By Heather L. Robinson, Research Associate - Creative Industries, Flinders University
It’s a library’s duty to balance representing its community with providing a broad range of books – including those that may challenge or discomfort.
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By Amnesty International
The expanded use of surveillance technologies in Argentina during the first two years of the Javier Milei’s administration has served to expand states surveillance capabilities, profiling and reprisals in the country, creating a chilling effect on rights to privacy and freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, Amnesty International said in a new report today. The report, Sensing the Surveillance State, documents how the government implemented sweeping institutional reforms to expand its intelligence capabilities and therefore surveillance mechanisms, through executive decrees and…
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By Malka Older
This issue fascinates me because of its near-invisibility: As many of our Spotlight articles observe, citizenship is easy to take for granted when you receive it automatically and never have to defend it.
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By Trevor Mazzucchelli, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, Curtin University
Do you hear ‘psychotherapy’ and imagine lying on a couch, talking about dreams? Here’s where that image comes from – and why it might be time for an update.
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By Becky Freeman, Professor in Public Health, University of Sydney
Christina Watts, Research Fellow at The Daffodil Centre, University of Sydney
Sam Egger, Senior Biostatistician at the Daffodil Centre, Cancer Council NSW, University of Sydney
A 75% cut in tobacco tax won’t make cigarettes as cheap as you might think. Here’s what really helps smokers in a cost of living crisis.
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By Kirsty Forsdike, Principal Research Fellow and Associate Professor, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University
Catherine Ordway, Visiting Scholar, School of Business, CBR, UNSW
The Australian Football League (AFL) and the Sydney Swans are confronting a question Australian sport has repeatedly failed to answer clearly: what should happen when players are linked to police investigations of alleged sexual violence, but the criminal process is incomplete – or inconclusive?
Yesterday, it…
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By Janine Krippner, Honorary Research Associate in Volcanology/Mātai Puia, University of Waikato
Heather Handley, Senior Curator of Geosciences, Museums Victoria Research Institute; Monash University
Erupting or silent, volcanoes have always captured our imagination.
As volcanologists, we have seen how that fascination can collide with rolling news coverage and social media, amplifying false claims, misleading images and long-standing misconceptions about how volcanoes behave. We want to help.
Much more than simply getting the science wrong, misinformation can distort people’s perceptions of hazards and risk and influence how they respond to an eruption.
With this in mind, we sought to better understand which misconceptions about volcanoes are most common…
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By Jongkil Jay Jeong, Senior fellow, The University of Melbourne; RMIT University; Deakin University
Imagine your team has been tasked to deliver a high-stakes policy paper under intense time pressure. Everyone turns to generative artificial intelligence (AI) and within minutes, it delivers a full draft complete with structured arguments and authoritative-looking citations.
The team then transfers the AI-generated text into the corporate template, polishes the narrative flow and structure, and gives it one final check before sending it up the chain. Leadership takes a glimpse of the polished-looking draft, and – assuming the underlying research has already been verified – signs off…
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By Larissa Christensen, Co-leader, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit (SVRPU), Senior Lecturer in Criminology & Justice, University of the Sunshine Coast
Bricklyn Priebe, Associate Lecturer in Criminology and Justice; Core Member, Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit, University of the Sunshine Coast
For many parents, keeping their children safe online is a top priority. But now there’s an emerging threat: “com networks”.
Com networks (short for community networks) are online groups that mostly target vulnerable young people in the online spaces they use every day, including gaming platforms and social media.
Through threats, they convince young people to harm themselves and others.
Perpetrators are
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By Kate Poole, Associate Professor in Physiology, UNSW
Felix Aplin, Lecturer, Department of Physiology and Translational Neuroscience Facility, School of Biomedical Sciences, UNSW
It’s a cold winter afternoon and you’ve just brought the washing in. Suddenly, you pause. Are these clothes a bit damp?
In the laundry basket, your hand can clearly distinguish the textures of silky shirts, woollen jumpers, cotton bed sheets. So why is it so hard to tell whether the washing is cold and damp, or just cold?
A sensible guess might be that our hands are numb from the cold, making it harder to detect wetness. The less intuitive reality is that we humans completely lack any specialised sensors that respond to “wetness” in the first place.
That’s…
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