Australian science: healthy but starting to splutter
Australian science is “generally in good health”, but faces major challenges in the form of falling science participation…
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Wilkie gives reluctant support to weaker pokie reforms
Watered-down poker machine reforms designed to protect problem gamblers will go ahead after Tasmanian Independent MP Andrew…
Humanities post-grads feel less support, fight for desks
Postgraduate students in humanities, arts and social sciences are older, feel less supported and have fewer spaces to work…
Monash VC calls for fee deregulation in universities
Giving universities the power to charge more for their top courses would ensure they could offer a “premium” education…
Top Australian unis to test new science metrics system
The University of Melbourne and Australian National University will perform a “stocktake” of all scientific research projects…
Push to quantify social impact of science goes global
Australia is preparing to join a worldwide push to map the wider social returns on investments in science.
This week Professor…
Backdown on new psychiatric diagnoses a welcome respite
Australian psychiatrists have welcomed a rare move by a US panel editing the universal diagnostic manual to drop two unpopular…
Post-1950s warming in region unmatched in 1,000 years
Post-1950s warming in the Australasian region is unmatched by any climate fluctuations over the past 1,000 years, according…
Keeping clean easier with water-repellent coating
A new coating for cotton that is 1½ times more water-repellent than Teflon can survive for dozens of machine washes, say…
Floods and heatwaves to increase across NSW
Rising sea levels could threaten up to 60,000 houses, 1200 commercial buildings and 250 kilometres of highway in NSW by the…
Australia ranked 8th in the world for higher education
Australia is ranked eighth out of 48 countries in a new global measure of higher education – behind the US, Canada and Scandanavian…
Species with multiple colours evolve faster
Australian researchers have provided the first support for a 60-year-old evolution theory – that species with multiple colours…
Molecule may be key to halting early dementia
The discovery of a molecule that appears to regulate memory and learning in the brain could pave the way for treatments of…
Budget relief for unis, but financial strain lies ahead
Anxiety gave way to relief across universities last night after Labor handed down a higher education budget that maintained…
Efficiency tax will stifle scientific work at CSIRO
A $23-million “efficiency dividend” on administrative costs at CSIRO will inevitably affect the quality of scientific research…
Make gender targets a job measure for managers
Australian businesses should set managers “challenging gender targets” and hold them accountable for the proportion of women…
Fertility treatments linked to higher risk of birth defects
Babies conceived using commonly available fertility treatments are on average almost 50% more likely to have a birth defect…
Dingoes may have wiped out Tasmanian tiger on mainland
Dingoes were twice the size of female thylacines and could have caused their extinction on mainland Australia through direct…
Simple test for heart defects in babies should be routine
Newborn screening for life-threatening congenital heart defects using pulse oximetry – a simple, low-cost test – is the most…
Wiki founder to build open access site for UK research
The British government has enlisted the services of Wikipedia in a push to make all taxpayer-funded academic research from…
Tens of thousands of students in alternative education
More than 33,000 disenfranchised young Australians are taking part in at least 400 “non-conventional schooling” programs…
Obese women face discrimination in job hunt
People who worry about their appearance are more likely to discriminate against obese people, a new study has found.
Researchers…
Gene discovery could help treat deadliest form of cancer
The discovery of a tumour suppressing gene could offer hope to patients with the deadliest form of cancer, new research has…
Wind farms lift the temperature in their region
Wind turbines can modify the local climate by warming the atmosphere, according to a study that revealed an increase in temperature…
Dry parts of the planet to get drier, wet parts wetter
The cycle of evaporation and rainfall over the past 50 years has intensified at twice the rate predicted by climate change…