Science & Health

Reflections on the erasure of Hellenistic science

This article is part of our ‘Celebrate Science’ feature series to mark National Science Week. It was originally published in ...
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When scientists speak out

Hundreds of scientists protested government efforts to restrict educational access to Western science theories, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, in June ...
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Survival of the fit enough and lucky enough

The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin’s masterful contribution to our understanding of evolution, was penned more than 150 years ago. ...
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Reacting to pandemics

The New Testament (Matthew 11:29) describes the relationship we have – or should have – with Jesus as a kind ...
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The problem with institutional conscientious objection in our healthcare system

On the ABC’s Religion & Ethics website recently, Joanna Howe, a Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide Law ...
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Fixing Australia’s abortion postcode lottery

When the American legal precedent protecting women’s right to an abortion in the United States, Roe versus Wade, was overturned last ...
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AI and the problems of personification

In literary criticism, a commonly used term is ‘personification’, which describes when a writer invests natural phenomena with human qualities. ...
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The impact and implications of large language models

Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Bard have attracted a great deal of publicity in recent months ...
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We need to stop treating AI like humans

The artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer Geoffrey Hinton recently resigned from Google, warning of the dangers of the technology “becoming more intelligent ...
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Our female genital mutilation laws are broken

A nurse once told me many health professionals don’t report female genital mutilation (FGM) because it could result in children ...
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Rationalists and circumcision

On 14 April 2023, it will be 10 years since I sent out the very first edition of ‘RSA Daily’.  ...
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Lessons from social science forecasting during the pandemic

Imagine being a policymaker at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. You have to decide which actions to recommend, how ...
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