Author: Editorial Board

Closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement and employment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is the aim of a new CSIRO education program, funded by the BHP Billiton Foundation. Launched today at Parliament House by the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, Minister for Industry, the $28.8 million, five-year project will deliver…

Hay fever and asthma sufferers in Canberra will soon be able to receive daily counts and forecasts of pollen levels thanks to a free app released by ANU researchers. Project leader Professor Simon Haberle says Canberra is a hot-spot for allergy-causing pollen, with up to one-in-five Canberrans affected. “Canberra pollen sufferers are in for a…

A short manifesto for the vitalizing power of discovery. “Few persons contributed more to the general welfare of mankind and to the advancement of science than the modest, self-effacing woman whom the world knew as Mme. Curie.” So read the obituary for Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only…

Investigation of new data expands information on spread of outbreak and case fatality rate. Unless Ebola control measures in west Africa are enhanced quickly, experts from the WHO and Imperial College, London, predict numbers will continue to climb exponentially, and more than 20 000 people will have been infected by early November, according to a…

Say the name “Yan-san” to anyone who’s studied Japanese in the last thirty years, and you’ll probably get a reaction of delighted recognition. It means that, inside or outside the classroom, they studied with Let’s Learn Japanese, a series of educational videos produced by the Japan Foundation.  The first “season,” if you like, came out…

Australians have endorsed the important role mining plays in the prosperity of the nation but there is still much to be done to bolster the industry’s acceptance, trust and support, according to a CSIRO report released today. Released at the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne, the Australian attitudes toward mining report is based…

Global emissions of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels reached a new record of 36 billion tonnes last year. At the same time, the pace of emissions from burning fossil fuels continues to grow at a high rate. Executive-Director of the Global Carbon Project (GCP) and co-author of the 2014 report CSIRO’s Dr…

Novelist, educator, and vlogger John Green has drawn a lot of press lately, including but not limited to a New Yorker profile by Margaret Talbot, in the wake of the film version of his popular young-adult novel The Fault in Our Stars. But we here can say we featured him before that magazine of cultural…

How a neurological nightmare illuminates the wondrous workings of the brain-body connection. “In both writing and sleeping,” Stephen King wrote in his meditation on “creative sleep” and the art of wakeful dreaming, “we learn to be physically still at the same time we are encouraging our minds to unlock from the humdrum rational thinking of…

Australia’s cultural institutions risk losing their relevance if they don’t increase their use of digital technologies and services, new research has shown. Released today by CSIRO, an analysis of Australia’s galleries, libraries, archives and museums (or GLAM industry) has revealed that digital innovation in the sector is inconsistent and isolated. The report provides a roadmap…

New data released today by the United Nations show that under-five mortality rates have dropped by 49% between 1990 and 2013. The average annual reduction has accelerated – in some countries it has even tripled – but overall progress is still short of meeting the global target of a two-thirds decrease in under-five mortality by…

The world’s largest collection of marine debris information has identified Australia’s coastal rubbish is mainly plastic from Australian sources. In a report released today, CSIRO scientist Denise Hardesty says her team surveyed sites approximately every 100 km along the Australian coastline. “We found about three-quarters of the rubbish along the coast is plastic,” she says.…

With 1984’s Neuromancer, William Gibson may not have invented cyberpunk, but he certainly crystallized it. The novel exemplifies the tradition’s mandate to bring together “high tech and low life,” or, in the words of Gibson himself, to explore what “any given science-fiction favorite would look like if we could crank up the resolution.” It may…

“There is no exercise that is either feeble or more strenuous … than that of conversing with one’s own thoughts.” “We all have the same inner life,” beloved artist Agnes Martin said in a wonderful lost interview. “The difference lies in the recognition. The artist has to recognize what it is.” But in an age…