Planning for regional housing

Successive governments have encouraged mass immigration to artificially bouy economic growth in the absence of real productivity rises, but this has created housing shortages and resulting price rises in Australia’s urban centres, increasing the need for better planning for housing in regional areas.

Transport free-for-all?

Fares only cover a quarter of the cost of public transport, so would removing fares for everyone make sense in terms of cutting traffic jams and improving social, as well as physical, mobility?

Help the kelp

Marine ecologists from UNSW Sydney are calling on the public to participate in a global challenge to restore a million hectares of lost underwater kelp forest by 2040.

On-demand bus services could shake up public transport

Uber-style disruption could make urban public transport more flexible and responsive for travellers.

Bye, bye bowling

Lawn bowling clubs were once common around Sydney, but changing demographics and soaring land values mean that many have been redeveloped, and more vanish every year.

Saving lives with AI screening

Machine learning algorithms could prove more accurate and reliable than conventional methods of identifying people at risk of suicide.

Higher living costs could increase homelessness

While we wait for a national housing plan, inflation and higher rents threaten to squeeze more households out of their homes and onto the streets.

Citizen science

We can all channel our inner amateur researcher and make a valuable contribution to science with our eyes – and smart phones.

Murder houses

What do real estate agents and vendors have to disclose about a house with a chequered – or even bloody – history?

Shoot to kill – why we love violent video games

In news that will surprise nobody, researchers have concluded that people like to play violent video games because they allow us to build status, compare our abilities and overcome our fears in a safe environment.

Drive fast, die young

New research led by UNSW Sydney reveals traffic-related fatalities and injuries are the biggest killers of young people worldwide ­– causing more deaths than communicable and non-communicable diseases or self-harm.

Overcoming our fear of rejection

Humans once relied on tribal and family groups for their survival, and so we’re programmed on an evolutionary level to fear social rejection, but we can learn to deal with it when it happens in the modern world.