Science & Health
The powers of botany
One of my favourite movies, even though the ending is fantastical, is The Martian. Its hero is a botanist. He ...
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Is science journalism dying?
When two popular science magazines – out of about 17 in circulation – ceased publication in the same year, one commentator ...
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Australia needs more people who think like scientists
How we think and feel about science develops from an early age – and we never know where that early ...
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The dangers of searching for a ‘technofix’ to climate change
In 1989, environmentalist Bill McKibben announced to the world that nature was dead. Due to the rapid rate and scale of ...
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How citizen scientists are making a contribution
Until recently, the number of citizen scientists in Australia was estimated at between 100,000 and 130,000 people. But this is a major ...
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Living with ‘AI anxiety’
A patient said to me the other day, half-smiling but clearly unsettled: “I think I’ve got anxiety about AI.” They ...
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How climate scientists balance the tension between research and public protest
From marches and demonstrations to civil disobedience, scientists are increasingly turning to climate protest. As a social psychologist, I’ve been ...
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Marketing science
People often see science as a world apart: cool, rational and untouched by persuasion or performance. In this view, scientists simply discover ...
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Key lessons about misinformation from ancient scientists
Ancient scientists can be easy to dismiss. Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus, often described as the West’s first scientist, believed the ...
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Algorithms are amplifying antifeminist masculinities
The online world of boys and young men in the post-Andrew Tate moment is now saturated with masculinity influencers who take ...
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We risk a deluge of AI-written ‘science’ pushing corporate interests
Back in the 2000s, the American pharmaceutical firm Wyeth was sued by thousands of women who had developed breast cancer after taking ...
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AI slop: An unwelcome form of online content
You’ve probably encountered images in your social media feeds that look like a cross between photographs and computer-generated graphics. Some ...
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