Author: Editorial Board

Get me a piano teacher, stat! When I was a child, my father, enchanted by the notion that I might someday provide live piano accompaniment to his evening cocktails, signed me up for lessons with a mild-mannered widow who—if memory serves—charged 50¢ an hour. Had I only been forced to practice more regularly, I’d have…

The case for the Reserve Bank of Australia to increase interest rates is building, although the central bank should leave rates unchanged after its August board meeting, The Australian National University RBA Shadow Board has found. “New inflation and growth data suggest that the RBA’s low interest rate setting ought to come to an end…

“I probably worry less about the real future than the average person,” says William Gibson, the man who coined the term “cyberspace” and wrote books like Neuromancer, Idoru, and Pattern Recognition. These have become classics of a science-fiction subgenre branded as “cyberpunk,” a label that seems to pain Gibson himself. “A snappy label and a…

Queensland families will have better protection against tropical diseases with work under way to build a globally significant health research institute in north Queensland. Science Minister Ian Walker said the new Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine in Townsville would put Queensland at the forefront of tropical health nationally and internationally, part of the…

Seven frog species could be saved from extinction by a Townsville scientist thanks to a Queensland Government grant. Science and Innovation Minister Ian Walkersaid Dr Alexandra Robertsfrom James Cook University’s College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, would use the $180,000 research grant to develop a treatment to stop a fungal disease killing the…

World War I began 100 years ago, on 28 July 1914. The initial trigger, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, produced something of a “domino effect,” where European powers, bound by pre-existing international alliances, chose sides and fell rather obviously into a catastrophic war. It started as a European war, pitting Allied powers…

Spanish-speaking farmers and regulators will be better equipped to manage the impacts of pesticides on water resources thanks to a new version of CSIRO’s popular Pesticide Impact Rating Index (PIRI) tool. The Australian national science agency, the CSIRO, this month, released a Spanish version of the freely available software tool, which rates the potential pollution…

The supercontinent of Pangea formed some 270 million years ago, during the Early Permian Period, and then began to break up 70 million years later, eventually yielding the continents we inhabit today. Pangea was, of course, a peopleless place. But if you were to drop today’s nations on that great land mass, here’s what it…

Australia’s public and private economy-wide deficit could blow out to more than $400 billion by 2050 due to the nation’s ageing population, a new Australian National University report has found. The report by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), based at the Crawford School of Public Policy, provides the…

On World Hepatitis Day, 28 July, WHO welcomes new progress in tackling one of the world’s most serious diseases. Viral hepatitis – a group of infectious diseases known as hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E – affects millions of people worldwide, causing acute and chronic liver disease and killing close to 1.4 million people…

A pioneer of “Afrofuturism,” bandleader Sun Ra emerged from a traditional swing scene in Alabama, touring the country in his teens as a member of his high school biology teacher’s big band. While attending Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, he had a out-of-body experience during which he was transported into outer space. As biographer John…

Founded in London in 1787, The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) began publishing The Laws of Cricket in 1788, and later became the governing body of the game. More than two centuries later, the MCC has passed governing responsibilities to The International Cricket Council. But it still publishes The Laws of Cricket and helps young players…

A team from the Research School of Physics and Engineering have uncovered the secret to twisting light at will. It is the latest step in the development of photonics, the faster, more compact and less carbon-hungry successor to electronics. A random find in the washing basket led the team to create the latest in a…

For the last three decades my right ankle has been the site of a deeply botched tattoo. It was supposed to be a yin yang, but with every passing year, it looks more and more like a cancerous mole. The drunken Vietnam Vet who administered it barely glanced at the design taking shape on my…