By Nick Brindle, Professor of Cell Signalling, University of Leicester
From microplastics clogging up our oceans to landfills leaching out dangerous chemicals, plastic waste is a serious and growing problem for human health and the environment. We need to recycle more, and crucially, recycle better.
Most plastic that is recycled is melted and remoulded into lower-quality products such as carpet fibres and garden planters, before eventually ending up in landfill or the incinerator. This is downcycling rather than proper recycling. Current methods don’t enable the recovery of the…
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By Zoe Stephenson, Associate Professor of Forensic Psychology, University of Birmingham
Ongoing problems in the criminal justice system in England and Wales, from overcrowding in prisons to court backlogs, have raised fundamental questions about how and why we punish people.
Advocates for a more rehabilitative, less punitive system often point to Scandinavian prisons as a model for how things could be done better.
My colleagues and I wanted to find out how beliefs about free will and crime…
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By José Navarro, Catedrático de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, Universitat de Barcelona
“It’s not personal, it’s strictly business.” This line, which echoes throughout Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 gangster film The Godfather, epitomises the classic view of management: doing business is, above all, about making money, even if it means sacrificing all of the personal, social aspects of work.
However, the ongoing crisis of mental health in the workplace is forcing managers to take employees’ emotional wellbeing into account.
To…
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By Melissa Lee, Senior Lecturer, School of Mathematics, Monash University
Yet another longstanding mathematical question has been resolved by AI – and it feels a little different from the ones that have come before
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By Jessica Holloway, Senior Research DECRA Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University
For some families, NAPLAN results will confirm what they already know. For others, they may contain surprises or raise concerns.
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By Jake Brooker, Research Associate in the Department of Biology, Utrecht University
Zanna Clay, Professor in the Department of Psychology, Durham University
During an eight-month-long research trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, we studied consolation: the way bonobos and chimpanzees comfort each other after conflicts and distress. But early on, we kept noticing something that didn’t quite fit.
The animals were exchanging a lot of friendly physical contact, embracing, touching and kissing, in competitive situations before any clear conflict or distress signals had broken out. We…
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By Steve Schifferes, Honorary Research Fellow, City Political Economy Research Centre, City St George's, University of London
The UK’s new prime minister, Andy Burnham, laid out a radical agenda in his short speech upon taking office. He called for a long-term strategy to reverse 40 years of Thatcherism, and the privatisation and centralisation that resulted. Wisely, he put a ten-year horizon on these objectives and it is now up to his new chancellor, John Healey, to realise his ambitions.
Sensibly, Burnham has also announced less costly but limited measures to deal with the cost of living and the housing crisis – intended…
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By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
If his impressive academic record is any measure, Andrew Charlton might lay claim to one of the highest IQs in the parliamentary Labor party. Now, with his central role in the government’s AI policy, he’s…
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Members of the Nigerian police force are seen outside the Federal High Court, in Abuja, Nigeria, on October 21, 2021. © 2021 Kola Sulaimon / AFP via Getty Images The Nigerian authorities’ prosecution of Boko Haram suspects does not advance justice for serious international crimes, as the cases continue to target primarily low-level suspects and raise significant fair trial concerns.Trials were conducted without witnesses or circumstantial evidence, prosecutors dropped some seemingly serious charges, while many plea-driven convictions were for aiding armed groups…
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By Russell Mullett, Traditional Custodian — Kurnai, Indigenous Knowledge
Bruno David, Professor, Australian Research Council Industry Laureate, Monash University
Elle Grono, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University
Deeply etched into a cliff face in GunaiKurnai Country, near the township of Buchan in East Gippsland in rural Victoria, is a large limestone cave that hosts an extraordinary story.
Today, the area outside Cloggs Cave is mainly grassland and open woodland, with eucalypt forests further behind the cave. But this was not always so.
The environment changed as the last ice age came and went, and as the Old GunaiKurnai Ancestors managed Country through cultural burning and daily activities on the land. Photographs from the 19th century, as well as regional…
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