Explainer: why some current account imbalances are fine but others are catastrophic

By Julius Probst

In the recent economic crises in Turkey and Argentina, there was much talk about how current account deficits played a big part in their problems. Nothing unusual in that, of course: many economic crises are associated...

China’s garbage ban upends US recycling – is it time to reconsider incineration?

By Thomas Kinnaman

Chinas decision earlier this year to implement a ban on the import of 24 categories of recyclable materials, including many common plastics used in consumer goods, has shocked recycling systems across the world. Surplus...

What Australian states can learn from Trump dismantling climate change policy

By Sarah Graham

The Trump administrations withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement was greeted with dismay around the world. Less well known, but probably just as damaging to emissions reductions, was freezing standards for carbon...

View from The Hill: Malcolm Turnbull struggling to shore up his border

By Michelle Grattan

Malcolm Turnbull is still upright, but he will have to be a miracle worker to survive and lead the government to the election. Peter Duttons 35 votes to Turnbulls 48 is a solid base for a challenger to build on. That...

Dutton v Turnbull is the latest manifestation of the splintering of the centre-right in Australian politics

By Rob Manwaring

So, Malcolm Turnbull survives. In part, the trigger for the stand-off between Turnbull and Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was Turnbulls poor handling of energy policy and the flips flops over the NEG. But much of...

One sky: a unified approach to the national airspace must be developed with drones in mind

By Claudio Bozzi

Drones were used in an alleged assassination attempt on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month. This event reminds us of the dangers posed by remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS). Its an extreme...

Why more investment in the NDIS may not boost employment

By Flavio Souza

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was created to boost the economic and social participation of Australians living with a disability. To this end, the scheme puts choice and control in the hands of people...

Saudi showown spotlights Canada's energy insecurity

By Larry Hughes

In mid-August, Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabias energy minister, announced that the diplomatic rift with Canada wouldnt affect the flow of Saudi crude oil to the Irving refinery in Saint John, N.B. There are at least two...

Your time starts now: how leadership instability and revenge became woven into our political fabric

By Frank Bongiorno

Back in 2012, a major study on the selection and removal of party leaders in Anglo parliamentary democracies was published. The book contained a section with the inviting title of Machiavellian tactics. Most of the authors...

How to move energy policy models beyond bias and vested interests

By Shirin Malekpour Et Al

The Turnbull governments flagship energy plan, the National Energy Guarantee, was intended to end a decade-long stalemate on energy and climate policy in Australia. Ironically, since its unveiling in October 2017, the...

What do your earliest childhood memories say about you?

By Penny Van Bergen Et Al

We experience thousands of events across childhood, and yet as adults we recall only a handful. Some might be firsts (our first ice cream, our first day at school), or significant life events (the birth of a sibling,...

University staff and students are at high risk of ill health. Here's how to make sure they can cope

By Brad Wright Et Al

University students are an at-risk population for many health issues. These include mental health, alcohol and substance use, sexual assault and harassment, poor diet and lack of exercise. Perhaps just as important, but...

Explainer: what is loss aversion and is it real?

By Brendan Markey-Towler

A recent study claims a core idea in behavioural economics loss aversion is a fallacy. Loss aversion is the theory that the pain of losing something is greater than the pleasure we feel by gaining something...

Here's what a population policy for Australia could look like

By Liz Allen

Australia is, apparently, in the midst of a population crisis just this month, we passed the milestone of 25 million people. The nature of the crisis depends on the day and who you ask. Size and growth have become an...

Babies need more than tummy time to strengthen necks and prevent flat heads

By Elizabeth Williams Et Al

Supervised, awake tummy time is recommended to facilitate a babys development and minimise flat head syndrome. But some babies dont like tummy time, and will kick up an almighty fuss to let you know. Luckily, tummy...

Turkey's currency collapse shows just how vulnerable its economy is to a crisis

By Can Erbil Et Al

If you happen to be a tourist in Turkey right now, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, things look grim. The Turkish lira has lost as much as a third of its value relative to the U.S. dollar in less than a month and...

Ancestor of all life on Earth evolved earlier than we thought, according to our new timescale

By Holly Betts

Science may have enabled us to travel in space and trace the history of the entire universe, but it has not yet been able to answer exactly how and when life first arose on our planet. Traditionally, scientists have used...

