By Craig Stevens, Professor in Ocean Physics, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau; Earth Sciences New Zealand
The oil shocks of the 1970s spurred marine energy innovation. Fifty years on, New Zealand still has vast untapped ocean power waiting to be harnessed.
(Full Story)
|
By Jennifer Parker, Adjunct Professor, Defence and Security Institute, The University of Western Australia; UNSW Sydney
The ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran has done little so far to getting shipping through the vital waterway. It’s going to take more than just words to fix.
(Full Story)
|
By James Ley, Deputy Books + Ideas Editor, The Conversation
Jo Case, Senior Deputy Books + Ideas Editor, The Conversation
Sarah Holland-Batt, Fiona Wright, John Kinsella, Luke Johnson and Aidan Coleman share the poems they reach for in difficult times – offering hope, insight and beauty.
(Full Story)
|
By Kimberley Reid, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Frightening headlines predicting a Super El Niño or even a Godzilla El Niño amp up anxiety levels for farmers and residents of bushfire-prone regions.
But these phrases are not particularly accurate. The phrase “Super El Niño” makes climate scientists…
(Full Story)
|
By Annelise Blomberg, Associate Researcher in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University
Anna Saxne Jöud, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Lund University
Christel Nielsen, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Lund University
Pfas, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of human-made chemicals found in everything from food packaging to firefighting foam. Often called “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment, they can affect our health and disrupt our immune system.
Pfas cross the placenta, so that when a woman is pregnant, she shares some of the Pfas in her body with her unborn child. While most of us are routinely exposed…
(Full Story)
|
By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation
This is the text from The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email. Sign up here to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.
It’s still not clear who will turn up in Islamabad tomorrow for the first round of talks aimed at turning the 14-day ceasefire in the Iran war into a permanent end to the crisis. Indeed, it’s not at all certain that the ceasefire will still even exist by then.
To anyone following…
(Full Story)
|
By Ioana Emy Matesan, Associate Professor of Government, Wesleyan University
President Donald Trump’s rapid and dramatic turn from threatening to kill “an entire civilization” in Iran on the morning of April 7, 2026, to announcing a two-week ceasefire later that day left many observers with a sense of whiplash.
While it is difficult to predict whether the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran will hold or how events will…
(Full Story)
|
By Alexander Lewis Peace, Associate Professor, Structural Geology, McMaster University
The interpretation that the subduction zone is winding down gets ahead of the science. What the new research actually shows is far more complex and interesting.
(Full Story)
|
By Chad S.A. Gibbs, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, College of Charleston
Topics such as sexual assault have been difficult for survivors and historians to write about, even decades after the war.
(Full Story)
|
By Ashlynne McGhee, Head of Editorial Innovation, The Conversation
Isabella Podwinski, Social Media Producer, The Conversation
Every populist movement needs a threat. One Nation found several: Asian immigration, native title and Islam just to name a few. But do those enemies still resonate?
(Full Story)
|