Article archive

Animals in research: benefits, ethics and assessment

09/12/2013 15:20
By Gavan McNally “AUSTRALIANS SAY NO TO ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS,” rang the headline of a recent media release by the activist group Humane Research Australia, referring to an opinion poll it commissioned in May that found: the majority of Australians are opposed to such an archaic practice and...

Does science literacy matter? Yes, and here’s why

09/12/2013 15:18
By Ken Friedman When the email notice for The Weekend Conversation landed on Saturday, I was intrigued and slightly startled by the opening teaser from the site’s Science + Technology editor, Paul Dalgarno. He got one of the seven questions wrong in the Australian Academy of Science’s (AAS) recent...

And in science news … can we have more science news?

09/12/2013 15:17
By Peter Ellerton Why is science not delivered as part of our routine news bulletins in the same way as, say, business and sport? Enter a group from the University of Queensland, who yesterday posted an open letter to radio station Triple J and initiated an online petition asking that the station...

Long live the queen bee … but if she doesn’t, the colony will prevail

09/12/2013 15:13
By Marianne Peso In a honey bee colony, the queen bee rules while her daughter workers do nothing but work. So what happens when the queen dies? Are there worker riots, with the colony dissolving into a chaotic mess? Surprisingly, no. In a study published in the journal Current Biology on Friday,...

Teleportation just got easier – but not for you, unfortunately

09/12/2013 11:44
By Ben Buchler Thanks to two studies published in Nature last Thursday, the chance of successful teleportation has considerably increased. Which is a good thing, right? Whether or not you’ve ever been on a long-haul flight, you’ve probably fantasised about being able to magically disappear from one...

The butterfly effect: optical nanotechnology takes flight

09/12/2013 11:42
By Min Gu, Swinburne University of Technology and Mark Turner, Swinburne University of Technology When scientists look for keys to unlock problems such as quantum teleportation or faster internet speeds, answers can sometimes be found in the natural world. Controlling light at the nanoscale is...

What is good science? And what gets public funding?

09/12/2013 11:40
By Merlin Crossley I’ve heard that we should stop talking about “pure” science and “applied” science; that we should only be talking about “good” science and “bad” science. Last year, CSIRO Chief Executive Megan Clark said as much during question time at her National Press Club address, and this...

Evolution’s ‘big bang’ explained (and it’s slower than predicted)

09/12/2013 11:38
By Mike Lee The sudden appearance of a range of modern animals about half a billion years ago, during evolution’s “big bang”, has intrigued and puzzled generations of biologists from Charles Darwin onwards. A new study by Greg Edgecombe from London’s Natural History Museum, Julien Soubrier from the...

Does psychology belong in the science club?

09/12/2013 11:36
By Jon Brock But for many other people, particularly scientists from other disciplines, psychology is at best a “soft” science. It doesn’t belong in the same exalted company as physics, chemistry, or, dare I say, neuroscience. The long-standing debate about psychology’s scientific credentials was...

To change anti-science activists' minds, go beyond science

09/12/2013 11:24
By Rod Lamberts The ABC recently reported that 400 people in the Philippines trampled vitamin-enriched “golden rice” trial crops because of fears to human health and biodiversity. A Greenpeace representative in Manila was quoted as saying they will not be apologising. It’s very easy to see this as...
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