How wireless recharging works – and doesn't, yet

By Shashank Priya

Though the days of hardwired wall-mounted phones are ending and wireless internet connections are common at home and on the go, people are still dependent on cords to charge their mobile devices. My research, and that of...

Native cherries are a bit mysterious, and possibly inside-out

By Gregg Müller

People dont like parasites. But theres a local Aussie tree thats only a little bit parasitic: the native cherry, or cherry ballart. Its what we call hemiparasitic. It can photosynthesise, but gains extra nutrients by...

Women don't speak up over workplace harassment because no one hears them if they do

By Lisa Heap

There are good reasons why those experiencing sexual harassment particularly in the workplace dont report it at the time it occurs. To do so is likely to result in ostracism, exclusion, career suicide or a direct threat...

Some sharks have declined by 92% in the past half-century off Queensland's coast

By George Roff Et Al

There has been a striking decline in the number of large sharks caught off Queenslands coast over the past 50 years, suggesting that populations have declined dramatically. Our study, published today in the journal...

How to narrow the gap between Ardern's foreign policy aspirations and domestic debate

By Nina Hall Et Al

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stands out on the international stage. In an era of poisonous xenophobia and mean-spirited rhetoric, she has called for more compassion and kindness in politics and has stressed...

Disappointment about gifts is good for kids who have enough

By Nikki Martyn Et Al

Disappointment is a natural human emotion that occurs after a perceived failure. For our young children, this perceived failure can look like not getting the toy they wanted, not being invited to a classmates birthday...

Cyntoia Brown needs support, not 51 years in prison

By Jerry Flores

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently confirmed that Cyntoia Brown must serve 51 years in prison for shooting and killing a man in 2004 when she was just 16. News stories and social media have widely reported and shared...

Ontario's new climate plan is far from conservative

By Jennifer Lynes Et Al

In late November, the Ontario government unveiled its game plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change by replacing the previous Liberal governments cap-and-trade program. The first few pages of the...

Role reversal: China cites human rights in spat with Canada

By David Webster

When Chinas government recently protested the arrest in Vancouver of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou, it used something rarely heard from Beijing the language of individual human rights. The detention...

Wonder and wisdom in a children's forest nature program

By Louise Zimanyi

On a windy autumn morning, children dressed in colourful woolly hats and mittens sing a greeting to the Earth near a towering 150-year-old willow tree. Children notice how the wind and sun play with the tree. They...

How to infuse your family with the spirit of generosity this holiday

By Sheri Madigan

Around this time each year, many children have made a Christmas wish list that includes items like toys, games, crafts and electronics. While children may express gratitude and joy in response to receiving gifts, the...

The contest for the worst air pollutant

By Laurent Alleman

In its report published on June 28, 2018, the French Agency for Health Safety (ANSES) presented a list of 13 new priority air pollutants to monitor. Several air pollutants that are harmful to human health are already...

Morrison’s health handout is bad policy (but might be good politics)

By Stephen Duckett

The A$1.25 billion Community Health and Hospitals Program Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced this week should be awarded a big policy fail. The move sets back Commonwealth-state relations by decades and its...

How people seeking asylum in Australia access higher education, and the enormous barriers they face

By Lisa Hartley Et Al

Accessing higher education is critical for many people seeking asylum. Its not simply a means of acquiring the qualifications and skills necessary for employment. Its also essential to living a meaningful life Despite...

It's not so easy to gain the true measure of things

By Cris Brack

I teach measurement the quantification of things. Some people think this is the most objective of the sciences; just numbers and observations, or what many people call objective facts. Lord Kelvin, a famous British...

Atomic Swaps: Are they even a reality? What problems do we need to overcome to implement the tech?

By Andrew Zimine

Atomic swaps are an innovative technology that some speculate to be the future of crypto trading. This new technology, also known as atomic cross-chain trading, allows peer-to-peer trades between two cryptocurrencies from...

Five ways to reduce the risk of stillbirth

By Vicki Flenady Et Al

Six Australian babies are stillborn each day. This equates to more than 2,000 babies each year. Stillbirth is defined as the death of a baby of at least 20 weeks gestation or 400 grams in weight. Most stillbirths occur...

