At last, health, aged care and quarantine workers get the right masks to protect against airborne coronavirus

By C Raina MacIntyre Et Al

Almost a year ago, in July 2020, our calls for the government to urgently upgrade the guidelines to protect health workers from airborne SARS-CoV-2 fell on deaf ears. The existing guidelines said health providers...

Netanyahu leaves behind a complex legacy in Israel. His successor will need to deliver change — and fast

By Ran Porat

Israels 36th government was approved today, with a slim majority of 6059 in the Knesset (parliament). The new prime minister is the leader of national-religious party Yamina, Naftali Bennett. A religious person, former...

Even without new fossil fuel projects, global warming will still exceed 1.5℃.

By Sven Teske Et Al

The International Energy Agency (IEA) last month made global headlines when it declared there is no room for new fossil fuel investment if were to avoid catastrophic climate change. However, our new research suggests...

Is it worth selling my house if I'm going into aged care?

By Colin Zhang

For senior Australians who cannot live independently at home, residential aged care can provide accommodation, personal care and general health care. People usually think this is expensive. And many assume they need to...

Can Bitcoin become a real currency? Here's what's wrong with El Salvador's crypto plan

By John Hawkins1

Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, has got himself a pair of laser eyes on his Twitter profile at least. Laser eyes are something social media users give themselves to show they love cryptocurrency and Bukele...

The problem with online learning? It doesn't teach people to think

By Robert Danisch

The modern research university was designed to produce new knowledge and to pass that knowledge on to students. North American universities over the last 100 years have been exceptionally good at that task. But this is...

What's the G-7? An international economist explains

By Emily J. Blanchard

What the G-7 is The Group of 7 is an informal group of seven powerful democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The presidents of the European Commission and European...

Does a plant-based diet really help beat COVID-19?

By Duane Mellor

Since the beginning of the pandemic, its been suggested that certain foods or diets may offer protection against COVID-19. But are these sorts of claims reliable? A recent study published in BMJ Nutrition, Prevention...

How COVID-19 exposed the systemic ageism at the heart of Britain

By Shir Shimoni

The UK public cares deeply about injustices. In the first few months of 2021, thousands of people took to the streets demanding much-needed social changes, from Black Lives Matter to Kill the Bill protests against the...

Identity fusion: why some people will go to extremes for the beliefs of a group

By Roger Whitaker

Football fans often become so deeply connected to their club and to other fans, as though theyre related. Theyre willing to support the group on a lifelong basis, with unwaivering pride even in the face of losses. At...

With new Atlantic Charter, Biden and Johnson reset the special relationship

By Martin Farr

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill first met in the summer of 1941 on HMS Prince of Wales to create the Atlantic Charter, establishing the terms of their countries relationship in war, and, as it was to prove, in...

Fake news: a simple nudge isn’t enough to tackle it – here's what to do instead

By Sander van der Linden Et Al

One high-profile theory of why people share fake news says that they arent paying sufficient attention. The proposed solution is therefore to nudge people in the right direction. For example, accuracy primes short...

Fashion for pointy shoes unleashed a wave of bunions in medieval England

By Piers Mitchell Et Al

The 14th century saw the arrival of an abundance of new styles of dress and footwear in Europe, coming in a wide range of fabrics and colours. Among these new fashion trends were poulaines rather eccentric-looking...

Proceed to your nearest (virtual) exit: gaming technology is teaching us how people respond to emergencies

By Ruggiero Lovreglio

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) arent just for gaming anymore, theyre also proving to be useful tools for disaster safety research. In fact, they could save lives. Around the world, natural and...

It's not the Reserve Bank's job to worry about housing prices

By Richard Holden

Once again folks are pointing to the potential danger of Australias low interest rates. This week a poll of so-called market economists by ratings agency Fitch had only 12% of respondents in favour of the Reserve Bank...

Aphantasia explained: some people can't form mental pictures

By Zoë Pounder

How many times have you watched a book adaptation on film or TV, and felt disappointed when a scene wasnt quite how youd pictured it? Or perhaps a character looked nothing like youd imagined them to look? Most people,...

London terror attack: Canadians have become desensitized to violence against Muslims

By Jasmeet Bahia

A Muslim family was targeted in a violent hate crime in London, Ont., that left four people dead and a nine-year-old child in critical condition. Police have confirmed the attack was motivated by hate and that the...

Rapid delivery grocery apps have flourished during the pandemic – but will they permanently change how we shop?

