By Priyanka Dhopade, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
NASA’s Artemis II mission has revived lunar ambition – and a potential new race between nations. Very different visions now complicate the human future of space.
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By Mara Davis Johnson, Lecturer in Creative and Performing Arts, University of Wollongong
The Deb is an enjoyable Australian comedy with characteristically crude humour. It’s a shame it’s not as good a musical as it is a comedy.
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By Bruce Buchan, Professor of History, School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science, Griffith University
In the midst of a war of his own choosing, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, recently tried to threaten his way out of it. On April 7, he posted on Truth Social that unless Iran buckled to his will, “a whole civilization will die tonight”.
He presumably meant to amplify his earlier claim that he intended to bomb Iran back to “the stone age”.
Trump’s words are rarely to be taken at face value. Yet his recent…
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By David Eager, Professor of Risk Management and Injury Prevention, University of Technology Sydney
An engineer who’s helped set the standards for Australian rides explains what tests are done each day on roller coasters – and why he let his own kids ride them.
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By Brendan Paul Burns, Associate Professor, School of Biotech & Biomolecular Science, UNSW Sydney
Kymberley Oakley, Indigenous language expert, Indigenous Knowledge
Stromatolites might look like rocks. But they are living relics of ancient systems that thrived on Earth billions of years ago.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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…
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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…
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