Science & Health
Why ‘science communication’ needs to harness human curiosity
This article is part of our ‘Celebrate Science’ feature series to mark National Science Week, 10-18 August 2024. Science communication ...
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From my brush with breast cancer, I know the value of science – and the need to defend it – more than ever
This article is part of our ‘Celebrate Science’ feature series to mark National Science Week, 10-18 August 2024. Many people ...
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Timing of embryo split may explain sexual orientation in twins
Same-gender sexual attraction is a feature of human sexuality. Estimates of same-gender proclivity vary from the original Kinsey reports of ...
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Will AI help or hinder trust in science?
In the past year, generative artificial intelligence tools — such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and OpenAI’s video generation tool Sora — have captured the public’s ...
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Human culture is changing too fast for evolution to catch up
Research is showing that many of our contemporary problems, such as the rising prevalence of mental health issues, are emerging from rapid technological ...
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Unravelling life’s origin
There is still so much we don’t understand about the origin of life on Earth. The definition of life itself ...
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Biology by the book
Back in 1987, around the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Australia, as a Senior Medical Officer I had volunteered ...
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To restore trust in science, we need great storytellers
All good scientists are sceptics. Scepticism is central to the scientific method, which is basically designed to prevent the most ...
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How to inoculate against climate misinformation
Last year, the world experienced the hottest day ever recorded, as we endured the first year where temperatures were 1.5°C warmer ...
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Intellectual humility is a key ingredient for scientific progress
The virtue of intellectual humility is getting a lot of attention. It’s heralded as a part of wisdom, an aid to self-improvement and ...
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The real work of science communicators
A stir went through the Australian science communication community last month, caused by an article with the headline ‘Science communicators ...
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Modern medicine’s scientific roots in the Middle Ages
Nothing calls to mind nonsensical treatments and bizarre religious healing rituals as easily as the notion of Dark Age medicine. ...
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