• Artificial Intelligence

    Welcome to your friendly local chatbot


    Open Forum |  March 29, 2024


    QUT researchers have homed in on AI-powered chatbots in the local government sector to look at their benefits and risks, what they are used for and why, and how users view them.


  • Transport

    Car wars


    Open Forum |  March 29, 2024


    Medical pressure group Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) have called for the cross bench to reject the watered down and delayed fuel efficiency standard proposed by the Federal Government, and urged it to protect the health of Australians by requiring tougher vehicle fleet standards.


  • Energy

    The hidden costs of coal mines’ unquenchable thirst


    Open Forum |  March 29, 2024


    Investors and shareholders in Australian coal mining could feel the pinch as water-related risks increase amid worsening climate change impacts, tighter regulations and growing community opposition.


Latest Story

  • Rethinking urbanity

    Claire Collie     |      January 25, 2021

    The bushfires and pandemic which marked 2020 raise wider issues of the way we relate to our cities and each other.

  • Tabi on racial matters: Black African communities have deeper connections to Australia’s history than we realise

    Gloria Tabi     |      January 25, 2021

    Many Black Africans came to Australia to complete their prison sentences and to work in the colony and were amongst the first convict labourers of the country that we know today.

  • Whose Australia day?

    Open Forum     |      January 24, 2021

    Australia will not be comfortable celebrating its national day until we have greater racial understanding, based on truthful retelling of history, but we can be encouraged by our growing multicultural cohesion.

  • The secret of solar success

    Open Forum     |      January 24, 2021

    A new study shows how researchers at The Australian National University achieved a world record in solar cell efficiency by using cheap and easy to manufacture perovskite cells.

  • To bee or not to bee?

    Open Forum     |      January 24, 2021

    Insects around the world are in catastrophic decline, a disaster exemplified by a new study noting the disappearance of wild bees in South America.

  • 5 ways to improve the government’s plan for threatened wildlife

    Euan Ritchie     |      January 23, 2021

    The first Threatened Species Strategy fizzled out last year without making a big difference to conservation. With the next strategy due to roll out this year, let’s look at what needs to change.

  • Shining a light on the dark web

    Cecilia Duong     |      January 23, 2021

    The dark web is perceived as the underbelly of the internet world but it’s not all as negative as it may seem. The dark web isn’t only a hangout for criminals, as some journalists and political activists use it to safeguard their anonymity.

  • China and Russia aim to undermine free world COVID vaccines

    Ariel Bogle     |      January 23, 2021

    Propaganda campaigns by hostile nations aim to undermine vaccine uptake and trust in the public health agencies tasked to deal with ending the pandemic.

  • Life expectancy is starting to slide

    Open Forum     |      January 22, 2021

    Life expectancy gain is slowing in Australia – and figures show these figures are already sliding backwards in both the US and UK – yet little is being done by policy makers to understand specific gender and inequity reasons why this slip is occurring.

  • How Silicon Valley elites view the world

    Open Forum     |      January 22, 2021

    The 100 richest information technology entrepreneurs see the world in similar meritocratic, self-affirming and self-serving terms, according to an analysis of their own official and unofficial statements.

  • Bait and switch

    Craig Donaldson     |      January 22, 2021

    New research has quantified the size of the gap between the forecast and actual earnings of start-ups presented by entrepreneurs to potential investors.

  • America’s back

    Scott Lucas     |      January 21, 2021

    After four years of Donald Trump’s chaotic, divisive and self-serving rule, Joe Biden has been sworn in as the new President of the United States with a strong appeal to unity, morality and common purpose.