Why are blooper reels so funny?

By Shane Rogers

Blooper reels are very popular, with some videos on YouTube racking up tens of millions of views. Its a curious thing: why are videos of mistakes sometimes getting as much attention (or more!) as clips from the actual TV...

What if whales took us to court? A move to grant them legal personhood would include the right to sue

By Rachael Evans

In a groundbreaking declaration earlier this month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a treaty, He Whakaputanga Moana, to recognise whales as legal persons. Aotearoa New Zealand has already...

In a time of information overload, enigmatic philosopher Byung-Chul Han seeks the re-enchantment of the world

By Heather Blakey

Byung-Chul Han is the enigmatic philosopher and author of The Burnout Society and Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power. In his latest book The Crisis of Narration, he argues that despite the present...

An education in music makes you a better employee. Are recruiters in tune?

By Diana Tolmie

See the word musician on a resume and you might not immediately think stellar employee or exceptional leader. Perhaps the word evokes the image of a rock star, in trouble for chucking a television out of a hotel room...

Rogue waves in the ocean are much more common than anyone suspected, says new study

By Alessandro Toffoli

We used three-dimensional imaging of ocean waves to capture freakish seas that produce a notorious phenomenon known as rogue waves. Our results are now published in Physical Review Letters*. Rogue waves are giant...

The big dry: forests and shrublands are dying in parched Western Australia

By Joe Fontaine Et Al

Perth has just had its driest six months on record, while Western Australia sweltered through its hottest summer on record. Those records are remarkable in their own right. But these records are having real...

Is attachment theory actually important for romantic relationships?

By Marissa Nivison Et Al

There has been a recent surge of attention toward attachment theory: from TikTok videos to online quizzes that claim to assess your attachment style. Its become a hot topic, especially in the context of romantic...

NYT Connections: Tips to improve your game through the science of semantic memory

By Emiko Muraki Et Al

Puzzle fans are hooked on Connections, the latest word game from the New York Times that launched in June 2023, following the success of Wordle. The premise of the Connections game is deceivingly simple: from a grid of 16...

The Alberta government is interfering in public sector bargaining on an unprecedented scale

By Jason Foster Et Al

In the coming months, over 200,000 public sector workers in Alberta will begin bargaining with their employers for new contracts. The most recent agreements expired in March and, after many years of high inflation and few...

Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel was a strategic miscalculation. Can all-out war now be averted?

By Ran Porat1

Close to midnight on April 13, hundreds of military drones were launched from both Iran and Iraq toward Israel. Subsequently, several waves of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and rockets followed, originating from...

The idea that US interest rates will stay higher for longer is probably wrong

By Alan Shipman

The 0.4% rise in US consumer prices in March didnt look like headline news. It was the same as the February increase, and the year-on-year rise of 3.5% is still sharply down from 5% a year ago. All the same, this modest...

Elephant tourism often involves cruelty – here are steps toward more humane, animal-friendly excursions

By Michelle Szydlowski

Suju Kali is a 50-year-old elephant in Nepal who has been carrying tourists for over 30 years. Like many elephants I encounter through my research, Suju Kali exhibits anxiety and can be aggressive toward strangers. She...

Eye infections might seem like a minor complaint – but in some cases they can cause blindness and even death

By Adam Taylor2

When you think of eye infections, what comes to mind? Puffy, swollen bruised feeling eyelids that get glued together with gunk overnight? That feeling of having grit in your eye that cant be cleaned away? Eye infections...

Back to Black: Amy Winehouse biopic reviewed by an alcohol expert

By Sadie Boniface

Content warning: this article discusses mental health, addiction and eating disorders. Back to Black is a new biopic about the life of musician Amy Winehouse. It covers the time from when she gets her record deal aged...

Personalized cancer treatments based on testing drugs quickly leads to faster treatment, better outcomes

By Diana Azzam

Despite many efforts to find better, more effective ways to treat cancer, it remains a leading cause of death by disease among children in the U.S. Cancer patients are also getting younger. Cancer diagnoses among those...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

By Harald Fox

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Late Night with the Devil is a sly, gleefully horrifying Aussie hit that invites you to be hypnotised

By Erin Harrington

The 70s-throwback found-footage horror comedy, Late Night with the Devil, joins a long list of recent Australian horror success stories. Framed as a tabloid-style retrospective, the film invites us to watch the newly...

