Craig Thomson’s address to parliament today promised to either clear the air or dig a deeper hole for the embattled MP.
It would be an understatement to say that the Craig Thomson affair has been an unwelcome…
Albert Einstein made an executive decision to revolutionise our understanding of gravity in a paper published in 1916. Nearly 100 years on, a key prediction of Einstein’s theory has eluded direct detection…
The idea of a shared currency between Australia and New Zealand is not new and has engendered discussion over the past two decades. It has recently come to the forefront as a result of our Prime Ministers…
Food is an emotional topic. Everyone cares about what they eat. Food often has a strong cultural, religious or even political meaning attached to it. Organic food is no different in that respect. People…
Imagine that a soft touch or brush of the skin was enough to evoke excruciating pain. This experience is common among people who suffer with chronic pain from nerve damage. The causes are varied and include…
Late last week, Google representatives unveiled a significant enhancement to the company’s ubiquitous search engine. They’re calling it the “Knowledge Graph” and claiming it will support “more intelligent…
Australia has had a pioneering role in the discoveries that underpin our understanding that some cancers can be caused by infectious agents. But we still face many problems that could be solved if we only…
Last year – for the first time in modern history – Asia outspent Europe on their militaries. The true significance of this milestone lies in how easily the Asian countries were able to achieve it.
There…
John Gardner, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare joined Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet in 1965 to help create a ‘Great Society’ to end poverty, promote equality, improve education, rejuvenate cities…
The Melbourne Institute’s recent “Intergen +10” workshop was a retrospective on Australia’s pioneering Intergenerational Reports, an outgrowth of the fiscal responsibility legislation put in place by the…
This week marked the first anniversary of the 15-M movement, a precursor of Occupy movements worldwide.
15-M again mobilised its supporters for a 4-day long program of street protests culminating in a…
Radio National’s Background Briefing this Sunday is about the struggle of residents of a western suburb in Adelaide who are trying to stop a McDonalds restaurant being built within 200 metres of a primary…
Late tomorrow evening (AEST), all going well, a Falcon 9 rocket will lift-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A few days after launch the craft will rendezvous in low-Earth orbit with the International Space…
The trial of former Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) Colonel General, Ratko Mladić commenced in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) this past Wednesday.
Mladić’s arrest at his…
Anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor® (atorvastatin) has been estimated to generate Pfizer revenues of more than $130bn worldwide. Australian taxpayers' share of this is about $7bn, through subsidies from the…
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It’s been decades since electroshock therapy or other psychiatric interventions were routinely employed to “treat” homosexuality. These days, reparative therapy is more popular. It involves a combination…
Despite being considered a scientific taboo in the past, the study of consciousness is slowly gaining momentum.
emmakate deuchars
Until 20 years ago, scientists interested in empirical work on consciousness – our private subjective experiences – hid it by minimising or eliminating the “c-word”, the use of which was a career-limiting…
Serious, interconnected risks are closing in on the globalised community, from climate change to anarchy. Are we heeding the warnings?
AAP/EPA/Daniel Deme
In that world of peripheral vision, essential for business, social and political leaders, it is surprising that the World Economic Forum’s report, Global Risks 2012 has not received greater publicity or…
Where there's mineral wealth, people always follow.
MGM
As history has repeatedly shown, where there are valuable minerals to be unearthed, adventurous humans will arrive in droves – even if it means battling extreme conditions and risking life and limb.
So…
Infants too young to receive the whooping cough vaccine are at greatest risk.
flickr/rifqy
Recent news reports say the free whooping cough vaccine for parents to protect newborns will be discontinued because it is not effective. Parents who’ve been told this is an important step to protect their…
Sydney protesters rally for marriage equality (March 2012).
A group of 150 doctors, called Doctors for the Family, have made a submission to the Senate inquiry into gay marriage which argues that children of same-sex parents suffer poorer health and well-being…
Vitamin C is so often suggested as a treatment for the common cold that it’s almost considered common sense. This well-known vitamin is primarily found in fruits and vegetables, with small quantities in…
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