Developing resilience is an important tool to help you deal with coronavirus and the surge in cases
By Keith M. Bellizzi
Were all exhausted and pushed to the limit by months of social distancing, and the recent news that cases are climbing in many states is especially scary.While you may feel like ripping off your mask and heading for a...
How deforestation helps deadly viruses jump from animals to humans
By Amy Y. Vittor Et Al
The coronavirus pandemic, suspected of originating in bats and pangolins, has brought the risk of viruses that jump from wildlife to humans into stark focus.These leaps often happens at the edges of the worlds tropical...
Gene therapy and CRISPR strategies for curingblindness (Yes, you read that right)
By Hemant Khanna
In recent months, even as our attention has been focused on the coronavirus outbreak, there have been a slew of scientific breakthroughs in treating diseases that cause blindness.Researchers at U.S.-based Editas...
Days with both extreme heat and extreme air pollution are becoming more common – which can't be a good thing for global health
By Yangyang Xu Et Al
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.The big ideaDays of extreme high heat and extreme air pollution are both increasing worldwide. Last November, New Delhi experienced a week of the...
New York opens traffic-clogged streets to people during pandemic, the city's latest redesign in times of dramatic change
By Amy D. Finstein
On some normally congested New York City streets, cars are gone, replaced by diners tentatively returning to restaurantsthough only outsideafter months of lockdown. On June 22, the city entered phase two of reopening...
Coronavirus responses highlight how humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don't fit their worldview
By Adrian Bardon
Bemoaning uneven individual and state compliance with public health recommendations, top U.S. COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci recently blamed the countrys ineffective pandemic response on an American anti-science bias. He...
A selective retreat from trade with China makes sense for the United States
By Amitrajeet A. Batabyal
Trade tensions and mistrust are escalating between the U.S. and China. Soon after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that China recommitted to its January trade deal obligations after a face-to-face meeting with...
Economic policies can induce people to quarantine safely during the pandemic
By Roberto Chang1 Et Al
Recent economic proposals to deal with COVID-19, like those summarized by UC Berkeley economist Pierre Olivier Gourinchas, have focused on compensating households and businesses for income losses due to lockdowns and other...
Nepal is caught in the middle of India-China border tensions
By Promod Tandan
A tense military standoff between China and India over a disputed border area in the Himalayas has put much of the region on edge. Not least in Nepal, which has its own ongoing land dispute with India and where concern is...
Thousands of women have run out of tampons and pads under lockdown – time to talk about sustainable period products
By Supriya Garikipati
The coronavirus pandemic has triggered what has been described as a sanitary pad crisis in India. Priya, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, considers herself lucky: her parents can still afford pads. But several of her friends will...
Apple is trying to reclaim its major innovator status (by making you wash your hands)
By Margarietha de Villiers Scheeper Et Al
Market commentators view Apples announcements at this weeks Worldwide Developers Conference 2020 (WWDC) as one of the companys most important strategic moves of the past decade.Among the key announcements were details...
The law is a man's world. Unless the culture changes, women will continue to be talked over, marginalised and harassed
By Kate Galloway
For many, the allegations of sexual harassment against Dyson Heydon came as a shock. It seems difficult to imagine a senior member of the legal profession, a justice of the High Court, would engage in inappropriate or...
Government unveils $250 million for 'creative economy'
By Michelle Grattan
he Morrison government has announced a $250 million package for the entertainment, arts and screen sectors, which have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis.The grants and loans will be rolled out over the...
Journalists believe news and opinion are separate, but readers can't tell the difference
By Kevin M. Lerner
The New York Times opinion editor James Bennet resigned recently after the paper published a controversial opinion essay by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton that advocated using the military to put down protests.The essay...
A field guide to Trump's dangerous rhetoric
By Jennifer Mercieca
All leaders are demagogues. You may not realize this, because weve come to associate the word demagogue with only dangerous populist leaders. But in Greek, the word just means leader of the people (dēmos the people +...
Facebook vs news: Australia wants to level the playing field, Facebook politely disagrees
By Tim Dwyer
The Australian government is setting out to develop a bargaining code to address power imbalances between news media publishers and digital platforms such as Facebook and Google. The creation of this code was recommended...
Vital Signs: COVID-19 recession is different – and we need more stimulus to deal with it.
By Richard Holden
Australia has done well on the public health front during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to decisive action by the National Cabinet in March. Australia has done better than most countries on the economic front, too, thanks...
