• Neuroscience

    You can teach old dogs new tricks


    Stephen Badham |  May 3, 2024


    Employers – and the general public – often assume young people are smarter, or at least quicker to learn, than older people, but new research suggests that cognitive differences between the old and young have been tapering off over time.


  • Science and Technology

    Who’s afraid of quantum computing?


    Chris Ferrie |  May 3, 2024


    Embracing quantum technology might be less about overcoming fear and more about fostering understanding, encouraging patience, and maintaining an open mind to the unlimited possibilities this technology promises to bring.


  • Environment

    A spring clean for Everest


    Alton Byers |  May 3, 2024


    Mount Everest was once the ultimate challenge in high-altitude mountaineering, but the commodification of expeditions over the last 30 years has turned it into a motorway strewn with trash which urgently requires a spring clean.


Latest Story

  • The silent truth

    Roger Chao     |      April 20, 2024

    Conflict has marred the whole of human history, but the hope for peace is everlasting in the human imagination. In a world riven by war from Ukraine to Israel, Yemen to Mayanmar, we should all remember our common humanity and the healing power of art.

  • Alien science

    Philip Almond     |      April 20, 2024

    We no longer live in a universe that is seen as the product of the divine plenitude. Nor one in which our planet can be viewed as the centre of the universe. As a result, ironically, we have become aliens to ourselves: modern “alienation” is that sense of being lost and forsaken in the vast spaces of a godless universe.

  • More weird books, please!

    Emmett Stinson     |      April 20, 2024

    Two new books by Australian authors, “Tell” by Jonathan Buckley and “It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over” by Anne de Marcken, add to the puzzle of the post-post-postmodern novel.

  • Labor flunks its test on environmental protection

    Euan Ritchie     |      April 19, 2024

    Labor’s failure to fulfill its election promise to reform Australia’s much flaunted environmental protection laws puts their goals of “no new extinctions” and a “nature positive” future for Australia at risk.

  • Express your enthusiasm

    Nathan Abrams     |      April 19, 2024

    Over its 12 seasons and 120 episodes, Curb Your Enthusiasm became a cult classic, leaving a lasting legacy on television comedy and cementing Larry David’s position as one of the greatest comedy writers of our time.

  • An eye on Indigenous business

    Michelle Evans     |      April 19, 2024

    Indigenous owned and run businesses may be worth billions of dollars to the Australian economy, but despite new research into their scope and activities, we still don’t know enough about them.

  • White reef grief

    Open Forum     |      April 18, 2024

    The summer of 2023−24 saw substantial climate driven impacts across the Great Barrier Reef, with widespread coral bleaching, two cyclones and several severe flood events.

  • Bouncing back from the dead

    Open Forum     |      April 18, 2024

    Palaeontologists from Flinders University have identified three species of giant kangaroos from Australia and New Guinea which lived from around 5 million to 40,000 years ago before they were wiped out by man.

  • Buying friends and influencing people

    Teuku Riefky     |      April 18, 2024

    The Solomon Islands election will be watched closely by both Beijing and Washington, and test the success of China’s policy of buying political influence in the region.

  • Women still see politics as a male-dominated domain

    Open Forum     |      April 17, 2024

    Despite growing momentum to increase female representation in Australia’s national parliament, it continues to be a male dominated domain. New research from Monash University explores why young women still feel reluctant to become a member of the national parliament.

  • Encouraging critical thinking in schools

    Geoffrey Dobson     |      April 17, 2024

    Better education, combined with social media regulation, can help to combat the plague of science denial on popular platforms like tik-tok.

  • Will China win the Solomon Islands election?

    Priestley Habru     |      April 17, 2024

    The overbearing economic, political and security influence of China will weigh heavily on the Solomon Islands election.