Choices made nearly a century ago explain today’s housing crisis

By Raphaël Fischler

Housing is an important political issue. Politicians and experts now talk about it as a major crisis that could threaten our economic and social well-being. But this is nothing new. Another housing crisis raged at the...

Australia’s new digital ID scheme falls short of global privacy standards. Here’s how it can be fixed

By Ashish Nanda Et Al

What is necro-branding? And what’s it got to do with Elvis, Princess Diana and Taylor Swift?

By Chris Baumann

Do you own any memorabilia depicting Elvis, Princess Diana, David Bowie, Prince or Michael Jackson? Perhaps a beloved t-shirt, a favourite mug, a special keyring or a novelty plate? You might not know it, but you are...

Three lessons the west can learn from China’s economic approach to AI

By Jialu Shan

AI is already everywhere, ready to change the way we work and play, how we learn and how we are looked after. From hospitality to healthcare, entertainment to education, AI is transforming the world as we know it. But...

At $300m, Jules Verne-inspired Nautilus is the most expensive Australian-made show. But Disney+ was right to dump it

By Ari Mattes

Investing in film and TV productions is a risky venture. Even the best directors and producers are just a flop away from ruining their careers. So if a company owns the intellectual property to a popular material, or if...

Wrongly convicted of a crime? Your ability to clear your name can come down to your postcode

By Kylie Lingard

If youre found guilty of a crime, its a basic principle of Australian law that you have a right to appeal. But having a right and being able to exercise it are two different things, especially when it comes to fresh...

South Africa amended its research guidelines to allow for heritable human genome editing

By Françoise Baylis

A little-noticed change to South Africas national health research guidelines, published in May of this year, has put the country on an ethical precipice. The newly added language appears to position the country as the...

Why do I get so anxious after drinking? Here’s the science behind ‘hangxiety’

By Blair Aitken Et Al

You had a great night out, but the next morning, anxiety hits: your heart races, and you replay every conversation from the night before in your head. This feeling, known as hangover anxiety or hangxiety, affects around...

What is stereotactic radiation therapy for prostate cancer? How does it compare to other treatments?

By Sathana Dushyanthen Et Al

Prostate cancer is Australias most commonly diagnosed cancer. One in six men will be diagnosed by the time they turn 85. Cancers are abnormal groups of cells that grow uncontrollably and start invading neighbouring...

Party season is coming. Here are 2 ways to make small talk less awkward

By Nick Enfield

Most people will tell you they hate small talk. It can feel awkward, especially when it steers to that blandest of topics, the weather. We turn to the weather when we cant think of anything else to talk about. This is...

Astronomers just found complex carbon molecules in space – a step closer to deciphering the origins of life

By Maria Cunningham

A team led by researchers at MIT in the United States has discovered large molecules containing carbon in a distant interstellar cloud of gas and dust. This is exciting for those of us who keep lists of known...

For type 2 diabetes, focusing on when you eat – not what – can help control blood sugar

By Brooke Devlin Et Al

Type 2 diabetes affects 1.2 million Australians and accounts for 85-90% of all diabetes cases. This chronic condition is characterised by high blood glucose (sugar) levels, which carry serious health risks. Complications...

Most Republican states have made voting harder since 2020. Our research shows how successful they’ve been

By Kathryn Schumaker Et Al

In late September, the governor of the state of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, boasted that election officials had removed 453,000 people from the states voter rolls since 2021. In a state with only 2.3 million registered voters,...

Does tracking your employees actually make them more productive?

By Melissa A. Wheeler

Should employers prioritise efficiency at all costs? It might seem like a good idea. More processes than ever before can now be automated with robotics, artificial intelligence and other technology. But in case after...

Silence speaks volumes: How mental health influences employee silence at work

By Kyle Brykman Et Al

What happens when the loudest voice in the room suddenly falls silent? Consider a woman named Isla who is known in her office as the idea generator. She regularly participates in meetings, offers opinions about new...

How Elon Musk has become a powerful figure in US politics

By Thomas Gift

Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX recently made history by catching a Starship rocket booster as it careened back to Earth, wants you to vote for Donald Trump for many reasons. That includes not just what Trump will do here...

As Colombia hosts a UN biodiversity summit, its own Amazonian rainforest is in crisis

By Jesica Lopez

The city of Cali, in Colombia, is hosting the UNs 16th biodiversity summit, known as Cop16. The summit, which runs until Friday, November 1, is focused on how countries will fulfil previous pledges to protect at least 30%...