Israel accused of using AI to target thousands in Gaza, as killer algorithms outpace international law

By Natasha Karner

The Israeli army used a new artificial intelligence (AI) system to generate lists of tens of thousands of human targets for potential airstrikes in Gaza, according to a report published last week. The report comes from the...

Surgery won’t fix my chronic back pain, so what will?

By Christine Lin Et Al

This weeks ABC Four Corners episode Pain Factory highlighted that our health system is failing Australians with chronic pain. Patients are receiving costly, ineffective and risky care instead of effective, low-risk...

If you squat in a vacant property, does the law give you the house for free? Well, sort of

By Cathy Sherry

Nothing excites law students like the idea of a free house. Or alternatively, enrages them. It depends on their politics. As a result, academics condemned to teaching property law find it hard to resist the doctrine of...

Loyalty programs may limit competition, and they could be pushing prices up for everyone

By Alexandru Nichifor Et Al

Loyalty programs enable firms to offer significantly lower prices to some of their customers. Youd think this would encourage strong competition. But that isnt always what actually happens. New research shows that...

AI will not revolutionize business management but it could make it worse

By Guillaume Desjardins

It is no exaggeration to say that the democratization of new forms of artificial intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT (OpenAI), Gemini/Bard (Google) and Copilot (Microsoft), is a societal revolution of the digital...

As a child psychiatrist, I know it’s critical for kindergartens to embrace playful learning

By Jean Clinton

Think back to one of your fondest memories of play. Where were you, who were you with, what powers did you pretend to have? Would you like to go back there if you could, if only for a moment? Unfortunately, fewer and...

Tunisia’s El Kef city is rich in heritage: centuries of cultural mixing give it a distinct identity

By Majdi Faleh Et Al

El Kef is a city built into the southern face of Jebel Dyr mountain, which is linked to the High Atlas mountains in the north-western region of Tunisia that borders on Algeria. The breeze that sweeps off the mountain and...

The Art of Climbing: a brief history of photographing rock-climbing

By Simon Bainbridge

For nearly two centuries, rock-climbing and photography have been tightly intertwined, spectacularly roped together on knife-edge artes, vertiginous overhangs and seemingly sheer cliff faces. Simon Carters stunning...

Germany decriminalised cannabis: why the UK should consider doing the same

By Ian Hamilton Et Al

The German government has approved new legislation which decriminalises cannabis. This policy allows over-18s to possess a maximum of 25 grams of cannabis for personal use and grow up to three plants at home. From...

Why Sikhs celebrate the festival of Baisakhi

By Anshu Malhotra

On the festival of Baisakhi, celebrated usually on April 13, Sikhs the world over will joyously wear yellow saffron colors, symbolizing spring harvest and the solar new year, when the Sun enters the constellation...

US media coverage of new science less likely to mention researchers with African and East Asian names

By Hao Peng

When one Chinese national recently petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a permanent resident, he thought his chances were pretty good. As an accomplished biologist, he figured that news...

Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains

By Adi Foord

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever built. Planning for JWST began over 25 years ago, and construction efforts spanned over a decade. It was launched into space on...

Young Kenyans are not finding work: how universities can do a better job of training entrepreneurs

By Renson Muchiri Mwangi Et Al

Kenyas long-term development blueprint, Vision 2030, envisions an empowered youth driving economic growth. The focus on its young population (aged 1534) is apt given that the median age of the countrys population of 55...

Biden steps up pressure on Israel − using the key levers available against an ally with strong domestic support

By Jordan Tama

The fraying relationship between the U.S. and Israel over the latter countrys conduct of its war in Gaza got even worse on April 4, 2024, several days after Israel killed seven aid workers in a drone strike. President Joe...

Scoop: Netflix depiction of Prince Andrew interview is a welcome addition to the journalism film canon

By Sarah Lonsdale

The car crash interview with Prince Andrew was indeed a scoop for then BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis. Its depiction in the new Netflix film Scoop is a reminder of the power of the one-to-one interview where, as in...

How the UK’s new rights around flexible working will affect employees and businesses

By Jane Parry Et Al

Employees in the UK have just received a new right to request flexible working arrangements from the first day of a new job. This is courtesy of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act and supporting secondary...

Nukes in space: a bad idea in the 1960s – an even worse one now

By Michael Mulvihill

The US and Japan are sponsoring a resolution for debate by the United Nations security council which if passed will reaffirm international commitments to the 1967 outer space treaty (OST) forbidding the deployment and...

Why the Chiefs and Royals couldn’t convince Kansas City voters to foot the bill for their stadiums

By Victor Matheson

For the Kansas City Chiefs brass, it must have seemed like the perfect time to ask local voters to cough up some money for stadium renovations. The team was riding high from a big Super Bowl win in February 2024, its...

Why batteries come in so many sizes and shapes

By Wesley Chang

If youve looked in your utility drawer lately, you may have noticed the various shapes, sizes and types of batteries that power your electronic devices. First, there are the round, non-rechargeable button cells for your...

Gut microbiome: meet Clostridium butyricum – the bacteria that helps keep us feeling our best

By Bunmi Omorotionmwan

Our friend here, Clostridium butyricum (also known as C butyricum), is one of the hardest working microbes living in our gut. Without its exhaustive work, we might find ourselves constantly feeling a little under the...

If life exists on Jupiter’s moon Europa, scientists might soon be able to detect it

By Lucinda King

Europa is one of the largest of more than 90 moons in orbit around the planet Jupiter. It is also one of the best places to look for alien life. Often termed an ocean world by scientists, observations to date strongly...

How cuts to marginal income tax could boost the UK’s stagnant economic growth

By Dawid Trzeciakiewicz Et Al

The British prime minister recently claimed the UK economy has turned a corner. Rishi Sunak said inflation figures were encouraging, and proclaimed that 2024 would be the year Britain bounces back. According to his...

Traditional Japanese diet associated with less brain shrinkage in women compared to western diet, says research

By Giovanni Sala Et Al

Cognitive decline and dementia already affect more than 55 million people worldwide. This number is projected to skyrocket over the next few decades as the global population ages. There are certain risk factors of...

Why the BBC has a licence fee and what might happen if it were scrapped

By Simon Potter

The TV licence is as much part of British life as the BBC, which it helps to fund. But in an era of increased media choice much of it available online, through voluntary subscriptions or even for free BBC director...

Who will Trump pick as his running mate?

By Emma Shortis

Being second in line for leadership of the most powerful country in the world is not an easy job. But for Mike Pence, vice president under Donald Trump, things were even harder than usual. As insurrectionists descended...

Will you be this year’s ‘April fish’? Businesses have a long history of using April Fools’ Day to try and prank us all

By Gary Mortimer

This morning, breakfast television shows will be reporting obscure, although mildly believable, announcements from organisations and brands about new products, services or discoveries. Social media platforms will also be...

Despite appearances, digital networking hasn’t killed the business card – yet

By Jane Menzies

Have you ever met someone, been handed a business card, and found yourself without one to hand back? Perhaps you offered an alternative, saying lets connect on LinkedIn, or displayed a scannable QR code on your phone...

How to look after your mental health while packing up Mum or Dad’s home

By Erika Penney Et Al

So Mum or Dad has died, or moved to aged care, and now youve got to pack up their house. Its a huge job and youre dreading it. Its normal to feel grief, loss, guilt, exhaustion or even resentment at being left with this...

‘I hope publishers will be brave’: older women are often erased in fiction – but in 2 new Australian novels they take centre stage

By Carol Lefevre

If older women move through the world with a sense of being unseen, in the world of books, and especially in contemporary fiction, they have all but been erased. So pervasive is their absence, it is nearly possible to draw...

A sustainable future begins at ground level

By Shahid Azam

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a call to action in global partnership. By 2023 it appears that our progress has been far from satisfactory in achieving these...

Increasingly sophisticated AI systems can perform empathy, but their use in mental health care raises ethical questions

By A.T. Kingsmith

In a world where technology is increasingly intertwined with our feelings, emotion-AI harnesses advanced computing and machine learning to assess, simulate, and interact with human emotional states. As emotion-AI...

Leadership transparency alone doesn’t guarantee employees will speak up in the workplace

By Ellen Choi Et Al

Leaders are often encouraged to be open, authentic and vulnerable at work. Employees are similarly told their voices matter in the workplace and to speak up when they need to. But, being open and honest at work is not...

Canada needs a national strategy for homeless refugee claimants

By Christina Clark-Kazak

One year after the federal government closed Roxham Road, refugee claims in Canada continue to increase: there were 143,785 in 2023 compared to 91,730 in 2022. The surprise announcement in March 2023 to modify Canadas...