Putting carbon back in the land is just a smokescreen for real climate action: Climate Council report

By Will Steffen Et Al

Just as people pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, the land also absorbs some of those emissions. Plants, as they grow, use carbon dioxide and store it within their bodies. However, as the...

British people are feeling better than ever – here's how we can tell

By Juliet Wakefield

If the latest statistics are to be believed, personal well-being is rising across the UK. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), people have reported feeling happier, more satisfied with life, more...

Trendy foods should come with a recipe for sustainability

By Wayne Martindale

The soft creamy flesh of a ripe avocado makes an attractive and healthy addition to many of our shopping baskets. Smashed, crushed or sliced on toast for a celebrity chef breakfast, it is a fruit which is savoured across...

How animals are adapting to cope with their noisiest neighbours – humans

By Philip James

Human noise is forcing animals around the world to go through changes, unknown and invisible to most of us. It will be another case of the survival of the fittest: some species will adapt and thrive; others will struggle...

Shimon Peres was an Israeli nationalist first and a peacemaker second

By Maria Holt

Shimon Peres, often described as the last of Israels founding fathers, has died at 93 after a major stroke. Peres was a pillar of the Israeli political scene from the states founding in 1948 until his death, and his...

How 'robots' of the Enlightenment era gave us an early glimpse of automation

By Stephanie O'Rourke

The Whos lead singer Roger Daltrey and his wife Heather are in Edinburgh, Scotland to auction a selection of rare mechanical devices called automata. Automata are models of people or animals from previous centuries that...

Immigrants told to leave UK face huge hike in fees to appeal decisions

By Jo Wilding

Immigrants appealing through the courts for a right to remain in the UK will soon face a huge increase in procedural costs after the government announced fee hikes of over 500% for some types of appeal through the...

How the human brain can register information without conscious attention

By Volker Thoma

Magicians, dictators, advertisers and scientists all know it. It is possible to influence people without them even realising it. The technique, known as priming, involves introducing a stimulus a word, an image or a sound...

Can artificial grass and fake trees replace our need for ‘real’ nature?

By Ian Kellar Et Al

The benefits of spending time outdoors are well known. Whether travelling for an hour to reach open countryside or simply walking five minutes to a nearby urban park, being in and around nature makes us happier and...

In Turkey's state of emergency, social media is more important than ever

By Gülçin Erdi Lelandais

Turkey has become notorious for curtailing media freedom and jailing journalists. As well as persecuting journalists, the government often shuts down Facebook, Twitter or Youtube when street demonstrations and terrorist...

There are question marks over much of the forensic evidence used in our courts

By Marilyn McMahon

Crime dramas in film and television often focus on the value of forensic procedures in solving crimes and convicting criminals. While this evidence is often portrayed as almost infallible, a report released this month in...

Climate change and the presidential race: Lessons from the Reagan years

By Andrew J. Hoffman

Climate change did not come up in the first presidential debate well, not in any real sense. Hillary Clinton jabbed at Donald Trump for claiming that The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in...

Why America needs the virtues of humility

By Christopher Beem

In a recent speech full of allusions to Bible verses and Christian hymns at the National Baptist Convention in Kansas City, Hillary Clinton focused on Christian humility. She acknowledged that Humility is not...

Feed a virus but starve bacteria? When you're sick, it may really matter

By Ruslan Medzhitov

Think back to the last time you came down with a cold and what it felt like to be sick. For most people, the feeling of sickness is a set of psychological and behavioral changes including fatigue, lethargy, changes in...

Underwater robots help scientists see where marine larvae go and how they get there

By Thomas Wolcott Et Al

Many people who love the oceans never realize that a single drop of seawater is teeming with plankton, which means drifters in Greek. These organisms, which typically range in size from a pinhead down to the tip of a pin,...

The 'Uberisation' of work is driving people to co-operatives

By Sarah Kaine Et Al

Street protests against popular sharing economy firms Uber and Airbnb have become commonplace around the world. Both these sector giants are succeeding in circumventing market regulations in many markets in areas including...

Fertile ground: what you need to know about soil to keep your garden healthy

By Petra Marschner

Most people think of soil only in terms of the dirt that sticks stubbornly to their hands and shoes. But soil is much more than that. A handful of soil is a small and very complex ecosystem which includes soil...

