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Shutterstock/Halfpoint Australia’s former disability discrimination commissioner, Graeme Innes, has settled his dispute with Adelaide Airport. His complaint to the Human Rights Commission was lodged after being denied access to a body scanner with his assistance dog in May 2022...

Some social media posts about PTSD mislead rather than inform. Tarik Vision/iStock via Getty Images Plus Among the many emerging trends on social media, one recent concerning fad is a casual and often inaccurate portrayal of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD – along with an...

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Once every year, a select group of nuclear, climate and technology experts assemble to determine where to place the hands of the Doomsday Clock. Presented by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock is a visual metaphor for humanity’s proximity to...

Sebastian Reategui/Shutterstock It might be hard to believe, but four years have now passed since the first COVID case was confirmed in Australia on January 25 2020. Five days later, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a “public health emergency of international concern”, as the novel...

Shahzaib Akber/AAP Has Sydney felt more like Cairns lately? You’re not imagining it – millions of Australians up and down the east coast have sweltered through exceptionally high humidity in recent weeks. It’s due to normal weather patterns combined with a boost from global warming. Right...

Tolga Bat Hospital , CC BY-ND Flying foxes. Megabats. Fruit bats. Whatever name you choose, these fox-faced creatures are remarkable. Our four species help pollinate eucalyptus trees in eastern Australia, spread the seeds of rainforest trees, and make our summer skies spectacular. They’re some...

Nature Uninterrupted Photography/Unsplash Colourful flowers, and the insects and birds that fly among their dazzling displays, are a joy of nature. But how did early relationships between flower colour and animal pollinators emerge? In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, we...

Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales Locally grown produce fills Australian shops, but almost all of these species were imported, as native as cane toads. Icons of Australian agriculture, like the Big Banana and Big Pineapple, proudly display the regions’ crops, but these are...

Lightspring/Shutterstock Since it was detected in August 2023, the JN.1 variant of COVID has spread widely. It has become dominant in Australia and around the world, driving the biggest COVID wave seen in many jurisdictions for at least the past year. The World Health Organization (WHO)...

MICK TSIKAS/AAP Pioneers in melanoma treatment, professors Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, are the joint 2024 Australians of the Year. The Sydney-based professors are the co-directors of Melanoma Institute Australia, and their partnership is credited with saving thousands of lives...

Shutterstock China’s population has shrunk for the second year in a row. The National Bureau of Statistics reports just 9.02 million births in 2023 – only half as many as in 2017. Set alongside China’s 11.1 million deaths in 2023, up 500,000 on 2022, it means China’s population shrank 2.08...

kpatyhka/Shutterstock Cyber-skulduggery is becoming the bane of modern life. Australia’s prime minister has called it a “scourge”, and he is correct. In 2022–23, nearly 94,000 cyber crimes were reported in Australia, up 23% on the previous year. In the latest high-profile attack, around...

Social media is rife with images of idealised bodies – which can negatively affect wellbeing. Oleg Golovnev/ Shutterstock Body image issues are sometimes thought to mainly affect women. But some surveys estimate around 28% of men aged 18 and over regularly struggle with their body image...

Elena.Katkova/Shutterstock Many of us have done countless rapid antigen tests (RATs) over the course of the pandemic. Testing ourselves at home has become second nature. But there’s also a growing worldwide market in medical tests sold online directly to the public. These are...

Shutterstock/pexels/NastyaSensei In January a year ago, two-thirds of the leading economists surveyed by the World Economic Forum forecast a global recession for 2023. We didn’t get one. This year at the forum they are talking about a soft landing in 2024, notwithstanding financial conditions...

esoxx/Shutterstock Placebos have been studied more than any treatment in the history of medicine, yet they remain mysterious. I’ve been studying placebos for 20 years and I’ve done some of the key studies that have advanced the scientific knowledge in this area. Here are six facts about this...

The original Macintosh computer may seem quaint today, but the way users interacted with it triggered a revolution 40 years ago. Mark Mathosian/Flickr , CC BY-NC-SA Technology innovation requires solving hard technical problems, right? Well, yes. And no. As the Apple Macintosh turns 40, what...

Joel Carrett/AAP Few of us pay much attention to our superannuation. Under the Superannuation Guarantee, employers pay at least 11% of salaries into their employees’ super funds without workers having to do anything. These accumulating automatic payments have turned the Australian super fund...

Shutterstock What happens when a person is experiencing long COVID and intimate partner violence at the same time? There has been no attention paid to this question anywhere in the world since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. This is staggering, given previous research shows women who are...

Shutterstock Over this wet summer, Melburnians and Sydneysiders have had to think twice about cooling off at their local beach. Heavy rainfall has swollen rivers and pumped pollutants, nutrients and murky fresh water far out to sea. Swimmers at Port Phillip Bay beaches are emerging coated in...