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Rescuing Australia’s lost literary treasures
A new project is digitising some of Australia’s most culturally-important lost books, getting them into libraries and answering some important questions
Health & Wellbeing
Food Health Star labels are driving healthier products
Food labels are improving the nutrition of packaged products in Australia and New Zealand, but they must be compulsory to make a bigger difference
Inside Business
Are you OK Australia?
Australians report high levels of life satisfaction but there are gaps – Indigenous Australians, immigrants and the unemployed fare worse. And a warning on COVID-19 fallout, social ties are important
The maths and ethics of minimising COVID-19 deaths
A University of Melbourne experts says the government must factor in the maths and ethics of either flattening the curve or an eradication endgame for COVID-19.
Modelling the spread of COVID-19
Forecasting the spread of COVID-19 including undetected cases is difficult but important; a University of Melbourne scientist has an app to track the outlook.
Why do some people believe the Earth is flat?
Although science says the Earth is round, there are some people around who still think it's flat; two University of Melbourne experts look at why.
Playing for participation
eSports is touted as the future of sport post-COVID-19, but University of Melbourne research finds schools can foster learning and collaboration in gaming clubs
Rescuing Australia’s lost literary treasures
A new University of Melbourne project is digitising some of Australia’s most important lost books and getting them into libraries for authors and readers alike.
Food Health Star labels are driving healthier products
Food health labels improve the nutrition of packaged products but they must be compulsory to make a bigger difference, finds a University of Melbourne-led study
Inside Business
Pandemic fallout exposes the young and vulnerable
Latest HILDA Survey shows it’s young workers most exposed to job losses, while poverty rates were edging higher before the COVID-19, it has made welfare policy critical to many Australians
Inside Business
Pets and Australians: Who has what?
HILDA reveals that almost half of Australian households have a dog, and around two-thirds have at least one pet, with cats and fish also popular at home
Inside Business
Childcare a challenge for poorer single parents
The HILDA Survey suggests single-parent households in Australia are abandoning formal childcare as they face greater poverty rates
Inside Business
Blurring the weekend
About a third of working Australians do some work on the weekend, though for most their main job is still on week days. But will an increase in working from home blur the lines?
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COVID-19
Health & Wellbeing
Watch Episode 1: Conversations on COVID-19: A Global View
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on ‘scientific experts’ - perhaps none more so than US advisor Dr Anthony Fauci - but will there be a greater role for scientists in public life?
Health & Wellbeing
Bonus Episode: Life Beyond Coronavirus: The Expert View
Why is Melbourne back in lockdown when it looked like Australia had succeeded in reducing the spread of COVID-19? And what's the way out?
Health & Wellbeing
Watch Episode 4: Life Beyond Coronavirus: The Expert View
As schools begin to reopen not just in Australia, but around the world, it’s timely to ask ourselves - are the kids alright?
Health & Wellbeing
Watch Episode 5: Life Beyond Coronavirus: The Expert View
Australia is set for its first recession in 29 years, but what are the potential long-term effects of COVID-19 on the way we work?
Health & Wellbeing
Watch Episode 6: Life Beyond Coronavirus: The Expert View
This COVID-19 crisis is unlikely to be an isolated event, that’s why it’s important to start planning for the next pandemic
Business & Economics
Inside Business
Too many eggs in the property wealth basket
Australian’s over-reliance on property for wealth generation will weigh on the economy if house prices drop, but falling small business ownership looms as a bigger problem
Inside Business
Separated parents getting better at shared care?
The HILDA survey shows a big increase in shared child care among separated parents, while the annual number of people separating from a partner is about five in every 1,000
Eavesdrop on Experts
What makes super-viral content so shareable?
Dr Brent Coker researches what makes social media content shareable. He reveals what psychological triggers evoke sharing motives, and how they are activated
PodcastInside Business
Sustainable success for Australian business
The disruption of COVID-19 is an unexpected opening for businesses to adopt more sustainable practices – elevating the practice of sustainability across industries
Inside Business
Poverty in childhood leads to poverty in adulthood
New research finds Australian children from poor households are over three times more likely to suffer adult poverty – which tells us that government policies should focus more on prevention
Inside Business
Supply chain challenges ahead for the COVID-19 vaccine
The novelty and urgency of the COVID-19 vaccine presents significant supply chain challenges. Government and private sector collaboration will be key to sharing the risks and opportunities
Education
Learning & Teaching
Emerging from COVID-19 and taking the chance to change
Across Australia, restrictions are loosening and now is a good time to take stock of how COVID-19 has changed our lives – and where we go from here
Learning & Teaching
5 tips for Year 12 students preparing for exams
As Year 12 students prepare for their final exams during COVID-19, there are steps parents, carers and students can take to get through this final secondary school hurdle
Learning & Teaching
Australian literature’s great silence
The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the systemic racism in Australian society; a new study suggests that we must question the very white stories told in our classrooms
Education
Our changing identities under COVID-19
The fallout from the pandemic is a challenge to many people’s identity, but some of us have fewer resources to cope when our worlds are turned upside down
Learning & Teaching
Helping to develop empathy in digital classrooms
When it comes to empathy development during COVID-19, how can schools help their students to develop and grow when being face-to-face with their peers and teachers isn’t an option?
