• Culture

    PM for Plutarch


    Matthew Sharpe |  July 11, 2026


    The writings of Plutarch of Chaeronia were an important part of humanistic education in the West for many centuries, influencing everyone from Michel de Montaigne and Francis Bacon to William Shakespeare, and the practical nature of his essays keep them timely in our social media age


  • Culture

    The end of romance


    Joanne Anderton |  July 11, 2026


    Set on an inhospitable future earth, Maria Takolander’s The End of Romance is a violent dystopia and, given the current state of the world, is all the more relatable for that.


  • Climate Change

    Snowcrash


    Andrew B. Watkins |  July 11, 2026


    Another poor start to Australia’s shrinking snow season underlines how rapidly climate change is altering our weather.


Latest Story

  • Risks and opportunities

    Michelle Grattan     |      July 10, 2026

    If you’re pessimistic about the country’s economic outlook and are feeling the financial pinch yourself, then new figures released this week won’t cheer your mood but there is hope on the horizon.

  • A red card for Infantino?

    Keith Rathbone     |      July 10, 2026

    The World Cup is in full swing but FIFA’s controversial decision to bow to President Trump and overturn a red card awarded to an American player has left FIFA’s chief in a precarious position.

  • More doesn’t mean better

    Lauren Ball     |      July 10, 2026

    Australia’s long-term life expectancy growth is one of the great successes of modern medicine, public health and improved living conditions but living longer doesn’t necessarily mean living well.

  • Greening heavy industry

    Rahman Daiyan     |      July 9, 2026

    Mining and heavy industries create jobs and wealth but their emissions have been some of the hardest to cut. Fortunately this is changing as steel and hydrogen can now be made with renewable power rather than coal or gas.

  • Who feels it knows it

    Hazel Godfrey     |      July 9, 2026

    Lived experience is not merely a personal story but offers knowledge developed from engagement with systems, institutions and the realities of everyday life.

  • The fight for the Pacific seabed

    Raelene Lockhorst     |      July 9, 2026

    The Pacific seabed is no longer an empty space between nations, indeed it is becoming one of the most strategically crowded environments in the region.

  • Working memory

    Henry Taylor     |      July 8, 2026

    Just as computers have RAM and long term storage, so the human mind can be understood in terms of working and long-term memory, while consciousness is the “broadcast” of information in the “global workspace” of the brain.

  • Not with a bang, but with a whimper

    Steve Georgakis     |      July 8, 2026

    Australia’s limp performance at the 2026 World Cup came to a disappointing end with defeat against lowly Egypt in the round of 32, so what can be learned from the tournament and what effect will it have on the struggling domestic competitions?

  • The five follies of fitness tracking

    Sahar Bakr     |      July 8, 2026

    Fitness trackers promise to help users become fitter, happier and healthier versions of themselves but turning every human experience into data for tech companies to mine isn’t always a good idea for the user.

  • Don’t panic!

    Mandy Freund     |      July 7, 2026

    The prospect of a strong El Niño during the Southern summer may mean lower rainfall for south-eastern Australia but may not condemn the rest of the continent to another ‘big dry’.

  • The fantastic fifty

    Nick Thieberger     |      July 7, 2026

    Many of Australia’s indigenous languages have already been lost or been reduced to a handful of speakers, but a new online project aims to preserve endangered languages like Djukun fifty words at a time.

  • How big tech swallowed journalism

    John Coyne     |      July 7, 2026

    Digital platforms destroyed the gatekeeping monopoly once held by newspapers and broadcasters but while the modern influence economy preserves journalism’s reach it discards the checks and balances required to keep information credible.