Decolonising psychology creates possibilities for social change

By Shose Kessi

The issues raised by South African university students in a new round of protests must be read as inter-related and integral to the ongoing decolonial project. Racism, gender-based violence and oppressive working...

'Free' higher education: unrealistic expectations, unsustainable solutions

By Damtew Teferra

Free higher education is a myth. There is no such thing anywhere in the world, even in wealthy states like Germany, Finland, Norway and Sweden, which insist that their tertiary education systems are free. In fact, higher...

How Kenyan and Tanzanian medicine producers deserve a shot in the arm

By Maureen Mackintosh Et Al

Despite major improvement in access to HIV/Aids and TB treatment most people living in Africa still lack access to reliable and appropriate medicines. They continue to struggle with the worst health status in the world....

The wrong questions are being asked in the free higher education debate

By Nico Cloete

The main brief of the Commission of Inquiry into Higher Education and Training (The Fees Commission) demands that it enquires and makes findings on the feasibility of fee-free higher education in South Africa. The problem...

Case against soft drink levy is sugar coated

By Thijs van Rens Et Al

A proposed levy on sugary soft drinks was recently brought into question by a study produced for the industry which appeared to show that the costs would well outweigh the benefits. The report, by the forecasting group...

Making space rocket fuel from water could drive a power revolution on Earth

By Charles W. Dunnill Et Al

Researchers led by NASAs former chief technologist are hoping to launch a satellite carrying water as the source of its fuel. The team from Cornell University, guided by Mason Peck, want their device to become the first...

Can quotas make gender equality happen in politics? Lessons from business

By Owain Smolovic-Jones Et Al

The number of women MPs in the British parliament is the highest its ever been. There are 191 women among the 650 MPs, up a third from the 2010 election. This has to be good news, especially for the many critics of...

Social workers give voice to people at the margins – Scotland plans to take it away

By David McKendrick

Who is best placed to help with a childs welfare? Thats the question at the heart of one of the Scottish governments most controversial plans, to give every child a named person to support them from birth to the age of...

Why getting babies into strict routines isn't all it's cracked up to be

By Amy Brown

The transition to becoming a new mother can be one of the most stressful times in a womans life. A loss of independence and control combined with the overwhelming, unrelenting realisation that you are now responsible for...

A deal with Mclaren would see Apple shift up a gear on car ambitions

By David Bailey

British supercar maker McLaren may be denying that it is in talks with Apple about a potential tie-up, but the firm cant deny that the idea actually makes some sense. Apple has long been rumoured to be working on its...

What is the Medical Technology Association and how does it wield its power?

By Bruce Baer Arnold

If your health practitioner has used a syringe, tongue depressor (to look at your throat), pacemaker, stethoscope, X-ray or MRI scan, blood test, dental filling or joint implant to treat you, youve encountered a product...

How monkeys make friends and influence each other

By Nicola Koyama

For us humans, getting involved in an aggressive conflict can be costly, not only because of the risk of injury and stress, but also because it can damage precious social relationships between friends and the same goes...

How Kanye West and Adidas are conquering the millennial market

By Simon Chadwick

The word drop is now firmly lodged in my vocabulary after another day spent with a millennial waiting for a brand to release (or drop) its latest product. It involved watching the clock tick down to the moment of release,...

No wonder prisons are getting more violent, they're full to the brim

By David Honeywell

Overcrowding, staff cuts and a growing drugs problem have all created a toxic mix in English and Welsh prisons. So its hardly surprising theres been a surge of violence on an unprecedented scale. In 2015, there was a...

Bangladesh is building a dirty and expensive coal plant next to the world's largest mangrove forest

By Shahzad Uddin

A controversial new coal power plant being built in Bangladesh is already running out of friends. Environmentalists worry it will spell disaster for the worlds largest mangrove forest, while locals worry about pollution...

When did Che Guevara become CEO? The roots of the new corporate activism

By Jerry Davis

Target recently staked out a position in the culture wars by announcing that it will build private bathrooms in all its locations, after earlier allowing transgender customers to use whichever room corresponds with their...

