Covid computer

The effects of long hours of playing violent video games on young people have long been a matter of debate and concern, heightened by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Marriage for the modern age

Although societies around the world have diverged and changed radically over the ages, marriage has remained a constant theme. Given our lengthening life expectancies, are further reforms required?

Believe in tomorrow

Many things which once appeared impossible are now commonplace. Despite the many challenges with which we are faced, we should have faith that humanity can take a great leap forward to triumph over them – and our self doubts.

Private life dramas

Commentators talk about individual privacy as if it is a sacred right which has to be protected but most people have few qualms concerning which organisations access their personal data.

The moral maze

The development of scientific techniques can outpace the legal and ethical boundaries society sets to control them. Where should the line be drawn between the common good and personal rights?

High jinks with helium

Helium is best known as the gas used in airships and party balloons, but its rarity gives it a strategic significance which may have shaped Australia’s engagement with East Timor.

The more you know, the less you need

Indigenous traditions of food cultivation highlight the different approaches of European and indigenous people to environmental knowledge and land management.

They’re here…?

Recent revelations of UFO sightings by American Navy fighter pilots may not be proof of alien visitation, but are certainly worthy of further serious scientific investigation.

On bias

We all need to learn to recognise our own bias and learn about other people, their ways of life, their beliefs, their ways of doing things. Only then can we live together in harmony.

F is for fake – and fortune

Art forgery has been a lucrative trade down the ages, but do its victims only have their own greed to blame?

Women are right to protest

The upsurge of women coming out fighting on the issue of sexual harrassment at work should not come as a surprise.

The opiate of the people

For better or worse, religion remains a pervasive influence on human society around the world, but a strict separation between religion and politics is in the best interest of believers and non-believers alike.