Worn, uneven, flooded: young people need better parks to get out and play

By Deborah Ascher Barnstone Et Al

Who wants to play sport in the mud and muck? Or have to climb a fence to play? After an observational, private audit of the condition of Sydney sports facilities, we found that these are the types of choices young...

Unrealistic striving for academic excellence has a cost

By Tanya Chichekian

In my past experience as an academic adviser, it was difficult to explain to a disappointed family why their child did not make an admissions cut-off when the students overall high school average was over 80 per cent. I...

Jehovah’s Witnesses: Neglected victims of persecution

By Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann

In February, a Russian court sentenced a Danish citizen who was a legal resident of Russia to six years in prison for such an extremist offence as organizing other Witnesses to shovel snow from their churchs property. A...

It's tax time! Do you know the difference between avoiding and evading taxes?

By Sonia B. Dhaliwal

Tax season is upon us, and many Canadians are flocking to their tax advisers hoping for magical tips that will help them save some of their hard-earned money. Recently I came across an old study that was rather...

What's on your plate? How certification can prevent seafood fraud

By Jaco Barendse

About 30% of seafood products like cod or salmon across the world may be mislabelled, according to a recent review. The analysis showed that on average nearly a third of all fish products that were tested didnt match the...

Brexit deadline extended: why Brussels chose these dates and what happens now

By Nieves Perez-Solorzano

The 27 members of the European Union have responded to Britains request to extend the Brexit process with two deadlines, having agreed that the original Brexit date of March 29 is no longer feasible. If the UK prime...

Funding boost for policing finance sector, in budget that warns of economic softening

By Michelle Grattan

The April 2 budget will provide about A$600 million to pursue wrongdoers and help restore trust in Australias financial system. The budget, which will be a launching pad for the election, likely to be announced the...

Italy joins China's Belt and Road Initiative – here's how it exposes cracks in Europe and the G7

By Winnie King

Italy is projected to be the first G7 nation to officially endorse Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And thats raising the ire of both the European Union and the United States. Having re-entered a recession at the...

What President Trump's executive order on campus free speech is really meant to do

By Brendan Cantwell

The much anticipated executive order that President Donald Trump issued March 21 to protect free speech on campus is about politics, not policy. The proof is in the executive order itself. The order implies that...

Why flood insurance needs an overhaul: 6 questions answered

By Robert W. Klein

Editors note: The Trump administration plans to significantly revamp the pricing of flood insurance. While some homeowners would see their premiums rise, others would benefit from lower rates. We asked an insurance expert...

Skip this chore: Cleaning your air conditioner condenser probably won't make it work better

By David Yuill

I asked my neighbor who hoses off his air conditioner condenser every spring why he does it. Because my dad always told me I had to, he said. Conventional wisdom like what my neighbors dad imparted may always seem...

Journalism needs to practice transparency in a different way to rebuild credibility

By Michael Palanski Et Al

Public trust in media continues to hover near all-time lows, driven by perceptions that the news industry is partisan and peddles inaccurate information (fake news), as well as ambivalence about news from social...

Boeing 737 Max: The FAA wanted a safe plane – but didn't want to hurt America’s biggest exporter either

By Susan Webb Yackee Et Al

Recent incidents aside, air travel is incredibly safe these days. Global airplane fatalities averaged 840 a year from 2010 to 2018, compared with almost 2,000 in the 1990s. In fact, this decade is on pace to see the...

Baseball's biggest problem isn't pace of play – it's teams tanking

By Adam Felder

Major League Baseball is in trouble. But for all of Commissioner Rob Manfreds concerns about pace of play, hes looking in the wrong direction. The game is healthy. The league isnt. Tanking or intentionally losing ...

This is what postnatal depression really feels like

By Rachel Leonard Et Al

Motherhood can be a source of joy, but it can also pose difficulties and challenges particularly, in the postnatal period. It is a time when some mothers emotional and physical endurance is pushed to the limit. About...

Premier League: how English football's top flight favours London clubs

By Dr Anastasios (Tasos) Theofilou Et Al

The English Premier League (EPL) is the most successful football league in the world and one of the most successful sports businesses of any kind. But the benefits may be relatively skewed towards people who live in...

Neuroscience proves Nietzsche right: some people are wired to be more spontaneous than others

By Parashkev Nachev

Why cant you just relax into it? is a question many of us have asked in frustration with ourselves or others be it on the dance floor, the sporting field or in rather more private circumstances. The task typically...

Why New Order doctrine on military role in civilian matters is still relevant in democratic Indonesia

By Bono Budi Priambodo

The Indonesian public is rejecting the governments alleged plan to restore an old doctrine imposed under Soehartos authoritarian New Order regime. This doctrine, known as the militarys dual function, allowed the military...

Citizen science can help solve our data crisis

By Tarun Katapally

A recent news article in the Globe and Mail highlighted Canadas data crisis and identified at least 28 critical gaps. These gaps intersect multiple sectors, ranging from health and education to environment, justice and...

Subsidized privilege: The real scandal of American universities

By Neil McLaughlin

U.S. federal prosecutors have charged 50 people 38 of them are parents for allegedly being involved in fraud schemes to secure spots at Yale, Stanford and other big-name schools. Prosecutors accused some parents of...

Government funding for journalism: To what end?

By Christopher Waddell

The federal budget has finally answered some of the questions about the Liberal governments plans to subsidize the news business, which were first floated late last year. But the details revealed by Finance Minister Bill...

Sanders, Harris, Biden... can anyone beat Donald Trump to become the next US president?

By Dennis Altman

No sooner had the US midterm elections for Congress concluded than jockeying began for the presidential elections in 2020. Barring either impeachment, which seems unlikely, or a health crisis, Donald Trump will seek...

Australia's animal testing laws are a good start, but don't go far enough

By Jane Kotzmann

Your lipstick and foundation will be less likely to come at the expense of animal welfare, thanks to Commonwealth legislation that passed in recent weeks. The legislation, which will come into play on July 1, 2020,...

Six images reveal how we ‘see' data and capture invisible science

By Andrea Rassell

As an experimental video-maker working at scales smaller than molecules, I surround myself in a variety of scientific visualisations. In reading popular media on scientific discoveries, I sometimes encounter claims that...

From playground risks to college admissions: Failure is good for your kids' health

By Nicole Racine Et Al

With recent news of the college cheating scandal in which parents allegedly paid for their children to gain entrance to the most prestigious post-secondary institutions in the United States, increased attention has been...

Don't wait for a crisis – start planning your aged care now

By Alison Rahn

Most Australians prefer to die at home but few adequately plan for it. Consequently, just one in seven dies at home. Some say they will make plans when the need arises. But what if you have a heart attack, go into a...

Right-wing extremism has a long history in Australia

By Kristy Campion

The first step in coming to terms with the attack in Christchurch is to understand that it has been produced by right wing extremism, both in Australia and internationally. The problem does not lie with immigration...

Skills like 'crap detection' can help kids meet cybersecurity challenges head on

By Matthew Riddle

How well are we preparing the typical primary school kid for life when they graduate in 2032? Current attitudes to education around cybersecurity and online safety skew towards caution at all costs. We often focus on...

Depending on who you are, the benefits of a cashless society are greatly overrated

By Steve Worthington

After recreational cannabis use became legal in Canada last October, research shows the number of bank notes in circulation fell sharply. Before, marijuana buyers used cash to keep their transactions anonymous. After,...

Teens have less face time with their friends – and are lonelier than ever

By Jean Twenge

Ask a teen today how she communicates with her friends, and shell probably hold up her smartphone. Not that she actually calls her friends; its more likely that she texts them or messages them on social media. Todays...

Theresa May requests short Brexit extension: how to understand this reckless move

By Simon Lee

Before the October 1964 general election, Harold Wilson was reported to have stated a week is a long time in politics. Never has that maxim been truer than in relation to the politics of Brexit and the publication of...

A look at how India's Africa strategy is working

By Meera Venkatachalam Et Al

Indias engagement with Africa has involved peacekeeping, student scholarships, humanitarian relief, and private and public sector investments. This has been the case for over half a century dating back to the Bandung...

Domestic abuse: the psychology of coercive control remains a legal battlefield

By Charlotte Bishop

Not everyone was celebrating when Sally Challens murder conviction for killing her husband was quashed. The backlash on social media indicates we still have a long way to go before domestic abuse is properly...