By Janina Steinmetz

Billions of dollars are flowing to support companies you may never have heard of startups with memorable names like Zapp, Deliveroo, Getir and Gorillas. These speedy delivery companies have become the go-to for many...

Fastly's global internet meltdown could be a sign of things to come

By David S. Wall

For an hour on the morning of June 8, dozens of the worlds most-visited websites went offline. Among those affected were Amazon, Reddit, PayPal and Spotify, as well as the Guardian, the New York Times and the UK government...

The internet consumes extraordinary amounts of energy. Here's how we can make it more sustainable

By Jeff Kettle

Around 4.6 billion people use the internet every day. In fact, 350,000 tweets have been sent in the past minute. We tend to think of the internet as something ephemeral partly thanks to terms like web and cloud but the...

Ultra-marathon running: how safe is the sport?

By Lindsay Bottoms

The 2021 Yellow River Stone Forest 100km trail race in Gansu province, China, ended in tragedy in May, when unexpectedly severe weather resulted in the deaths of 21 of the 172 competitors. Among them was the Chinese...

Fastly global internet outage: why did so many sites go down — and what is a CDN, anyway?

By Paul Haskell-Dowland

If you were having difficulty accessing your favourite website on Tuesday evening Australian time, youre not alone. A jaw-dropping number of major websites around the globe suddenly became unavailable with no immediately...

How an app to decrypt criminal messages was born 'over a few beers' with the FBI

By David Tuffley

Australian and US law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced theyd sprung a trap three years in the making, catching major international crime figures using an encrypted app. More than 200 underworld figures in...

What would sustainable tourism really mean for New Zealand? Let’s ask the river

By Jason Paul Mika Et Al

Excitement among Cook Islands tourism operators and officials at the opening of quarantine-free travel with Aotearoa New Zealand was understandable. The impact of the pandemic on the island nations economy has been massive...

Tasmania's reached net-zero emissions and 100% renewables – but climate action doesn't stop there

By Rupert Posner Et Al

Getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and 100% renewable energy might seem the end game for climate action. But what if, like Tasmania, youve already ticked both those goals off your list? Net-zero means...

To become an innovation nation, we really need to think smaller

By Martie-Louise Verreynne Et Al

It took a chance meeting between Cameron van den Dungen, founder of a start-up mattress company, and Madhu Bhaskaran, an engineering professor at RMIT University, to see an opportunity to collaborate and commercialise...

Congress considers future of the military draft, while Supreme Court holds off

By Max Margulies Et Al

The Supreme Court has declined to hear arguments in the case of National Coalition for Men v. Selective Service System. In doing so, it acceded to the Biden administrations wishes that it not address the question of...

Making virtual assistants sound human poses a challenge for designers

By Dongwook Yoon Et Al

Theres a scene in the 2008 film Iron Man that offers a glimpse of future interactions between human and artificial intelligence assistants. In it, Tony Starks virtual assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. responds with sarcasm and humour...

To create a better work environment after COVID-19, we must truly hear employees

By Elisabeth Rondinelli Et Al

When the third wave of COVID-19 hit Canada and the benefits of the short-lived hero pay had long passed, workers advocates made renewed calls for a paid sick leave policy. In Ontario, where the third wave was...

UFOs: how to calculate the odds that an alien spaceship has been spotted

By Anders Sandberg

The US military has released previously classified photos and films related to unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings, which mostly show something blurry moving strangely. Still, I hear that a friend of a friend has...

How far away are professional golfers from accepting rangefinders in competition?

By Heather F Neyedli Et Al

In May 2021, at age 50, Phil Mickelson became the oldest golfer to win a major professional tournament. He also made history as the first golfer to win a major professional tournament using a rangefinder to estimate shot...

TB Joshua: the Pentecostalist, televangelist and philanthropist

By George Nche

In the wake of the death of Nigerian televangelist Temitope Balogun Joshua, who founded the Synagogue Church of All Nations in Lagos, there have been a host of tributes and obituaries. Religious scholar George Nche, a...

G7 tax deal: if you think multinationals will be forced to pay more, you don't understand tax avoidance

By Ronen Palan

Finance ministers in London from the G7 group of wealthy nations have agreed a deal that has been described invariably as a landmark that will transform the landscape of global corporate tax. Although details are somewhat...

How to keep your house cool – cover it with new whiter-than-white paint, says research

By Andrew Parnell

From icy tundras to billowing clouds, the colour white crops up repeatedly in our planets palette. This colour provides a natural way for light from the sun to reflect back from the Earths surface and into space. This...

