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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By Jessica Tout-Lyon, Lecturer and researcher in marine molecular and microbial ecology, Charles Sturt University
Ordered kingfish sashimi recently? A parasite can infect some fish, yet they still look and taste the same when raw.
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By Ruipeng Liu, Senior Lecturer in finance, Deakin University
Microfinance was once celebrated as Asia’s tool to lift people out of poverty. From Bangladesh to India, Cambodia and the Philippines, the promise was simple: provide small loans to low-income households, help them start businesses, increase income and escape poverty.
Pioneered in…
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By Human Rights Watch
(Washington, DC) – The United States government on August 18, 2026, designated two additional International Criminal Court (ICC) officials for sanctions under an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in February 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. Those sanctioned are Tomoko Akane, from Japan, the president of the ICC, and Abdoulaye Seye, from Senegal, an ICC senior trial lawyer.On August 11, Human Rights Watch, together with the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Open Society Institute, filed a lawsuit in US federal court challenging…
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By Sibo Chen, Associate Professor, School of Professional Communication, Toronto Metropolitan University
Beyond technical fluency, Canadian students need judgment to decide how to use AI and when it should not be used at all.
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By Dominic O'Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Stout Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington and Auckland University of Technology, Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University
If the Opportunity Party holds the balance of power after the election, its ‘honouring te Tiriti’ policy could be a deal maker – or breaker.
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By Mark A. Bassett, Associate Professor and Director, Academic Quality, Standards, and Integrity, Charles Sturt University
If this new development – designed to show if a text is AI-generated – sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is.
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By Genevieve Grant, Professor, Faculty of Law, and Director, Warren Centre for Civil Justice, Monash University, Monash University
A recent ruling suggests that if used well, AI offers an opportunity to improve access to justice. Courts and tribunals will have to perform a careful balancing act.
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By Matthew Large, Conjoint Professor, Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health, UNSW
Carly Stevens, Casual Academic, Biomedical Sciences, UNSW
A new study showed that for people who were susceptible to psychosis, cannabis use in their 30s was associated with an earlier onset of psychosis by 6.3 years.
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By Kerstin Zander, Professor of Environmental Economics, Charles Darwin University
Stephen Garnett, Professor of Conservation and Sustainable Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University
Before booking a holiday, it pays to check the weather.
Rain can turn a joyful trip into a glum stretch of days. Soaring temperatures are making sunny summers less appealing. And destructive fires, floods…
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