Until you look a bit closer, that is. Technologies developed for surveillance applications are typically designed with robustness…
We know that most fears about cybersafety originate from a lack of understanding. We also know that social networking is a mystery to many people outside of Generation Y. So it should not come as a surprise…