The best thing about the new Oz horror film The School is its poster

By Ari Mattes

Review: The School Theres something about the Australian context that lends itself to explorations of horror. As I have argued elsewhere, the combination of what historian Geoffrey Blainey famously described as the...

Why biodiversity is key to our survival

By Eric Muraille

Diversity, be it genetic, morphological, behavioural or ecological, is at the heart of many controversies. It fascinates us or worries us, depending on the context. But what is biological diversity? How useful is it, how...

Opening Pandora's Box: Gene editing and its consequences

By John Bergeron

Today, the scientific community is aghast at the prospect of gene editing to create designer humans. Gene editing may be of greater consequence than climate change, or even the consequences of unleashing the energy of the...

Gay men who use crystal meth need integrated care

By Rod Knight

The use of cheap and potent crystal methamphetamine (meth) is reaching a crisis point in Canada and globally, replacing opioids as the drug of choice in some areas. In media and policy conversations about this drug, one...

Why universities need homerooms

By Eva Pomeroy

What kind of education can give us hope for the future? As an experiential educator for the past 20 years who focused my doctoral research on school exclusion, this is a question close to my heart. Over 20 years ago,...

The 1989 Polytechnique Massacre was an act of terrorism against all women

By Francis Dupuis-Déri Et Al

Late on the afternoon of Dec. 6, 1989, 25-year-old Marc Lépine entered École Polytechnique de Montréal armed with a semi-automatic weapon. He went into a classroom and ordered the men to leave....

The double juggle: how working parents manage school holidays and their jobs

By Candice Harris Et Al

The countdown is on towards the summer school holidays a time many working parents approach with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. School holidays are important for children as they offer a break from the routine...

Men get postnatal depression too, and as the mother's main support, they need help

By Richard Fletcher1 Et Al

Englands National Health Service (NHS) this week announced it will offer mental health screening and treatment for new and expectant fathers whose partners are suffering from mental illness. The NHS described this as a...

Love hurts – on a life of sports fandom

By Sally Breen

When you grow up with no books in the house except maybe the full Readers Digest set of Catherine Cooksons and Bert Ryans Guide to Fishing you worship other heroes. The great battles in life are not going down in drama...

Australians love their sport, but investing in new venues is another matter

By Jessica Richards Et Al

For Australians, the accolade sporting capital of the world is arguably more prized than worlds most liveable city. Australian cities (and the states) have appeared hell-bent on outdoing one another in building bigger...

Remembering Pearl Harbor and America's entry into the theatre of war

By James H. Liu

December 7, 1941. A date which will live in infamy. The United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The United States was at peace with that nation and,...

Vital Signs: 35 extraordinary years. What the float of Australian dollar bought us

By Richard Holden

If a week is a long time in politics, then 35 years must be an eternity. 35 years ago, on Monday December 12, 1983, the Hawke-Keating government announced the Australian dollar would be floated. That is, the prices...

Darwin port's sale is a blueprint for China's future economic expansion

By John Garrick

An agreement between Darwins city council and an overseas municipal counterpart normally wouldnt attract much attention. Local government officials love signing such deals. Darwin already has no less than six sister city...

Perth's brief abalone season is a time of delicacies and danger

By John Charles Ryan

Starting on December 8, recreational abalone fishing will be allowed in Perth. Fishing will be limited to one hour on four Saturday mornings between December and February. The maximum catch is still 15 per person per day....

Geckos walk on water – we filmed them to find out how

By Jasmine Nirody

Anyone whos seen a gecko will likely know they can climb walls. But these common lizards can also run across water nearly as fast as they can move on solid ground. Yet while we know how geckos scale smooth vertical...

Was Tolkien really racist?

By Dimitra Fimi

In demonising orcs, the ugly, monstrous enemy of the elves, did JRR Tolkien betray a belief that some races are worse than others? Thats the debate that has been at the heart of claims in the Britsh press recently accusing...

Syria: is Europe’s influence in the region finished?

By Richard Youngs

The Assad regime has inched closer to winning the Syrian conflict during 2018. With Russian and Iranian support, the regime has reestablished strong and authoritarian rule, at least outside the deescalation zones where its...

