Sydney's wild weather shows home-owners are increasingly at risk
Jun 07, 2016 07:56 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Eastern Australias wild weather has left coastal homes teetering on the brink of collapse, and has eroded beaches by up to 50m in parts of Sydney. Now the attention turns to the clean-up. There are several legal issues...
How the event that killed off the dinosaurs wiped out life in Antarctica
Jun 02, 2016 09:55 am UTC| Nature
The CretaceousPaleogene mass extinction 66m years ago was the most recent of five similar crises to have devastated life on Earth over the last 540m years. It rapidly killed off an estimated 76% of species around the...
The will of government is key to energy access...
Jun 02, 2016 09:51 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
The Bropkas meet the grid In what must surely be a first for the Conversation, I am writing this post from the village of Sakteng in remote eastern Bhutan. That I can do so is a remarkable testimony to the will of the...
In defence of zoos: how captivity helps conservation
Jun 02, 2016 09:45 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
The death of Harambe the gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo, shot to protect a child who had fallen into his cage, has caused outrage. Some of the anger has now turned from trigger-happy staff towards zoos in general. Why, some are...
The limits of intellectual reason in our understanding of the natural world
Jun 02, 2016 07:58 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility. Author and conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote these words in 1949, and they are all the more...
How other primates self-medicate – and what they could teach us
Jun 02, 2016 07:35 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Despite our advances in technology and medicine, we seem to be fighting a never-ending battle against a number of diseases and ailments. As viruses become more complex and bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, it seems...
Australia simmers through hottest autumn on record
Jun 01, 2016 11:47 am UTC| Nature
Its the same old story: with 2016 on track to become the hottest year on record globally, and record-breaking heat already evident around the world, Australia has just experienced its hottest autumn on...
Gabon: post-coup dialogue has mapped out path to democracy – now military leaders must act
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects