Established in 1949, UNSW Sydney is one of Australia’s leading research and teaching universities, renowned for the quality of its graduates and its commitment to academic excellence, innovation and social impact.
Earlier this week, a Swiss-based team searching for planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) published a paper in Nature announcing the detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri…
Watching the US Presidential election from afar feels a bit like watching reality television. It seems interminable and very little of what the characters say seems to make sense. On that front, at least…
Should Lance Armstrong lose his seven Tour de France titles for doping, as is being proposed by the US Anti-doping Agency (USADA)? It’s an issue that puts the UCI – the international cycling union – and…
FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION: We continue our series on the rise of online and blended learning and how free online courses are set to transform the higher education sector. Today, UNSW’s Justin O'Brien…
PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Colonic therapy – also known as colonic irrigation, colonic hydrotherapy or a high enema – is…
Australia has seen a notable rise in HIV infections over the last 12 months, say researchers at the University of New South Wales. The 2012 HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in…
The emerging field of personalised medicine seeks to tailor therapies to suit an individual’s metabolism or genetic make-up. This strategy has worked well with medication for specific forms of breast cancer…
A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience last week suggests water on the moon may have come, at least in part, from the sun. Until a few years ago the orthodox view was that the moon was bone-dry…
Human life expectancy has increased so much over the last four generations that 72 can be considered “the new 30”, according to a study led by researchers from Germany. The study, published today in US…
Are you addicted to speed? Has a “hurry virus” taken over your life? Building faster roads or buying a fast car or a second car may seem appealing solutions to time pressure. Yet our obsession with speed…
You may have heard that this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Serge Haroche (from College de France) and David J. Wineland (from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology…
PANACEA OR PLACEBO – A weekly series assessing the evidence behind complementary and alternative medicines. Acupuncture has been practiced in China for over 2,500 years. During the reign of Emperor Huang…
I couldn’t help but be captivated by Prime Minister Gillard’s speech against the motion to remove Peter Slipper as Speaker of the Federal Parliament yesterday. Like the majority of people I tend to follow…
Peter Slipper has resigned. The sexist text messages mentioning female genitalia published as part of a civil court case were suddenly the bridge too far for Her Majesty’s Opposition. But the Opposition…
The Times Higher Education rankings will be released tomorrow and universities around the world will be clamouring to find out how they place. As all academics know, rankings are closely tied to research…
The cost of healthcare is escalating at an unsustainable rate and an additional $2-3 billion a year for the next ten years should be invested in research to address the problem, according to a government-commissioned…
Fortescue Metals Chairman Andrew Forrest can breathe a huge sigh of relief after winning his High Court appeal against a Federal Court finding that might have seen him banned as a company director. The…
After six years targeting the education sector, Google says it has more than 20 million students, faculty and staff around the world using Google Apps for Education. The search engine giant made the announcement…
Over the past couple of decades, India’s vultures have been all but wiped out. They have been poisoned by a veterinary drug given to cattle whose carcasses they then eat. While medicinal for cattle, the…
Memories influence our behaviour for better or worse. A traumatic incident, experienced once, can darken our lives for ever more. Drug or alcohol addiction – driven by remembered rewards – can render the…