Proof that immigrants fuel the US economy is found in the billions they send back home

By Ernesto Castañeda

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants if he is elected to a second term, claiming that, among other things, foreign-born workers take jobs from others. His running mate JD Vance has echoed those...

Your next favorite story won’t be written by AI – but it could be someday

By Haoran Chu Et Al

Stories define people they shape our relationships, cultures and societies. Unlike other skills replaced by technology, storytelling has remained uniquely human, setting people apart from machines. But now, even...

Your politics can affect whether you click on sponsored search results, new research shows

By Alexander Davidson

American businesses spend close to US$100 billion each year to secure top advertising spots in search engine results even though its not exactly a secret that most online shoppers scroll right past them. In fact,...

What US election interference law actually says about Labour volunteers

By Ilaria Di Gioia

With just two weeks to go until election day, Donald Trumps presidential campaign filed a complaint with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), requesting an immediate investigation into what it termed blatant foreign...

Harris nudges ahead of Trump in the polls – but could the economy prove her downfall?

By Paul Whiteley

The current US vice-president and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, appears to have nudged ahead of her Republican rival, Donald Trump, in the race to the White House. A poll of polls, which combines...

The Terminator at 40: this sci-fi ‘B-movie’ still shapes how we view the threat of AI

By Tom F.A Watts

October 26, 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of director James Camerons science fiction classic, The Terminator a film that popularised societys fear of machines that cant be reasoned with, and that absolutely will not...

Are managers at risk in an AI-driven future?

By Wim Vandekerckhove

Business leaders are increasingly worried about AIs disruptive effects on the future of work. Many workers fear job losses, but their anxiety also stems from the idea of AI making decisions about their work. Should we...

‘Cosmic inflation’: did the early cosmos balloon in size? A mirror universe going backwards in time may be a simpler explanation

By Neil Turok

We live in a golden age for learning about the universe. Our most powerful telescopes have revealed that the cosmos is surprisingly simple on the largest visible scales. Likewise, our most powerful microscope, the Large...

Ukraine cannot defeat Russia – the best the west can do is help Kyiv plan for a secure post-war future

By Frank Ledwidge

A friend of mine, usually an intensely optimistic pro-Ukraine analyst, returned from Ukraine last week and told me: Its like the German Army in January 1945. The Ukrainians are being driven back on all fronts including in...

Israel-Gaza conflict: Home and away

By Vinita Srivastava

Its not often that events far away impact us so profoundly at home. But events in Palestine and Israel, which have been reverberating in the Global North for decades, crescendoed over the past year, directly impacting...

AI affects everyone – including Indigenous people. It’s time we have a say in how it’s built

By Tamika Worrell

Since artificial intelligence (AI) became mainstream over the past two years, many of the risks it poses have been widely documented. As well as fuelling deep fake porn, threatening personal privacy and accelerating the...

Use of AI in property valuation is on the rise – but we need greater transparency and trust

By William Cheung Et Al

New Zealands economy has been described as a housing market with bits tacked on. Buying and selling property is a national sport fuelled by the rising value of homes across the country. But the wider public has little...

US inflation rate fell to 2.4% in September − here’s what that means for interest rates and markets

By Jason Reed

It wasnt that long ago that the Federal Reserve, the central bank for the United States, was worrying that annual inflation would surpass 9% in the middle of 2022. The U.S. economy hadnt seen prices rise that fast since...

Hurricane Milton explodes into a powerful Category 5 storm as it heads for Florida − here’s how rapid intensification works

By Zachary Handlos Et Al

Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified into a dangerous Category 5 hurricane on Oct. 7, 2024, as it headed across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. Twenty-four hours earlier, it was barely a Category 1 storm. As its wind...

Wealthier Canadians live longer and are less likely to be dependent as they age, new research finds

By Marie-Louise Leroux Et Al

Population aging is a growing challenge for developed countries like Canada, with significant implications for health care and long-term care systems. In OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)...

‘Ecocide’ is being used as a weapon of war in Ukraine. It should be one of the crimes tried in the International Criminal Court

By Renéo Lukic Et Al

Since Feb. 24, 2022, Russia has been waging simultaneous wars in Ukraine: a conventional one, hybrid or cyber warfare, and one against the environment, or ecocide. Ecocide, used as a weapon of war, takes place alongside...