Badger cull alone won't work for eradicating bovine TB – but this might

By Malcolm Bennett

Controlling the epidemic of tuberculosis in English cattle is a hugely controversial issue. The role badgers play in that epidemic and how to prevent their infection spreading to cattle is also hotly contested. The...

Abiy's big steps shouldn't obscure undercurrents in Ethiopia

By Stig Jarle Hansen Et Al

Positive headlines about Ethiopia have been frequent since the countrys new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took over in early April. One of the biggest steps hes taken has been the rapprochement with Eritrea, which ended the...

What puts children in Ethiopia more at risk of being injured

By Qingfeng Li

Children in poorer countries are far more at risk of death and disability from injuries than their developed-world peers. These injuries include; road traffic injuries, drownings, poisoning, falls, burns and intentional...

South Africa's children aren't getting the mental health care they need

By Renata Schoeman

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has received increased scientific, clinical and public attention over the past few decades. Its the most common psychiatric disorder in children affecting 2% to 16% of the...

Hokey-pokey politics as the government is shaken all about

By Michelle Grattan

In the topsy turvy Liberal universe, just when the right is trying to tighten its grip on the throat of the party, the government is haring off to the left, with this weeks legislation to allow it to break up recalcitrant...

What happens after Brexit vote? Four possible scenarios explained

By Louise Thompson1

MPs have started to debate the final Brexit withdrawal agreement ahead of a meaningful vote at the end of the day on December 11. That is about the only part of the current situation about which we can be sure. There are...

Syria may be using chemical weapons against its citizens again – here's how international law has changed to help countries intervene

By Michael Scharf

New reports have emerged from the Syrian civil war that banned chemical weapons are being used in Aleppo, a city on the edge of the last remaining rebel stronghold, Idlib province. Since 2011, the war has been the...

Why a 14th-century mystic appeals to today's 'spiritual but not religious' Americans

By Joel Harrington

The percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religious tradition continues to rise annually. Not all of them, however, are atheists or agnostics. Many of these people believe in a higher power, if not organized...

We've been studying a glacier in Peru for 14 years – and it may reach the point of no return in the next 30

By Mathias Vuille

High mountain environments in South America, which in many locations encompass peaks that reach 21,000 feet (6,500 meters) or more in altitude, are home to some of the most spectacular glaciers on our planet. My research...

Jay-Z's $200-million clothing battle could be game changer for black lawyers the world over

By Gbenga Oduntan

Millionaire rapper Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, has proved yet again why he is larger than life. He is embroiled in a contractual dispute over the US$204m (159m) sale of his clothing brand to Iconix Brand Group a decade...

From pledges to action: Cities need to show their climate progress with hard data

By Conor K Gately Et Al

As world leaders negotiate rules for cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the COP24 meeting in Poland, U.S. cities have a vested interest in the outcome. About 85 percent of Americans live in cities, and urban areas produce...

The John Birch Society is still influencing American politics, 60 years after its founding

By Christopher Towler

The retired candy entrepreneur Robert Welch founded the John Birch Society 60 years ago to push back against what he perceived as a growing American welfare state modeled on communism and the federal governments push to...

Getting to the heart of coal seam gas protests – it's not just the technical risks

By Hedda Ransan-Cooper Et Al

Opposition to coal seam gas (CSG) in Australia is remarkable. CSG proposals mostly affecting rural areas have spawned hundreds of opposition groups across the country. Some are now household names, like Lock the Gate and...

NZ is home to species found nowhere else but biodiversity losses match global crisis

By Robert McLachlan Et Al

The recently released 2018 Living Planet report is among the most comprehensive global analyses of biodiversity yet. It is based on published data on 4,000 out of the 70,000 known species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles...

The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians: what it is and why it needs updating

By Don Carter

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has announced the government will update the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. This document sets out the agreed national purposes and role of schooling...

Educating nurses to support digital health

By Tracie Risling

Canadas healthcare system is undergoing a digital revolution. The technology is new, but it must be used by the existing health workforce. A recent report by the British National Health Service found that a lack of...