Outdated, punitive laws are encouraging HIV stigma in Zimbabwe

By Candice Chikura-Mtwazi

In 2001 Zimbabwe introduced the Sexual Offences Act, which criminalised wilful transmission of HIV. Three years later the law was updated to include those who suspected they could be HIV positive but didnt inform their...

How new Silk Road will cement China as major trading partner for Africa

By Asit K. Biswas Et Al

In 138 BC China took its first step towards global connectivity with the establishment of the historical Silk Road. Zhang Qian was sent by Emperor Wudi to Central Asia to establish trade relationships. His historic...

African agriculture has a lot to gain from increased access to big data

By Esther Ndumi Ngumbi

African scientists are about to get unprecedented access to enormous amounts of satellite data. This is thanks to a deal signed by the African Union with the European Commissions Copernicus programme, which describes...

Governor's race in Ekiti points to problems in national Nigerian poll

By Oludayo Tade

With less than 200 days to Nigerias next general election - scheduled for February 16, 2019 - there are apprehensions about how vote buying, violence and the deployment of security agents could affect the 2019 polls....

Knife crime: important new findings could help us understand why people carry weapons

By Iain Brennan

Social media, drill music and middle-class drug use have been variously blamed for the sudden increase in knife-related murders of young people in England and Wales. But not only are these assertions about why people carry...

View from The Hill: Energy policy and Turnbull's leadership plunge into debilitating uncertainty

By Michelle Grattan

The most fraught day of his prime ministership has seen the implosion of one of Malcolm Turnbulls key policy pledges to deliver certainty on energy policy that only weeks ago seemed on course. As Turnbull threw...

Why it matters that teens are reading less

By Jean Twenge

Most of us spend much more time with digital media than we did a decade ago. But todays teens have come of age with smartphones in their pockets. Compared to teens a couple of decades ago, the way they interact with...

Premier League: how an early transfer window caused clubs to pay more for top players

By Simon Chadwick Et Al

An injury to Manchester Citys Belgian international star Kevin de Bruyne could hardly have come at a worse time. The football season has just got underway, and the last thing the English Premier Leagues dominant club...

Outlander is boosting a renaissance of the Scots language – here's how

By Irene Watt

What would ye twa cotters ken o battle, eh? I bet ye Lallybroch tumshies will turn arse and run at first blast o cannon fire… Pithy Scots brogue and throwaway insults punctuate Outlander, the phenomenally...

Rohingya refugees remain a heavy burden on Bangladesh

By Mehdi Chowdhury

The Rohingya people of Myanmar are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. The Myanmar government doesnt consider them as citizens and deprives them of basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and...

Greece exits its third bailout – but eurozone still has much to learn from the crisis

By Dimitrios Syrrakos

After nine years of unprecedented peacetime economic hardship, Greece exits its IMF bailout programme on August 20. So ends a series of three bailouts organised by the so-called troika of the IMF, European Central Bank and...

Advertising is obsolete – here's why it's time to end it

By Ramsi Woodcock

Since it first became clear that Russian agents spent thousands of dollars a month on political advertising on social media in the runup to the 2016 presidential election, Americans have been asking how the powerful...

How the Trump Foundation illustrates the limits of charity regulations

By Ellen P. Aprill

Since 2008, nearly every donation Donald Trumps foundation has made near his Mar-a-Lago mansion and club in Florida funded charities that hosted events there, according to recent investigative reporting. This pattern,...

You don't have to look far to find human trafficking victims

By Laurie Charles

Many people think that human trafficking means kidnapping and moving victims across state or national borders. After working with human trafficking victims as a forensic nurse and now while teaching at Texas AM...

Dangerous stereotypes stalk black college athletes

By Joseph Cooper

If you go strictly by the official account, heatstroke was the cause of death for University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair. McNair died earlier this year following a grueling practice in which training staff...

Stop worrying about how much energy bitcoin uses

By Katrina Kelly-Pitou

The word bitcoin is as likely to garnish feverish excitement as it is glaring criticism. The financial community sees speculative promise in the form of trade that currently has little to no regulation. Meanwhile, others...

AI doctors and engineers are coming – but they won't be stealing high-skill jobs

By Leandro L. Minku Et Al

Google recently successfully put its DeepMind artificial intelligence system to work recognising eye diseases. With AI also being used to diagnose cancer, and the launch of AI-driven smartphone apps that can discuss...