Still with the Tony Soprano memes? Young audiences are watching the series with fresh eyes

By Alexander H. Beare

HBOs latest crime drama The Penguin came with a flood of memes on TikTok, X and Instagram. They compare actor Colin Farrells Oswald Cobblepot to James Gandolfinis Tony Soprano. Its true, there are undeniable...

Failure to launch: why the Albanese government is in trouble

By Carol Johnson

It wasnt meant to be like this. In her 2022 study of Anthony Albanese, Katharine Murphy describes a prime minister who thought hed be successfully managing an idealistic, collaborative and positive new politics that...

Many stable atoms have ‘magic numbers’ of protons and neutrons − 75 years ago, 2 physicists discovered their special properties

By Artemis Spyrou Et Al

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei the center part of atoms, which make up all matter were more stable than others. These...

Too good to be true? New study shows people reject freebies and cheap deals for fear of hidden costs

By Andrew Vonasch

If youre offered a free cookie, you might say yes. But if youre paid to eat a free cookie, would your response be the same? In our new research, twice as many people were willing to eat a cookie when they werent offered...

No time for a holiday? A ‘workation’ could be the answer

By Mariachiara Barzotto

Imagine this: youre lounging on the beach, waves crashing in the background. A laptop sits on the table next to your iced coffee. In between meetings, you dip into the ocean or explore a hiking trail. This is the ideal...

Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda – what you need to know

By Manal Mohammed

Rwanda is in the midst of its first outbreak of Marburg virus an often fatal disease with symptoms similar to Ebola. So far, 46 cases have been recorded and 12 deaths. The source of the outbreak is still not...

Football acts like referees are the issue but they are just following the rules

By Daniel Hough

Football seems to have a problem with referees. Barely a weekend goes by without someone a manager, a player, a pundit making it abundantly clear that many of those who officiate are (apparently) not very good at their...

MicroRNA is the Nobel-winning master regulator of the genome – researchers are learning to treat disease by harnessing how it controls genes

By Andrea Kasinski

When Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered a new molecule they called microRNA in the 1980s, it was a fascinating diversion from what for decades had been called the central dogma of molecular biology. Recognized...

Gas isn’t a good alternative to coal – South Africa should focus on solar, wind and green hydrogen

By Richard Calland

South Africa is immersed in a just energy transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system to a cleaner, low-carbon energy system. This new system will be based primarily on renewable energy, such as solar, wind and green...

NASA wants to send humans to Mars in the 2030s − a crewed mission could unlock some of the red planet’s geologic mysteries

By Joel S. Levine

NASA plans to send humans on a scientific round trip to Mars potentially as early as 2035. The trip will take about six to seven months each way and will cover up to 250 million miles (402 million kilometers) each way. The...

Air pollution inside Philly’s subway is much worse than on the streets

By Kabindra Shakya Et Al

The air quality in the City Hall subway station in downtown Philadelphia is much worse than on the sidewalks directly above the station. That is a key finding of our new study published in the Journal of Exposure Science ...

The extraordinary life of Alfred Nobel

By Jonas F. Ludvigsson

The Nobel prizes may be one of the most famous and prestigious awards in the world but who was the man behind them? As I explain in my lectures about Alfred Nobel, the inventor and entrepreneur has left a lasting legacy...

Meet the microbes that transform toxic carbon monoxide into valuable biofuel

By Maximilienne Toetie Allaart

Microbes are hungry. All the time. And they live everywhere, in enormous numbers. We might not see them with the naked eye, but they are in soils, lakes, oceans, hydrothermal vents, our homes, and even in and on our own...

NASA is launching a major mission to look for habitable spots on Jupiter’s moon Europa

By James Lloyd

On October 10, NASA is launching a hotly anticipated new mission to Jupiters fourth-largest moon, Europa. Called Europa Clipper, the spacecraft will conduct a detailed study of the moon, looking for potential places...

‘Dark tourism’ is attracting visitors to war zones and sites of atrocities in Israel and Ukraine. Why?

By Juliet Rogers

There is a disturbing trend of people travelling to the sadder places of the world: sites of military attacks, war zones and disasters. Dark tourism is now a phenomenon, with its own website and dedicated tour guides....

Smokers have a higher level of harmful bacteria in the mouth – new study

By Yvonne Prince Et Al

A recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 8 million people die annually from smoking related complications. Despite efforts by governments and various organisations to create awareness about the...

A year of escalating conflict in the Middle East has ushered in a new era of regional displacement

By Nicholas R. Micinski Et Al

A year of conflict has ushered in a new era of mass displacement in the Middle East. Since Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent sustained Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Israel has expanded its...