British army: should 16-year-olds be able to enlist? Academic experts debate

By Matt Fossey Et Al

In the UK, 16 and 17-year-olds can join the British Army as soldiers, with consent from their parents. Soldiers cannot be deployed to the front line until they are aged 18. Here, Matt Fossey and Nick Caddick from the...

Small brewers show how craft principles could reshape the economy – but they're under threat

By Maikel Kuijpers Et Al

Our economy currently relies heavily on unsustainable industrial principles of mass scale, never-ending growth and throwaway consumerism. The transition to a sustainable economy, then, requires a shift in how we think...

A case against a moratorium on germline gene editing

By G. Owen Schaefer

Should researchers put the brakes on genetically engineering babies? Leading scientists and ethicists recently called for a moratorium on clinical applications of germline gene editing: inheritable alterations to the DNA...

Boeing 737 MAX: after two fatal crashes, an expert explains the issues

By Guy Gratton

The Boeing 737 is the most produced commercial aeroplane in history: over 10,000 have been built since it first flew in 1967, with thousands more on order. Even the UKs Royal Air Force is to put them into service as the...

Tick, tock: The countdown to peak tick season is here

By Rosa da Silva

With spring comes glorious sunshine, warmer weather and ticks. Ticks and some insect pests can carry bacteria, viruses and parasites that may cause disease in humans. One in particular, the blacklegged deer tick Ixodes...

Having one mental health disorder increases your risks of getting another

By Christine Bear Et Al

New studies reveal that most psychiatric illnesses are related to one another. Tracing these connections, like the mapping of a river system, promises to help define the main cause of these disorders and the drugs that...

Electric vehicles as an example of a market failure

By Jovana Stanisljevic

Electric vehicle revolution is well under way. Norway ambitiously heads toward having all new cars sold as zero-emission by 2025. China continues to be one of the major drivers of EV boom. The US market experiences strong...

Autonomous transport will shape our cities' future – best get on the right path early

By Peter Newman

A unique opportunity exists for infrastructure investment in Australia as transport as we know it faces disruption from autonomous vehicles. Disruption is not a dirty word. Traditional transport models are being...

Universities must stop relying on software to deal with plagiarism

By Amanda Mphahlele Et Al

Educational software whether its a teaching aid or a program designed to help teachers with administration is big business. The recent multi-billion dollar acquisition of Turnitin, a program that is used around the world...

Does most of your paycheck go to rent? That may be hurting your health

By Jessica Owens-Young

New data on health across the U.S. shows that high housing costs are harming Americans health and that some communities are affected more than others. The 2019 County Health Rankings, an annual collaborative report...

Anxieties over livestreams can help us design better Facebook and YouTube content moderation

By Andrew Quodling

As families in Christchurch bury their loved ones following Fridays terrorist attack, global attention now turns to preventing such a thing ever happening again. In particular, the role social media played in...

A half-century before the hashtag, artists were on the front lines of #MeToo

By Vivien G. Fryd

The #MeToo movement has had a sweeping effect on politics, organized religion, educational institutions, Hollywood, sports and the military. The cultural prominence of rape and sexual assault might be new. Efforts to...

Why some counties are powerhouses for innovation

By Christopher Boone

By the time the application window closed, Amazon had received 238 proposals from cities and regions throughout North America looking to become the second headquarters of the behemoth tech company. Amazon invited...

Danger ahead in the constitutional standoff over Trump's emergency declaration

By William E. Nelson

President Donald Trumps emergency declaration to build a border wall has provoked a constitutional confrontation with Congress. Heres how we got to this point. On Feb. 26, the House voted 245-182 under the National...

Student loans and 'risk-sharing' – the problem with penalizing colleges when graduates can't pay

By Kate Padgett Walsh

When a student borrows money from the government to go to college and then has serious trouble paying it back, should the college be on the hook to help pay back the government? That question lies at the heart of a...

Wastewater is an asset – it contains nutrients, energy and precious metals, and scientists are learning how to recover them

By Yalin Li

Most people think as little as possible about the wastewater that is produced daily from their showers, bathtubs, sinks, dishwashers and toilets. But with the right techniques, it can become a valuable resource. On...

We did a breakthrough 'speed test' in quantum tunnelling, and here's why that's exciting

By U. Satya Sainadh

When you deal with things at the quantum scale, where things are very small, the world is quite fuzzy and bizarre in comparison to our everyday experiences. For example, we cant ordinarily walk through solid walls. But...