Supreme Court ruling on Dreamers sends a clear message to the White House: You have to tell the truth
By Morgan Marietta
When it came down to it, the fate of 700,000 immigrants brought to U.S. as children hung on a simple question: Does the White House have to tell the whole truth in justifying its move to deport them?On June 8, the...
One metre or two? The science behind social distancing
By Lena Ciric
What constitutes a safe distance when it comes to the spread of COVID-19? The answer depends on where you live.China, Denmark and France recommend social distancing of one metre; Australia, Germany and Italy recommend...
5 reasons police officers should have college degrees
By Leana Bouffard Et Al
Following several deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of police, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order on June 16 that calls for increased training and credentialing to reduce the use of excessive force...
Rural America is more vulnerable to COVID-19 than cities are, and it's starting to show
By David J. Peters
Rural areas seemed immune as the coronavirus spread through cities earlier this year. Few rural cases were reported, and attention focused on the surge of illnesses and deaths in the big metro areas. But that false sense...
How tourist destinations can rebuild after coronavirus
By Anna Leask
Tourism has virtually stopped thanks to the COVID-19 lockdowns. This is hitting many cities hardsee this report about New York galleries and museums losing millions of dollars, for example. Many tourist businesses are...
The law is clear – border testing is enforceable. So why did New Zealand's quarantine system break down?
By Alexander Gillespie
The anger and frustration at New Zealands border quarantine failure have been palpable.Two women, recently arrived in New Zealand, were granted compassionate leave from quarantine to be with grieving family after a...
Beyond the black hole of global university rankings: rediscovering the true value of knowledge and ideas
By Stephen Dobson Et Al
The recent release of global university rankings and the way these are reported raises important questions about the role and reputation of our tertiary institutions.Are universities measured and ranked according to...
Expensive, dirty and dangerous: why we must fight miners' push to fast-track uranium mines
By Gavin Mudd
Of all the elements on Earth, none is more strictly controlled under law than uranium. A plethora of international agreements govern its sale and use in energy, research and nuclear weapons.Australian environmental law...
Huge locust swarms are threatening food security, but drones could help stop them
By Leisa Armstrong
In recent months, food security concerns have emerged for nations across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as swarms of desert locusts wreak havoc on crops.While the same level of damage isnt currently being felt in...
Does wearing contact lenses put you at greater risk of getting COVID-19?
By Langis Michaud
Can the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for COVID-19, be transmitted by tears or by touching the eyes? Are contact lens wearers therefore more at risk? As these questions arise, heres what you need to know.A Chinese...
Cancer treatment: personalised blood tests can better detect DNA from tumours in the body – new research
By Jonathan C. M. Wan Et Al
Many cancers, especially in earlier stage disease, are treated by removing the tumour. But even after the tumour has been removed, theres still a chance that cancer cells remain in the body and the cancer can come back....
Dexamethasone: what is the breakthrough treatment for COVID-19?
By David C Gaze
Six months and eight million positive cases since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in Wuhan, scientists have announced the first major breakthrough in the search for a drug to fight the disease.A research team at Oxford...
Airbus: flying high on the wings of corruption
By Bertrand Venard
On January 31, 2020, the European aerospace manufacturer Airbus agreed to pay nearly 3.7 billion euros in fines to settle bribery charges stemming from a four-year investigation by French, British, and US authorities. The...
How a group of homeless and vulnerable tour guides reinvented themselves during the pandemic
By Claudia Dolezal Et Al
Unseen Tours is a London-based social enterprise founded in 2010. It offers homeless and vulnerably housed Londoners the opportunity to train as tour guides in the city. This provides a new livelihood, but also allows...
DfID merger with Foreign Office signals shift from using aid to reduce poverty to promoting British national self interest
By Michael Jennings
For a prime minister so keen on proclaiming Britains world-beating status, whether in response to COVID-19 or in its post-Brexit future, Boris Johnsons announcement of the closure of the Department for International...
Quarantine bubbles – when done right – limit coronavirus risk and help fight loneliness
By Melissa Hawkins
After three months of lockdowns, many people in the U.S. and around the world are turning to quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods or quaranteams in an effort to balance the risks of the pandemic with the emotional and social...
Supreme Court to decide the future of the Electoral College
By Morgan Marietta
Many Americans are surprised to learn that in U.S. presidential elections, the members of the Electoral College do not necessarily have to pick the candidate the voters in their state favored.Or do they?This month...
