Author: Editorial Board

Children who have at least one parent working in IT, business or engineering are the best performing students in Australia. An OECD report into the connection between student performance and their parents’ occupations has also found the kids of subsistence farmers, salespeople and machine operators are the lowest performing students in the nation’s schools. Not only…

A definitive report on observed changes in long term trends in Australia’s climate has been released today by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology. Bureau Chief Executive Dr Rob Vertessy said temperatures across Australia were, on average, almost 1°C warmer than they were a century ago, with most of the warming having occurred since 1950.…

Computers and robots will become smarter and more adept than human beings in 15 years time. Computers develop an almost-organic intelligence gleaned from experience, and will be able to tell jokes and flirt with humans. How real is this? Well, it’s quite real. Internet search giant Google has spent billions buying up the world’s top…

Queensland’s researchers, scientists and their commercial partners are encouraged to apply for grants of up to half a million dollars under the state government’s new science and research funding program. The Accelerate Partnerships funding program was opened by Queensland Chief Scientist Dr Geoff Garrett AO who said universities and research organisations with their industrial or…

PhD Comics has released the third video in an animated series explaining Quantum concepts and devices. This one focuses on Quantum Entanglement and features the work of Caltech physicists Jeff Kimble and Chen-Lung Hung. Meanwhile Jorge Cham, creator of PhD Comics, provides the accompanying animation. Source and image.

A quick note: Shaye J.D. Cohen, a professor of Hebrew Literature and Philosophy at Harvard, has recently released his second free course on iTunes. The first course was called The Hebrew Scriptures in Judaism & Christianity. The new one, simply titled The Hebrew Bible, ”surveys the major books and ideas of the Hebrew Bible (also…

Asteroids hit the Earth, the Moon and even, it seems, distant stars. Scientists using CSIRO’s Parkes telescope and another telescope in South Africa have found evidence that a tiny star called PSR J0738-4042 is being pounded by asteroids — large lumps of rock from space. “One of these rocks seems to have had a mass…

Why have cinephiles, from the era of Laserdiscs through that of DVDs and now Blu-rays, so consistently respected The Criterion Collection? Speaking as one such cinephile, we could point to a number of factors: their curatorial bent toward important films, their production of rich supplementary features, their always impressive pieces of cover art. But Criterion…

“Natural” vs “Organic”: What is the difference? Both sound healthy and good. In fact, most consumers feel the two words are synonymous. Are they the same? Is there any difference? According to ABC News, “The term ‘organic’ is tightly regulated and means food was produced under approved methods and is free of synthetic fertilizers.” But…

A new cost-effective weed management analysis has been developed to help protect one of the most unique regions in the world – the 120 million ha Lake Eyre Basin. A team of experts developed the framework for cost-effective investment in weed management in the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB). The aim of the project was to…

A health and wellbeing check up of World Heritage-listed reef ecosystems in the Pilbara region of Western Australia will provide a critical baseline of marine conditions to government, industry and researchers. The 300km swathe of coastline to be surveyed during the five year, $12 million Pilbara Marine Conservation Partnership includes two major marine parks and…

Stephen Fry is taking part in a curious science experiment. It involves creating a portrait of the writer/comedian/science enthusiast, using nothing but his own bacteria and cells. According to the web site of The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair, the “bacteriographs” — as the portraits are called — are “made from the…

Researchers from CSIRO and Monash University in Melbourne are putting the spending habits of retirees under the microscope in an effort to understand the finer details behind how they use and manage their super in retirement. “We’re looking to understand what retirees need, how long their super lasts and what investment options and financial products…