Environment
Design
Adapting Melbourne’s public transport to ‘COVID normal’
Given Melbourne’s franchised model of public transport provision, who is best positioned to manage cross-disciplinary risks during a pandemic?
Animals, Food & You
How do some frogs ‘rebound’ after disease while others perish?
A new study shows how some species survive infectious disease epidemics, and how we can use this knowledge to assist and direct wildlife management
Design
Without sustainable cities, global development goals will fail
Australian cities are integrating the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into their own COVID-19 Recovery Plans, using local action to drive global sustainability
Health & Medicine
Why COVID-19 should make us rethink our relationship with meat
With COVID-19 spreading through abattoirs and meat processing facilities around the world, it’s a chance to reconsider eating meat for the climate
Design
The time is now for Indigenous design equity
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have always been the architects, the engineers and the land managers – that deep wisdom must be reflected in tackling climate change
Design
Reimagining international airports in COVID-19
COVID-19 highlights that our capacity to manage international travel is critical when responding to a pandemic. The way we design airports could minimise the risk of imported outbreaks
Health & Medicine
Health & Wellbeing
Time for smart masking
With so few cases of COVID-19 Victoria’s compulsory mask wearing laws don’t pass the pub test. We need to transition to smarter rules on mask wearing
Health & Wellbeing
Hooking up in lockdown
A new study shows that the Australian COVID-19 lockdown did impact on our sexual behaviour – but the need for reproductive health services remains during the pandemic
Health & Wellbeing
Transforming the aged care crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the urgent need for policies and programs to support older people’s desire to live and thrive in their own healthy community
Health & Wellbeing
Decolonising social work
Social worker, educator and proud Durrumbal/Kullilli and Yidinji woman, Tileah Drahm-Butler, finds a narrative therapy approach is resonating with Aboriginal practitioners and clients alike
Health & Wellbeing
Under pressure
2020 has highlighted the crucial role of nurses in managing pressure wounds associated with COVID-19, but has also raised community awareness of the condition
Politics & Society
Inside Business
Losing our religion
Australians are rapidly dropping their religious affiliation. Even among those who are religious, the importance of their faith is relatively low, the HILDA Survey finds
Health & Wellbeing
Safeguarding our shared cultural heritage
There are thousands of agreements in place between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, but Traditional Owners need the right data to inform decision making
Humanities
The art of opposition in Erdoğan’s Turkey
Turkey’s opposition parties are mobilising against increased authoritarianism by using the Government’s own laws to establish new alliances
Public Affairs
What’s next for the Republicans after Trump?
If you are conservative, there are at least five reasons to feel concerned about Trump’s legacy — and another five to feel quite optimistic about it
Legal Affairs
The limits of government outsourcing
Failures in Victoria’s hotel quarantine have highlighted concern that outsourcing is hollowing out government. So when is contracting out appropriate and when isn’t it?
Public Affairs
The legacy of Trump
The measure of Donald Trump’s legacy will be the extent of the loss of faith in the office of the president – both as a leader and an institution
Arts & Culture
Humanities
50 words in Australian Indigenous languages
A new online resource – the 50 Words Project – makes words from local Indigenous languages available for every Australian to hear and learn
Humanities
Other awful years in history
2020 has been grim, but there have been worse years. Here, experts from science, history and literature take us through just some of the other terrible times
Humanities
Bringing new life to cemeteries
Australians are embracing new ways of commemorating the dead, including eco-friendly burials, raising new questions about how communities make use of traditional cemeteries
Humanities
The international students trying to understand Australia from afar
Remote learning means many international students don’t have the opportunity to understand Australia as a country and a culture
Humanities
Volcanic winter and pandemic pandemonium
A terrible onslaught of bubonic plague in the sixth century abruptly ended Emperor Justinian’s dream of reunifying the Roman empire and caused massive geopolitical upheaval
Sciences & Technology
Science Matters
An ounce of biosecurity prevention is worth two pounds of cure
Australia will avoid $A314 billion in damages, at an average return on investment of 30:1 through the continued operation of its biosecurity systems, new research shows
Health & Wellbeing
Translating thought into action
The first human trial of a tiny device that reads brain signals is successfully allowing patients with paralysis to operate computers and phones with their minds
Science Matters
Organised chaos: The key to next-generation solar technology
Researchers in Australia have resolved a fundamental design challenge in next-generation perovskite solar cells, bringing their widespread use a step closer
Science Matters
The science behind life in space on ‘Away’
Unfolding spacecraft, artificial gravity, and space disease all feature on Netflix’s series ‘Away’, but how much of the action is true to life?
Science Matters
Secrets of the basket-web spider’s silk
The only spider known to weave a container to catch prey, researchers now have the first insights into the evolution and structure of the basket-web spider’s rare silk
Science Matters
The tiny world of peptides
Many commonly available cosmetic and health products contain peptides – but what actually are they and what do they do in the human body?
Podcast