Can Asia end its uncontrolled consumption of wildlife? Here's how North America did it a century ago
By Roland Kays
It was a dark time for animals. Poaching was rampant. Wild birds and mammals were being slaughtered by the thousands. An out-of-control wildlife trade was making once-common animals hard to find and pushing rare species...
Healthier food can contain more contaminants – but there's a simple way to stay safe
By Ruth Fairchild
A recent study found that brown and organic rice sold in the UK tends to contain significantly more arsenic than white inorganic varieties that are often considered less healthy. Arsenic is found in many foods but can be...
How religions and religious leaders can help to combat the COVID-19 pandemic: Indonesia's experience
By Hakimul Ikhwan Et Al
Many have attacked religions as a part of the problems during the COVID-19 pandemic.It was initially in South Korea where nearly 5,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were traced back to patient 31, an infected individual...
Why we'll still need waste in a circular economy
By Stijn van Ewijk Et Al
Every year, we buy 30 billion tonnes of stuff, from pizza boxes to family homes. We throw out or demolish 13 billion tonnes of it as wasteabout 2 tonnes per person. A third of what we discard was bought the same year....
Pokémon Go wants to make 3D scans of the whole world for 'planet-scale augmented reality experiences'. Is that good?
By Marcus Carter
In 2016, the mobile game Pokémon Go sent hundreds of millions of players wandering the streets in search of virtual monsters. In the process it helped popularise augmented reality (AR) technology, which overlays...
Energy giants want to thwart reforms that would help renewables and lower power bills
By Daniel J Cass
Australias energy market is outdated. It doesnt encourage competition and thats holding back the transition to renewable energy. Important reforms to modernise the market are on the way, but big energy companies are...
Feeling hopeless? There are things you can do to create and maintain hope in a post-coronavirus world
By Patrick O'Leary Et Al
Today is a far cry from what we hoped for and expected from 2020.After Australias disastrous summer of bushfires, the unprecedented upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen serious social and economic effects for us...
What adds value to your house? How to decide between renovating and moving
By Sara Wilkinson Et Al
The governments HomeBuilder scheme allows certain home owners to apply for a tax-free grant of A$25,000 if they are spending between $150,000 and $750,000 renovating a home or building a new home. Eligibility criteria are...
US giving reached a near-record $450 billion in 2019 as the role of foundations kept up gradual growth
By Anna Pruitt
As one of the lead researchers of the Giving USA report, I study how U.S. philanthropy changes each year in response to the economy and other factors.Americans gave US$450 billion to charity in 2019, about $1 billion...
Social media platforms need to do more to stop junk food marketers targeting children
By Gary Sacks Et Al
In Australia and around the world, junk food companies are targeting children on social media.In our new study, we found most major social media platforms have restrictions on the advertising of tobacco, alcohol and...
Finding beauty in code – 5 ways digital poetry combines human and computer languages
By David Thomas Henry Wright
Since lockdown, everyone has had to rely heavily on digital technologies: be it Zoom work meetings and lengthy email chains, gaming and streaming services for entertainment, or social media platforms to organise everything...
As libraries go digital, paper books still have a lot to offer us
By Ksenya Kiebuzinski
In Simon Weckerts Google Maps Hacks, a performance art work, a man pulls a little red wagon filled with 99 cell phones through Berlin. Drawing on the nostalgia of the Radio Flyer wagons and globes of my childhood, the...
A greener economy: how we make sustainability central to business
By Sarah Birrell Ivory Et Al
The coronavirus pandemic could change the world in ways that were unimaginable only a few short months ago. While the climate crisis has been temporarily knocked off the front pages, there is a silver lining in the...
US Congress could use Reconstruction-era civil rights powers to protect black lives today
By Richard Johnson
The man in the White House is erratic, vain, and conspiratorial. In a speech to celebrate George Washingtons birthday, the president mentioned himself 200 times in 60 minutes. The House of Representatives voted to impeach...
How aerial technology helped us discover the largest Pictish settlement in Scotland
By Gordon Noble
A much-loved local landmark with an ancient fort at its summit, Tap ONoth is a gently sloping hill overlooking the lush rolling farmland around the village of Rhynie in Aberdeenshire.Until now, the fort was widely...
Australian Foreign Minister Payne pledges continued fight against Chinese 'disinformation'
By Michelle Grattan
Foreign Minister Marise Payne has attacked Chinas disinformation about racism in this country and committed Australia to a more activist role in pressing for reform of multilateral institutions, including the World Health...
