• Defence and Security

    Meeting the authoritarian challenge


    Matthew Sussex |  July 23, 2021


    There are no easy ways to generate democratic resilience, but it is a crucial endeavour given the increasing range and severity of ‘grey zone’ assaults committed by China, Russia and other authoritarian nations.


  • Environment

    Clever cockatoos learn through social interaction


    Open Forum |  July 23, 2021


    60 years after blue tits in England learned to peck at silver milk bottle tops on doorsteps, Australian researchers have realised that cockatoos also learn how to open rubbish bins from each other.


  • Environment

    Restoring the world’s dry lands


    Open Forum |  July 23, 2021


    Although environmental concern often focuses on the loss of tropical forests, restoring the world’s dry lands to health should also be an urgent priority.


Latest Story

  • Making the most of critical minerals

    Gavin Lockyer     |      July 6, 2021

    Australia has a huge amount to gain from taking advantage of its natural abundance of critical minerals and positioning itself as a world leader in their production.

  • Mapping global pesticide pollution

    Open Forum     |      July 6, 2021

    A global map of agricultural land across 168 countries has revealed that 64 percent of land used for agriculture and food crops is at risk of pesticide pollution.

  • Academia must allow open debate on contentious issues

    Luara Ferracioli     |      July 4, 2021

    Political correctness tends to trump reality in modern universities, but if difficult issues can’t be discussed there, what’s the point of such institutions?

  • Chinese communism at 100

    Michael Shoebridge     |      July 4, 2021

    China’s communist party celebrated its centenary with gaudy celebrations of its iron grip on power and increasing belligerence abroad, financed by its ditching of disastrous Marxist economics over the last 35 years.

  • Nature is a public good

    Philippa England     |      July 3, 2021

    As the health of Australia’s environment continues to decline, the federal government is wagering on the ability of private markets to help solve the problem. So is this a wise move? The evidence is not at all encouraging.

  • Drawing a blank

    Thomas Andrillon     |      July 3, 2021

    Rather than a binary on-off state, a new study examines how sleep and wakefulness can be intermingled in the human brain.

  • Do lockdowns save lives?

    Richard Holden     |      July 3, 2021

    The argument for city-wide lockdowns rests on the lives saved outweighing the social and economic costs, and studies which dispute their efficacy should be grounded in sound methodology.

  • Arvanitakis and McConnell on American politics: SCOTUS

    Jason McConnell     |      July 3, 2021

    A recent judgement involving an angry Pennsylvania cheerleader has brought the Supreme Court of the United States back into the headlines.

  • Protecting Melbourne’s ‘green wedges’

    Janet Stanley     |      July 3, 2021

    The natural areas of Melbourne are under increasing threat despite growing evidence of their importance for people as well as wildlife.

  • Indonesia needs help to fight COVID-19

    David Engel     |      July 3, 2021

    As millions of Australians emerge from lockdowns to curb a relatively minor surge in Covid-19, Canberra should spare a thought for the much greater crisis unfolding in Indonesia.

  • Full STEAM ahead

    James Arvanitakis     |      July 2, 2021

    Efforts to break down the barriers between the ‘arts and social sciences’ and the ‘hard sciences’ and to encourage creativity can only improve student outcomes.

  • The recycling robot

    Open Forum     |      July 2, 2021

    Researchers at the University of Sydney are developing a smart, automated robot to sort recyclable plastic waste.