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Climate change. Pandemics. Peak oil.These days, many of us have grimly accepted the fact that the human species is hurtling towards oblivion – if not in our lifetime, in that of our children or…
Spraying sulphur compounds into the upper atmosphere to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the planet? Transforming the chemistry of the world’s oceans so they soak up more carbon? These ideas…
At the 1960 games in Rome, the first known Olympic doper, Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen, died after being given Roniacol before his race – a drug intended to increase blood circulation.Yet…
The Wall Street Journal calls Jared Diamond ‘a star among public intellectuals’.The big-brained anthropologist built his own brand of intellectual blockbuster with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns…
Once the Apple Isle, Tasmania’s size and isolation made it the butt of mainland jokes. But those qualities – and its stunning natural environment – are now seen as major advantages. And the buzz…
We collect five of our favourite links and articles from around the internet this week.Carver’s OK Cupid profile, edited by Gordon LishWhat if Raymond Carver wanted to hook up, and turned to the…
Dr Adam Kerezsy is a freshwater ecologist who works in some of the driest rivers and springs of inland Australia. Working with Bush Heritage Australia, he focuses on recovering populations of the…
In the clash between money and conservation, money usually wins – with devastating results in a land that tolerates few mistakes. Tim Flannery delivers a wake-up call about the consequences of…
Hiroshi Ishiguro is one of the top 100 geniuses alive in the world today – and the creator of some of the most life-like robots ever made.Ishiguro’s shockingly human androids (including his own…
Hiroshi Ishiguro is one of the top 100 geniuses alive in the world today – and the creator of some of the most life-like robots ever made. Ishiguro’s shockingly human androids (including his own…
Robots that look like people, programmed to have their own emotions and facial expressions and to react to human interaction?It sounds like science fiction, but within the past decade, it’s also…
We’ve long wondered about Mars and the question of whether the red planet can support life – so much so that the shorthand for alien life forms is ‘Martian’ (as in, citizen of Mars).This month’s…
What does global warming look like? We’re beginning to have a pretty good idea. It looks like catastrophic floods in Queensland and New South Wales, like the Victorian bushfires. It looks like the…
The author strikes backPatrick Somerville’s account of his new book being panned in the New York Times seems, at first glance, like another authorial whinge about being misunderstood by entitled…
It’s not often that a government public information campaign video goes viral. But the European Commission’s teaser video for their new campaign, Science: It’s a girl thing!‘ has been viewed and…
We share our favourite internet reads and discoveries over the past weekWhy French Bookshops Don’t Get AxedThe New York Times has reported that the French are doing things differently (as is their…
Who says science is dominated by men? Well, it might be, but these two remarkable women – Barbara Arrowsmith-Young and Dava Sobel – are at the top of their fields. Barbara Arrowsmith-Young…
Dava Sobel is the author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, and A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. In this appearance, she speaks with ABC Radio National’s R…
Barbara Arrowsmith-Young turned her life-defining learning disabilities into an unlikely asset. Unable to process language or decode symbols, she compensated with her fierce determination to learn…
Screenshot from the trailer of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious [1946], via WikiCommons There are two kinds of people in this world: those who read the last page or two of a…
Image of an ant via WikiCommons It’s one of the most mysterious aspects of animal behaviour, one even Charles Darwin struggled with: why would an animal choose to…
The federal government is also coming under pressure from health researchers after government spokespeople refused to deny speculation that next month’s federal budget will include a significant cut …
Angus Trumble, Senior Curator of Paintings for the Yale Centre for British Art, provides some pointerson the finger, in a collision between art and science, history and pop culture. From Guernica…
As the search for the so-called ‘Pink Viagra’ continues, controversy surrounds the nature of the medical ‘condition’ such a pill would treat. Do women with a low libido really have a disease called ‘…
Professor Peter Doherty reflects on how he came to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996 and how he came to science. He discusses how faith and science can co-exist, how “fiction is t…
In this instalment of Reading on Vocation, Ramona Koval introduces the reading habits and histories of three noted scientists – Tim Flannery, Douglas Hilton and Rachel Webster. Together, they…
Following Peter Singer's Lunchbox/Soapbox appearance yesterday, we invite Meat & Livestock Australia to respond, as well as asking you to join the debate. …
