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Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock The world faces an increasing shortage of housing and an escalating climate emergency. These urgent global issues call for quick action and innovative solutions. The numbers show us how stark things are. Construction activities and building operations produce more...

Orawan Pattarawimonchai/Shutterstock Head hair comes in many colours, shapes and sizes, and hairstyles are often an expression of personal style or cultural identity. Many different genes determine our hair texture, thickness and colour. But some people’s hair changes around the time of...

Lukas Coch/AAP From relatively humble beginnings, the Australian Open has emerged as a centrepiece in both the global tennis and Australian sporting calendar. With the 2024 tournament approaching, the event is now a centurion – it’s been 101 years since it became a designated grand slam, and...

Mark Newton/iNaturalist , CC BY-NC Scorpions are among the most ancient of land animals. Fossils indicate they were roaming the Earth more than 400 million years ago. For perspective, the non-bird dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago. Scorpions trivialise the 100-million-year...

verbaska/Shutterstock Do you have family members or friends sick with a respiratory infection? If so, there’s a good chance it’s COVID, caused by the JN.1 variant currently circulating in Australia. In particular, New South Wales is reportedly experiencing its highest levels of COVID...

George Milton/ Pexels , CC BY Have you ever found yourself thinking about loved ones during a boring meeting? Or going over the plot of a movie you recently watched during a drive to the supermarket? This is the cognitive phenomenon known as “mind wandering”. Research suggests it can account...

fizkes/Shutterstock Despite so many people having air conditioning at home now, many are still unsure how to use it efficiently. And air conditioning uses a lot of energy. For example, running all the lights in an average home all day and night consumes about the same energy as one hour of air...

Shutterstock We tend to just think of viruses in terms of their damaging impacts on human health and lives. The 1918 flu pandemic killed around 50 million people. Smallpox claimed 30% of those who caught it, and survivors were often scarred and blinded. More recently, we’re all too familiar...

SewCreamStudio/Shutterstock We all know by now that the pillars of a healthy lifestyle are regular exercise, eating enough fruit and vegetables, a good night’s sleep and staying hydrated. All of these things also support the gut microbiome – all the microbes that live in your digestive system...

Shutterstock In the classic comedy Ghostbusters (1984), newly hired secretary Janice raises the subject of reading, while idly flipping through the pages of a magazine. The scientist Egon Spengler responds with a brusque dismissal: “print is dead.” Egon’s words now seem prescient. The...

Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo COVID-19 was the first coronavirus pandemic. The original Sars virus from 2003 and the Mers virus that created a health emergency in South Korea in 2015 were both coronaviruses, but fortunately failed to turn into pandemics in the way that COVID did...

Dan Peled/AAP Virtually every week brings news of rising rents or a story of still more renters forced out of their homes by unmanageable rent increases. The Australian Bureau of Statistics says rents climbed 6.6% in the year to October. If you’re signing a new rent agreement the situation...

Sergii Kozii/Shutterstock Social media is full of videos that demonstrate DIY hacks, from up-cycling tricks to cooking tips. Meanwhile, a growing number of social media videos offer tips to help you save money and time at the dentist. But do they deliver? Here are five popular dental social...

Slow Walker/Shutterstock The Howard government (1996-2007) shifted migration policy away from family migration and towards skilled migrants. Our recently published research analysed changes in migrant clusters at the level of local neighbourhoods. We also looked at where these clusters are...

Cristi Croitoru/Shutterstock French supermarket Carrefour has fired a warning shot in a price war with global food brands, dropping PepsiCo products last week because of “unacceptably high” increases. This has seen Pepsi soft drinks removed from stores across Europe, as have Doritos, Quaker...

Using guilt and self-pressure may make you less likely to work out overall. KieferPix/ Shutterstock The hardest part of consistently exercising is finding the motivation to do it. But using the wrong type of motivation for your workouts could militate against you – and could even have...

Sometimes the evidence points you in a new direction. Schon/Moment via Getty Images Mark Twain apocryphally said, “I’m in favor of progress; it’s change I don’t like.” This quote pithily underscores the human tendency to desire growth while also harboring strong resistance to the hard work...

PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock Everyone seems to have a different opinion when it comes to how often towels and bed sheets should be washed. While many people might wonder whether days or weeks is best, in one survey from the United Kingdom, almost half of single men reported not...

Lukas Coch/AAP Australians could be forgiven for feeling weary of political scandals. The litany of them at the federal level in recent years has been fatiguing: Robodebt, allegations of rape and sexual harassment in Parliament House, former prime minister Scott Morrison’s secret ministries...

Shutterstock As the holidays progress, parents will no doubt be hearing a classic line from their kids: “I’m boooooored”. We all get bored from time to time and there is nothing particularly wrong with feeling bored. In fact, it is a useful emotion because it is helps us reflect and make...