Three reasons the US is not ready for the next pandemic

By Christine Crudo Blackburn Et Al

One hundred years after the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918, global health leadership stands at a crossroads. The United States continues to expand its policy of isolationism at a time when international cooperation in...

Genetically modified mosquitoes may be best weapon for curbing disease transmission

By Jason Rasgon

Mosquitoes are some of the most deadly creatures on the planet. They carry viruses, bacteria and parasites, which they transmit through bites, infecting some 700 million people and killing more than 1 million each...

Tons of plastic trash enter the Great Lakes every year – where does it go?

By Matthew J. Hoffman Et Al

Awareness is rising worldwide about the scourge of ocean plastic pollution, from Earth Day 2018 events to the cover of National Geographic magazine. But few people realize that similar concentrations of plastic pollution...

4 reasons why anti-Trump Latino voters won't swing the midterms

By Steffen W. Schmidt

The Democratic Party shouldnt count on Latinos swinging many midterm races their way this year. Approximately 27.3 million U.S. Latinos are eligible to vote in Novembers midterm elections 12 percent of all eligible...

Five reasons to forget Mars for now and return to the moon

By Ian Whittaker Et Al

Hopes of colonising Mars rest on the premise that we could terraform the red planet, making it habitable for humans with a breathable atmosphere and clement temperatures. However, a recent study cast doubt on the idea,...

Explainer: is Peter Dutton ineligible to sit in parliament?

By Anne Twomey

Section 44 of the Constitution has struck down many a politician in the past year but is it powerful enough to take down the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton? This time it is not dual citizenship under s44(i) that...

Opioid epidemic – the global spread explained

By Blair H. Smith

The US has been in the grips of an opioid epidemic since the 1990s, with massive rises in the use and misuse of opioids such as morphine and codeine. There has also been a parallel rise in the number of opioid-related...

Four reasons to consider co-housing and housing cooperatives for alternative living

By Kirsten Stevens-Wood

As lifestyles in the UK have become more stressful and pressurised, people have started to look at alternative ways to live. Some are now seeking out more of a community feel to their home lives, exploring the option of...

Curious Kids: how does gravity pull things down to Earth?

By Monica Grady

This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children of all ages. The Conversation is asking young people to send in questions theyd like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome: find details on how to enter...

Age shouldn't be a barrier to playing competitive sports

By Claire Jenkin

To stay healthy and fit, older people have traditionally been advised to take up gentle activities, such as walking and tai chi. But its time we added competitive sports to the mix. Competitive sport is usually seen as...

Soviet war memorials in Eastern Europe continue to strain relations with Russia

By Antony Kalashnikov

Decades after the fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, Soviet World War II monuments continue to arouse significant controversy in many former Eastern Bloc countries where they are either being dismantled by...

Mexico's new president has plans to make his country safer – but will they work?

By Patricio R. Estévez-Soto

Mexican voters upended their countrys political establishment this summer when they elected Andres Manuel López Obrador the left-wing former mayor of Mexico City known as AMLO by an overwhelming margin. His...

Charles Blackman's poetic vision contained an undertone of dread

By Ted Snell

Earlier this year, I stayed at the Blackman Hotel in Melbourne where I spent the night gazing at a painting of a shrinking Alice glowing on the wall opposite. In Charles Blackmans painting - from his Alice in Wonderland...

Alcohol brewed from trees and other fermented drinks in Australia's Indigenous history

By Vladimir Jiranek

There is no doubt that Europeans brought a culture of brewing and consuming alcohol during their early migration and colonisation of Australia. But there is also evidence that Aboriginal people were already aware of...

The too hard basket: a short history of Australia's aborted climate policies

By Marc Hudson

Less than three years ago, after Malcolm Turnbull had wrested the prime ministership from Tony Abbott, I wrote an article entitled Carbon coups: from Hawke to Abbott, climate policy is never far away when leaders come a...

How modern crypto exchanges protect users deposits

By Andrew Zimine

Cryptocurrency trading is becoming more and more popular with joint crypto trading volume exceeding billions of dollars. Just imagine all this money being moved, exchanged, transformed... And almost all of it is in...