By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne
Recent polling shows if the disruption caused by the Trump administration’s war with Iran continues, Democrats will likely gain control of Congress.
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By John Hawkins, Senior lecturer, Canberra School of Government, University of Canberra
It says something not too flattering about Australian politics that respected academic Paul Strangio’s new book The Alchemy of Leadership only discusses 21st century prime ministers, but still needs to cover seven of them. Or eight, if you count Kevin Rudd twice.
A possible reason for this volatility, according to the
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
One Nation on Monday released a radical policy proposing Australia net overseas migration (NOM) be negative over three years, as the country reduced its temporary migrant population by 750,000.
Under its plan, the student intake would be dramatically cut, the opportunity for temporary students, graduates and temporary workers to sponsor family members would be substantially restricted, “visa hopping” would be attacked, and those here illegally would be booted from the country.
One Nation is not providing numbers for the individuals years of the three-year period when the…
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By Philippa Karoly, Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, The University of Melbourne
You’re likely familiar with the idea of a circadian rhythm – your body’s 24-hour cycle that governs sleep and wakefulness.
It turns out that resting heart rate also follows mysterious, long rhythms that run independently of the outside world. Resting heart rate is measured by how many beats per minute your heart makes while you’re calm and inactive. This measure is linked to stress, fatigue and fitness.
Our new study, published in EBioMedicine, looked at years of smartwatch data from hundreds of young…
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By Leo M Condron, Distinguished Professor of Soil Science, Lincoln University, New Zealand
Since the end of the second world war, adding phosphorus to soils in the form of mineral fertiliser has played a crucial role in increasing and maintaining global food production in response to population growth.
However, plants only take up 20-50% of the phosphorus from fertiliser applications.
The unused phosphorus is mainly stabilised through chemical reactions which bind it to soil minerals. It accumulates as “legacy soil phosphorus”, with an increased risk of contributing to water pollution.
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By Johanna Lim, Research Associate, Strategic Technologies, University of Sydney
Until recently, data centres attracted relatively little public attention. They were largely treated as invisible pieces of digital infrastructure: essential but rarely discussed outside technical and industry circles.
But over the past 12 months across Australia, data centres have become the subject of intense political debate, community opposition, planning disputes and parliamentary inquiries.
Questions are being raised about…
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By Alexandra Hansen, Deputy Editor and Chief of Staff, The Conversation
Signe Dean, Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation
Community opposition to large-scale data centres is growing. Critics are calling for a pause on data centre development, in line with other jurisdictions such as New York, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled this out.
We put a call-out to our audience: what questions do you have about data centres? We were quickly overwhelmed with responses and had to close the survey.
This avid response cemented our decision to take a deeper dive into data centres.…
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By Stephanie Wescott, Lecturer, Monash University
Jane Gilmore, PhD Candidate, Monash University
Naomi Pfitzner, Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Hub and Senior Lecturer in Criminology Monash University, Monash University
Important as it is, no amount of social media regulation will meaningfully address the manosphere unless we also dismantle the misogyny that underpins it.
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By Bill Hare, Adjunct Professor of Energy, Murdoch University
Within the next five years, global warming is set to breach the 1.5°C threshold at the heart of the 2015 Paris Agreement. This will have dire consequences, from rapidly melting ice sheets to ghostly white coral…
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By Genevieve McArthur, Professor at the Australian Centre for the Advancement of Literacy, Australian Catholic University
Western Australian author Hamish Kelly has struggled with reading for almost two decades. In his first of two books, he describes his experience of learning to read:
The letters in words were confusing and words often looked the same […] Each year it got harder. Reading got harder and maths got twice as hard, as maths has lots of reading as well […] By year 5, I was down on myself. I felt stupid and dumb!! My Mum, Dad, and teachers told me I wasn’t, but I still…
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