Group work gets kids more engaged in STEM

By Allison Master

Shortage of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professionals has been an important concern in the United States. It is estimated that over the next 10 years, the nation could face a shortage of one million...

What drives lone offenders?

By Randy Borum

In recent months, lone offender attacks sometimes called lone wolf attacks have regularly populated news headlines. Just in the past week, weve seen a single shooter killing people in a mall in Washington state and...

Trump slammed by musicians for appropriating music, but pop and politics have a long history

By Adam Behr

As the most fractious US election in living memory enters its final furlongs, Bono and Springsteen are the latest music stars to launch broadsides at the Republican candidate. But hes far from alone. Barbara Streisand...

Duterte talks big, but the Philippines won't break ties with the US any time soon

By Richard Javad Heydarian

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will visit Russia and China to open alliances with the two states. His announcement follows weeks of toxic rhetoric from the president about relationships between the...

Sexual and domestic violence: the hidden reasons why Mexican women flee their homes

By Ariadna Estévez

In the past few years, thousands of Mexicans have been forced to flee to the United States seeking international legal protection. Reports by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from 2007 to mid-2015...

Science in crisis: from the sugar scam to Brexit, our faith in experts is fading

By Andrea Saltelli

This is a Foundation Essay for The Conversation Global. Our series of Foundation Essays provide an in-depth investigation of a particular global challenge. In this piece, Andrea Saltelli asks whats behind the worldwide...

When world leaders thought you shouldn’t need passports or visas

By Speranta Dumitru

In the age of heavily restricted migration, passport control seems a natural prerogative of the state. The idea of abolishing passports is almost unthinkable. But in the 20th century, governments considered their total...

What's holding Russia back from ratifying the Paris climate agreement?

By Angelina Davydova

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that his country will ratify the Paris climate agreement in October, a significant boost in the campaign to have the agreement become legally binding by the end of the...

Backpacker tax to be 19% but departure tax will rise $5 in compromise package

By Michelle Grattan

The government will impose a A$5 increase in the departure tax, to A$60, and claw back more superannuation from holiday makers departing Australia to pay for a A$350 million compromise on the controversial backpacker...

Trump melts down in his first debate with Clinton – will the voters now punish him?

By Adam Quinn

The big question going into the first debate of the presidential election was whether Donald Trump would decide to tone down the cartoonish, belligerent alpha male shtick that has carried him this far. The debate gave him...

Dear Mr Trump: here's how you build a wall

By Xing Ruan

Dear Mr Trump, As soon as you are inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States of America, I would dearly like to build for you and the American people the wall along the Mexican border. It will be, as you...

Birds, bees and bugs: your garden is an ecosystem, and it needs looking after

By Manu Saunders

Whether you live in an urban apartment or a rural homestead, your outdoor area is more than just a private space. Ecologically, a garden is another jigsaw piece in the landscape. Whatever their size, gardens can...

The robots are polarising how we consume news – and that's how we like it

By Ellie Rennie

An article recently published in the American Journal of Political Science claims to have found proof that the internet is fuelling polarisation. The article uses data from 2004 to 2008 to show those with better internet...

We're capable of infinite memory, but where in the brain is it stored, and what parts help retrieve it?

By Amy Reichelt

One of the critical functions of the brain is to encode and store information, which becomes our memories. Our memories provide us with insight into events and knowledge of the world around us and influence our actions and...

It’s not all about the president: why November's congressional elections matter too

By Rodrigo Praino

Many international observers of US politics ignore that the new American president, whoever that is, will have to deal on a daily basis with Congress. However, understanding Congress and its relationship with the...

Questions mount over South Africa's planned nuclear power deal

By Hartmut Winkler

Nuclear energy in South Africa is a very contentious issue. The decision on whether to proceed with the construction of a fleet of nuclear power plants is destined to become the financially most far reaching and...

3D technology brings a lost mammalian ancestor back to life

By Sandra Jasinoski Et Al

At the very beginning of the 1960s, a South African palaeontologist embarked on a series of ambitious works. Dr A.S. Brink wanted to better understand the anatomy and evolution of humans pre-mammalian ancestors, the...