Latest Story
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Don’t look back
Agnes Arnold-Forster | May 18, 2024Nostalgia was once thought to be a potentially fatal illness, but is now co-opted by advertising agencies and politicians alike to sell us goods and policies harking back to ‘better days’ which perhaps never existed.
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The nature of nature
Tom Oliver | May 18, 2024Changing the dictionary definition of nature from “as opposed to humans” to “including humans” would encourage people to use the word in a way that reflects how humans are intertwined with the whole web of life.
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Small is beautiful
Tim Rock | May 18, 2024While large animals may dominate nature documentaries, most life on Earth is very small indeed, for very good reasons.
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Speaking up for women in sport
Catherine Ordway | May 17, 2024As Australia grapples with a “national crisis” of violence against women, what can men in sport do to help? A minute’s silence is fine in itself but being quiet isn’t enough.
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Review bombing
Nick Hajli | May 17, 2024Customer reviews on the internet have long been corrupted by shills, Google’s advertising schemes and SEO optimisation, but a tsunami of AI generated garbage is now rendering them useless unless users exercise great care.
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Natural philosophy
Open Forum | May 17, 2024Public policy should be based on scientific evidence – but scientists often lament the gap between science and policy, while policy-makers feel that scientists don’t deliver the evidence that is needed, so perhaps philosophical expertise can help close the gap between research and policy.
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Crime waves
Virginia Comolli | May 16, 2024Economic diversification is exposing Pacific islands countries to new criminal threats, according to the latest report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
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The discrete charms of the analogue world
Michael Beverland | May 16, 2024The backlash against digitisation, artificial intelligence and the appropriation of human culture by a handful of technology giants is exemplified by a growing interest in classic analogue synths, rather than their soulless digital successors.
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Only the astronauts
Tony Hughes-d'Aeth | May 16, 2024Adrift in outer space, a motley crew of human-made objects tell their tales, making real history a little sweeter and stranger, in the new collection of short stories by Ceridwen Dovey.
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Chalmers’ budget giveaway
Stephen Bartos | May 15, 2024Jim Chalmers has produced a benign third budget aimed at soothing hard-pressed voters agitated about their high cost of living and punishing interest rates without making things worse by over-stoking the economy.
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Under siege
Geoff Heriot | May 15, 2024The growing cyber, foreign interference, and disinformation threat from hostile state and non-state actors motivates a call for Australia to use all tools of statecraft to help shape the information space.
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Is there any AI out there?
Michael Garrett | May 15, 2024Every technological breakthrough or environmental issue – from nuclear weapons to climate change – has been trumpeted as the reason we haven’t detected intelligent alien life, and AI isn’t about to miss the party.
