The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a leading Australian research university and has an international reputation for excellence, innovation and enterprise. UWA is committed to the achievement of the highest quality research and scholarship at international standards of excellence.
Want to quit smoking, lose weight, manage your diabetes or get a good night’s sleep? No worries. There’s an app for all of that. But it’s not always clear which medical apps are based on solid evidence…
Archaeology is the study of the remains of the past but has long been predatory on the sciences and their ever-growing technologies. I was brought up as a student in 1970s Britain, when we learned of the…
Around this time of year you see plenty of articles (such as this one) reflecting on notable technologies and events of the year now gone. Such pieces will also attempt to predict the events of the year…
In less than two months, Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant, has insinuated herself into western culture. This has been less because of Apple’s marketing and more due to the public’s general interest in the…
Kim Jong-il, the mercurial “Dear Leader” of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), died of heart failure on 17 December 2011, at the age of 69. One could be excused for not believing in the…
So The Guardian has now retracted its earlier reports that News of the World journalists had deleted Milly Dowler’s voicemails. Those journalists hacked the dead girl’s phone but they may not have deleted…
At approximately 1pm on Friday, a customer of Telstra BigPond – Australia’s largest internet service provider – posted on a forum that: “If you do a Google search for that number [the number for Telstra’s…
It’s unlikely James Bond would have been recruited this way. The perks of this job do not include driving an Aston Martin, sipping martinis in exotic locations or saving the UK by shooting the cat-stroking…
“273% Increase in Autism and We Don’t Know Why!” Thursday, April 15, 1999, Los Angeles Times. The rising prevalence of autism is a story destined to achieve headlines, take up column inches and even bump…
What can only be described as “growing consternation” has resulted from revelations by a developer, Trevor Eckhart, that a large number of mobile phones are secretly monitoring users’ actions on the phone…
To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of newspapers are somewhat exaggerated. But traditional media is experiencing the “perfect storm” of declining circulations, collapsing advertising revenues…
Diana Walker, The University of Western Australia and Gary Kendrick, The University of Western Australia
Climate change – resulting in more frequent flooding of the Wooramel River that leads into Shark Bay – may threaten the unique stromatolites that make Shark Bay a World Heritage site. These stromatolites…
By now, most people will have heard of the social media disaster which even provided its own hashtag: #QantasLuxury. Ironically, this was everything but a luxury for Qantas. What it did illustrate was…
A new web technology is promising to do for video what the internet did for text. Called Popcorn, it brings interactivity to video so that, as the video is playing, other things can be synchronised with…
THE STATE OF SCIENCE: When we think “scientist” what comes to mind? Aloof boffins with fading elbow patches or, even worse, nothing at all? Andrew Whitehouse puts pen to pad and fills in the gaps. “What…
Public concern following the recent wave of shark attacks in WA initially prompted the government to respond with suggestions of a shark cull to reduce numbers in a misguided attempt to improve public…
Diaspora co-founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy passed away over the weekend. The 22-year-old was one of four former NYU student developers of Diaspora, an open source social network platform that has been the basis…
Three recent shark attacks in Western Australian waters have led some politicians in WA to request the culling of the sharks involved, and the increase of fisheries quotas for sharks. What no politician…
In recent weeks, the fractured nature of Anonymous, the hacktivist collective, has come to the fore after it declared war on Los Zetas, a Mexican drug cartel. Dubbed “Operation Cartel”, it was announced…
CHOGM As the meeting between Commonwealth Heads of Government kicks off in Perth, a row is brewing over the idea for a new Commissioner on democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Holly Cullen from…