Coronavirus does not look like a 'black swan' event – here are some reasons to be cautiously optimistic

Jan 27, 2020 03:17 am UTC| Insights & Views Health

The alarm is sounding again. The Asia financial markets were reasonably calm about the new coronavirus until the news of the lockdown of the whole city of Wuhan in China on January 23, where the first and most cases have...

The Wuhan coronavirus is now in Australia – here's what you need to know

Jan 27, 2020 03:16 am UTC| Insights & Views Health

New South Wales Health has confirmed three men in their 30s, 40s and 50s in Sydney have tested positive to the new Wuhan coronavirus after returning from China. This follows Australias first case of the virus in a...

Surviving genocide: a voice from colonial Namibia at the turn of the last century

Jan 27, 2020 03:16 am UTC| Insights & Views

Germany committed genocide in Africa 40 years before the Holocaust of the European Jews. In 1904 and 1905 the Ovaherero and Nama people of central and southern Namibia rose up against colonial rule and dispossession in...

In a rare sighting, astronomers observe burst of activity as a massive star forms

Jan 27, 2020 03:15 am UTC| Insights & Views Science

Here on Earth, we pay quite a lot of attention to the sun. Its visible to us, after all, and central to our lives. But it is only one of the billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Its also quite small compared to...

Supreme Court: Can a corporation be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment?

Jan 27, 2020 03:14 am UTC| Insights & Views Law

Yes, you read that headline right. As far-fetched as it sounds, the Supreme Court of Canada just heard a case that raises the question of whether the protection against cruel and unusual punishment set out in the Canadian...

How smart were our ancestors? Turns out the answer isn't in brain size, but blood flow

Jan 27, 2020 03:14 am UTC| Insights & Views Science

How did human intelligence evolve? Anthropologists have studied this question for decades by looking at tools found in archaeological digs, evidence of the use of fire and so on, and changes in brain size measured from...

How a year of trying to buy nothing made me a smarter shopper and a better teacher

Jan 27, 2020 03:14 am UTC| Insights & Views Life

It started as a New Years resolution driven by guilt and a touch of sibling rivalry but by the end of the year, it taught me valuable lessons as a teacher, including about the benefits of failure. At Christmas dinner...