• Politics and Policy

    Death by a thousand cuts


    Open Forum |  June 21, 2025


    Recent controversies over New Zealand’s Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunch program have offer a window into the wider debate about the politics of “fiscal responsibility” and austerity politics in democratic governments around the world.


  • Media

    The fake news arms race


    Open Forum |  June 21, 2025


    A new model depicts how competition for attention leads news sources to publish misinformation. The findings portray a trend, or “arms race,” towards hyper-partisan fake news to increase audience engagement.


  • Science and Technology

    Robots with brains – what could possibly go wrong?


    Open Forum |  June 21, 2025


    QUT robotics researchers have developed a new robot navigation system that mimics neural processes of the human brain and uses less than 10 per cent of the energy required by traditional systems.


Latest Story

  • Will AI solve Australia’s productivity problem?

    Llewellyn Spink     |      June 20, 2025

    If AI is going to be an effective treatment for Australia’s productivity challenge, then workers must be an essential part of the recovery team, rather than cast aside to slash costs for companies and organisations.

  • Heading into trouble

    Jocelyn Prasad     |      June 20, 2025

    The findings of a world-first experiment add to evidence suggesting heading a ball in the world’s most played sport can impact the brain, even when concussion doesn’t occur.

  • Invasion of the survey bots

    Michelle Lazarus     |      June 20, 2025

    The internet and social media are increasingly dominated by bots and AI slop, and researchers relying on online surveys – already a dubious source of useful information – are seeing their results poisoned by automated nonsense.

  • Protecting Israel

    James Dwyer     |      June 19, 2025

    Israel has dominated Iran in recent days, destroying swathes of Iran’s military capacity as well as decimating its nuclear programme. Iran’s retaliation – based on raining down missiles on Israeli cities – has also fallen short thanks to Israel’s sophisticated and well-organised defence systems.

  • On the slide

    Open Forum     |      June 19, 2025

    Poor lifestyles and bad habits start to affect our health by our mid-thirties, much earlier than some people assume.

  • Nature positive, action negative

    Open Forum     |      June 19, 2025

    New research led by Griffith University argues that the term “nature positive” does more to boost greenwashing companies and vote-seeking politicians than nature conservation.

  • ReNeuWell

    Open Forum     |      June 18, 2025

    Researchers from NeuRA and UNSW Sydney have launched a new app aimed at boosting the wellbeing and resilience of adults. ReNeuWell helps people to shift the focus from managing distress to actively promoting mental flourishing, offering a neuroscience-backed, personalised approach to mental health.

  • Do look up

    Open Forum     |      June 18, 2025

    The space economy presents new investment opportunities as commercial space resource ventures grow, but investors must assess the risks and regulatory challenges involved as well as the potential for profit.

  • The big picture

    Alex Bristow     |      June 18, 2025

    The current conflict between Israel and Iran war highlights the danger of a piecemeal approach to statecraft, as calls for an immediate ceasefire disregard the much greater danger posed by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.

  • Drone wars

    Erik Davis     |      June 17, 2025

    Australia continues to weigh the value of spending billions of dollars on submarines which might take decades to procure when the immediate development of cheap drones might be far more effective.

  • Sport for all

    Konstantine Panegyres     |      June 17, 2025

    There’s nothing new about our modern love of playing and watching sports, with ancient depictions of ball games dating back into antiquity.

  • All the slop that’s fit to print

    Open Forum     |      June 17, 2025

    An ever greater percentage of the news that people consume is generated by AI, rather than people.