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TALKING ABOUT DEATH AND DYING - Why is it we don’t talk about the greatest inevitability in our lives? Why don’t we talk about death and dying? Today we hear from a professor of intensive care, who looks…
The real cost of the alcohol price war is the damage heavy drinking does to public health and the social fabric.
Rick Audet
In recent days, Woolworths and Coles have put out a flurry of media releases, each staking a claim to being the cheapest place to buy alcohol this summer. Coles have “declared war” on liquor prices and…
Building and racing a solar car is a true team effort.
Matt Cumming
The World Solar Challenge (WSC) is a race held every two years in which roughly 40 teams race solar-powered cars from Darwin to Adelaide. I’m a member of the UNSW Solar Racing Team (called Sunswift). The…
Rain is encouraging kangaroos to breed, and making farmers nervous.
Wombalano
Spokespeople for the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia and some other pastoralist organisations, are warning that in the current land of “flooding rain”, landholders will be overwhelmed by burgeoning…
Nicholas Sarkozy is a master of the political insult.
EPA/Kerim Okten/Pool
So Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has been called a liar in a conversation that was released on the web. I’m not talking about the chat between Nicholas Sarkozy and Barack Obama. Rather, I’m…
An adversarial approach is not the only - or even the best - way to resolve the Qantas dispute.
AAP
Nearly all of the analysis and critique of the Qantas saga since the grounding has turned on the designs of principal players, their behaviours in the moment and the vagaries of the Fair Work Act. It has…
Medicare Locals are the primary health care flagship of the national health reforms being rolled out by the Labour Government.
AAP
Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced 38 new Medicare Locals last week, bringing the total eventual number of organisations to 62. But so few of us know what they are or what they will do. For starters…
Understandably, farmers get worried when they think their water is under threat.
Phil Schubert
There are many good reasons why the general public, and in particular farmers, are concerned about coal seam gas (CSG) extraction. There are major gaps in our knowledge about the future impacts of CSG…
If the signs are right, fundamental equations of cosmology may need altering.
waljoris
A radical discovery by my colleagues and I – reported this week in Physical Review Letters – could help explain why it was possible for life (at least as we know it) to develop on Earth, but not in other…
Former Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble director Rajat Gupta faces securities fraud charges.
AAP
The Department of Justice in the United States has significantly broadened the reach of its investigation into insider trading. The charging of a former director of Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble…
Women will be the key to dealing with the growth in population.
Flickr/PhotograTree
SEVEN BILLION PEOPLE: I had better write fast. Sometime between my deadline to submit this story and the time it goes live, the estimated world population will exceed 7 billion for the first time ever…
Humans and mice share a common ancestor … but a lot has changed since then.
Klara Kim
How have humans and mice changed since we diverged about 75 million years ago from a small, furry common ancestor? Apart from the obvious, of course. As a starting point, it’s worth noting there’s nothing…
Fad diets might give you short-term “results” but they’re unlikely to keep the weight off.
Flickr/HTB
Welcome to The science behind weight loss, a new Conversation series where we separate the myths about dieting from the realities of exercise and nutrition. In our first instalment, renowned nutritionist…
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has chalked up what appears at first glance to be another high-profile success in its prosecution of the strategies used by investment banks to profit from…
The question of sexual attraction is far too complex to be explained pheromones alone.
hawk684/Flickr
Any mother collecting sweaty T-shirts left in a pile in the corner of their teenage son’s bedroom can attest to how unpleasant this task is. What might surprise them is that the experience may not be nearly…
Colonel Gaddafi’s death presents a challenge to regional unity.
EPA/Alessandro di Meo
The death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte highlights the remarkable impact a single individual can have on a whole country. Until he was captured or killed Libyans could not get on with the job of…
Martin McGuinness’ candidacy for the Irish Presidency calls for voters to look to the country’s history.
EPA/Paul McErlane
The critical importance of the Irish presidency was underscored by current incumbent in an address to the Global Irish Economic Forum earlier this month. President Mary MacAleese welcomed 270 delegates…
One in ten medical journal submissions are written by ghost authors.
AAP
In 2009, medical editors from around the world gathered at a Peer Review Congress in Vancouver, Canada, to discuss, among other things, “ghost authorship” of medical research articles. Ghost authorship…
The government supports a better disability support policy while making it harder for people to get the disability support pension.
Honza Soukup
A report released today by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) finds the number of Australians using disability support services is increasing. But it’s uncertain how the government will…
Coptic Christians have long been discriminated against in Egypt, but the violence against them, and the government response to it, signals concerns for democracy in the country.
EPA/Mohamed Omar
The violence in Egypt involving Coptic demonstrators, military units and unidentified thugs shocked the country and rang alarms about prospects for transition to democracy. Egypt is going through a revolution…
Doctoral Researcher, Refugee Cultural Heritage and Connected Rights Protection | Affiliate, Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law | Associate, Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW Sydney