Climate change: world's lakes are in hot water – threatening rare wildlife

By Antonia Law

The Earths surface is splotched with 117 million lakes. Some are scarcely more than ponds, while others are so big they can be seen from space. At 395 miles long, 49 miles wide and just over 1 mile deep, Lake Baikal in...

I'm fully vaccinated – should I keep wearing a mask for my unvaccinated child?

By Nancy S. Jecker

Fully vaccinated adults are celebrating their new freedom and removing their face masks. Yet for parents of children under age 12, the rejoicing might be short-lived. Since children that age do not yet have access to...

'Bride kidnapping' haunts rural Kyrgyzstan, causing young women to flee their homeland

By Erin Hofmann Et Al

There are many types of forced marriage in this world, but perhaps the most dramatic is marriage by abduction, or bride kidnapping. Bride kidnapping is common in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Caucasus and Central...

What the Ottoman Empire can teach us about the consequences of climate change – and how drought can uproot peoples and fuel warfare

By Andrea Duffy

In the late 16th century, hundreds of bandits on horseback stormed through the countryside of Ottoman Anatolia raiding villages, inciting violence and destabilizing the sultans grip on power Four hundred years later and...

Why are some mushrooms poisonous?

By Karen Hughes

Why are some mushrooms poisonous and some are not? Alice T., age 11 You may have noticed that mushrooms pop up in your yard or in parks right after a rain but dont last for long. A mushroom is the above-ground...

G7 summit: what to expect from Boris Johnson as Joe Biden visits the UK

By Tim Bale

Joe Bidens first trip to the UK as US President this week is bound to produce hundreds of hot takes on the state of the so-called special relationship, most looking for signs either of its continuing strength or its more...

Nasa has just rejected missions to moons of Jupiter and Neptune – here's what we would have found out

By Ashley Spindler

Its been 30 years since Nasa last visited Venus, with the Magellan orbiter in 1990. Now, two new missions have been selected to explore the deadly atmosphere, crushing pressures and volcanic landscape. The process dates...

Personalised nutrition is trendy, but can it help us eat less junk food?

By Katherine Livingstone

Australian adults get around one-third of their energy intake from junk foods. Also known as discretionary foods, these include foods such as biscuits, cakes, sausages, sugar-sweetened drinks and alcohol. Unhealthy...

Morrison slumps in Newspoll but Coalition gains, as lockdown shows vaccination is essential

By Adrian Beaumont

This weeks Newspoll had Labor and the Coalition tied at 50-50 on a two-party-preferred basis. This is a one point gain for the Coalition since the last Newspoll, three weeks ago. Primary votes were 41% Coalition (steady),...

Calling in the army for the vaccine rollout and every other emergency shows how ill-prepared we are

By John Blaxland

News the armys Lieutenant General John JJ Frewen has been picked to lead a new COVID-19 vaccination task force has prompted fresh discussion of the defence forces role in Australia. Frewen, already the commander of the...

How the pandemic has brought out the worst — and the best — in Australians and their governments

By Frank Bongiorno

For many years, surveys indicated declining Australian trust in government. Not anymore. On the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer, which measures average trust in NGOs, business, government and the media, trust in Australia...

Power from the ocean: can we use bio-fouling organisms to help extract energy from waves?

By Craig Stevens Et Al

People living near the coast are familiar with the power of ocean waves. What we see when a typical wave breaks on a beach is the endpoint of a global energy conversion story. It starts with the suns heat driving winds...

Obituary: TB Joshua, Nigeria's controversial Pentecostal titan

By Dion Forster

The controversial Nigerian televangelist, faith healer, and neo-Pentecostal pastor Temitope Balogun (TB) Joshua has died at the age of 57. He was the leader of Nigeria-based The Synagogue Church of All Nations. Many...

Climate change: six priorities for pulling carbon out of the air

By Cameron Hepburn

To reach net zero emissions by 2050, global emissions must be cut faster and deeper than the world has yet managed. But even then, some hard-to-treat sources of pollution in aviation, agriculture and cement making may...

How to 'build back better' health habits after the pandemic year

By Claudia Finkelstein

The U.S. is in far different shape today than it was last Memorial Day, and many Americans are, too. According to a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, undesired changes in weight driven by pandemic...

How to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake and decrease vaccine hesitancy in young people

By Tracie O. Afifi Et Al

Ending the coronavirus pandemic rests partly on a large uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, with the goal of reaching herd immunity. Recently in Canada, the age for vaccine eligibility has been decreasing to include young adults...