Vital Signs: booming jobs numbers, but dig deeper and it's not all rosy
Vital Signs is a regular economic wrap from UNSW economics professor and Harvard PhD Richard Holden (@profholden). Vital Signs aims to contextualise weekly economic events and cut through the noise of...
When whistleblowers are prosecuted, it has a chilling effect on press freedom in Australia
Fear is a tricky thing. It’s often hard to distinguish between what is real and perceived danger. US President Donald Trump, being more comfortable with autocrats than democratic leaders, is arg...
Science or Snake Oil: is glucosamine good for joints?
Glucosamine for osteoarthritis is one of the most commonly used complementary medicines in the western world.from www.shutterstock.comPharmaceutical companies have been promoting glucosamine supplemen...
Technology doesn't have to be lonely: encouraging dialogue over diatribe
Almost four in 10 millennials spend more time on their smartphones than they do engaging with people in real life.Mavis Wong/The Conversation, CC BY-SADo you ever feel like when you post to Facebook, ...
Friday essay: why YA gothic fiction is booming - and girl monsters are on the rise
Zoey Deutch in the film Vampire Academy (2014).Angry Films, Kintop Pictures, Preger EntertainmentAn 18-year-old girl prepares to die to enable the birth of her half-vampire baby. Her spine is broken i...
AEMO's 'cohesive' energy plan falls short because it omits two key economic facts
Is the sun setting fast enough on coal-fired power?The Integrated System Plan, unveiled this week by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), has been billed as a cohesive energy plan for Austral...
Empty car parks everywhere, but nowhere to park. How cities can do better
A parking attendant strolls through a rooftop car park in MelbourneJay Miller/flickr, CC BY-NCIt’s a familiar story in Australian cities: a new apartment building is proposed, and debate soon fo...
Universities can help recruit more science and maths teachers, but they can't do it alone
Encouraging students to study science and maths at university is only one step in a complex pipeline that turns out specialist teachers.from www.shutterstock.comCalls for universities to recruit more ...
Grattan on Friday: Disillusioned voters find it easy to embrace a crossbencher like Rebekha Sharkie
More than two decades ago Alexander Downer stood aside as opposition leader for John Howard, paving the way for the 1996 Coalition election win. This week Howard was in Mayo, his former foreign minist...
Explainer: what is parricide and how common is it in Australia?
Police at the scene in Ellenbrook, Western Australia, where the bodies of a mother and her two children were found. Her 19-year-old son has since been charged with their murder.AAP/Bohdan WarchomijThe...
Rising reliance on personal income tax signals need for bolder reforms
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has just released a report on trends in Commonwealth taxation receipts. While supporting the expectations of a budget in balance by 2019-20, it exposes worrying t…
Sign up to Thrive and learn to live well
Your weekly dose of evidence. Eat this, don’t eat that. Exercise like this, not like that. Sleep more, sleep less. Sound like something you’ve heard before? Well, we’re tired off it too. When it com…
Here's a funny thing: can comedy really change our environmental behaviours?
Bernard Hermant/UnsplashSomeone (possibly George Bernard Shaw) once said: “If you want to tell people the truth, you’d better make them laugh or they’ll kill you”. While comedy…
The winners and losers in the 2018 World Cup broadcast battle
France might have won the 2018 World Cup title, but who were the real winners in the broadcast battle? Not everyone could make it to Russia to watch the games live, and that left people all over the w…
Tech innovators start to see old-fashioned benefits of collective bargaining
After a long industrial campaign, Amazon workers in Italy have persuaded their employer to reach an agreement with them.FILCAMS CGILDisruption has been a defining buzzword of this decade, as companies…
Explainer: how Tasmania's Aboriginal people reclaimed a language, palawa kani
Hobart's Mount Wellington is now also known by its palawa kani name, kunanyiShutterstockTruganini’s death in Hobart in May 1876 attracted worldwide attention. She was widely, but wrongly, believ…
It Takes Faith to Be an Atheist
I once had enough faith in myself to believe there was no God. I had enough of that self-centered faith to believe the entire universe sprang from a Big Bang. I could believe that Big Bang came fr…
The origins of those sexual organs: a fishy tale much more primitive than we thought
_Euphanerops_, a primitive jawless fish from the World Heritage site at Miguasha, Quebec, which has now been found to have paired hind limb structures and copulatory sex organs.François Miville…
What Australia's convict past reveals about women, men, marriage and work
Male-dominated sex ratios in Australia's history still affect attitudes today. WikimediaSuccess for women often comes at a cost. Award-winning, election-winning and high-earning women are more likely…
Does osteopathy work?
Studies examining pain are hard to judge, since they're based on participants' self-reported pain levels. from www.shutterstock.comEvery year, Australian osteopaths provide around 3.9 million clinical…
No presents, please: how gift cards initiate children into the world of 'credit'
Most Australian children have such a glut of toys that parents are opting to give them gift cards so they can choose for themselves.rawpixel/UnsplashWestern children have more toys, games and possessi…
Ten classics of Indigenous design
Murri sculptures (2012) by Reko Rennie (Kamilaroi) at Melbourne's LaTrobe University.LaTrobe UniversityBlak Design Matters is the first exhibition in Australia specifically dedicated to contemporary I…
The case for introducing rhinos to Australia
Australia could sustain wild rhinos, but should it try?Renaud Fulconis/International Rhino Foundation, Author providedRhinos in Australia might seem like an insane proposition – after all, we&rs…
Do 'screaming children' in playgrounds ruin neighbourhood parks?
Noise pollution is usually associated with aeroplanes flying overhead, not happy children.from shutterstock.comIt’s a fine winter morning and you’ve just made a cup of tea. You’re wa…
When art meets reality TV our visual literacy is found wanting
But is it art...? Fast-car fans Maurice and Harry in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in ABC's Everyone's A Critic. ABCI was hopeful about the ABC’s new art/reality TV show, Everyone’s A…
Why Trump has made Europe more fearful of a possible Russian attack
US President Donald Trump’s eyebrow-raising visit to Europe has confirmed Europeans’ worst fears: if another “Crimea-like” take-over by Russia occurs somewhere on the continent…
Plastic poses biggest threat to seabirds in New Zealand waters, where more breed than elsewhere
The Northern Royal Albatross is one of many species of seabird that breed in New Zealand.from www.shutterstock.com, CC BY-SAPlastic pollution has the potential to cause the worst damage to seabirds in…
Explaining Australia's school funding debate: what's at stake
The storm over school funding continues, and at its centre, how best to decide who pays.from www.shutterstock.comEstimating how much parents can afford to pay towards their children’s schooling …