Established in 1850, the University of Sydney was Australia’s first tertiary education institution. It is committed to maximising the potential of its students, teachers and researchers for the benefit of Australia and the wider world.
In one of the largest human genetic studies ever undertaken, scientists have identified the major common genetic variants that contribute to the cause of the devastating neurological disease, multiple…
How safe is your nest egg from share market fluctuations?
Flickr/peregrinari
Think the share market volatility doesn’t affect you? Guess again. With almost 60% of Australian superannuation funds invested in shares, anyone paying compulsory super contributions has something to lose…
Would-be cyclists are deterred by mandatory helmet laws.
Jase Wong
Public bicycle hire schemes have the potential to generate the well-known health benefits that come with increased exercise. But while Australia has bravely adopted such schemes, mandatory helmet laws…
The Productivity Commission makes a number of recommendations about how we can best care for the eldderly.
AZAdam
The Productivity Commission has released the Caring for Older Australian report. Experts respond. Rhonda Nay, Professor of Interdisciplinary Aged Care at La Trobe University gives a general response to…
Australia needs to take a more considered approach to Indigenous spending.
Rusty Stewart
Russell Ross, University of Sydney; Chris Sarra, Queensland University of Technology, and Jon Altman, Australian National University
AFTER THE INTERVENTION - Today, The Conversation launches a series looking at the recent history of Indigenous policy in Australia, and some ways forward. Are any of the current approaches working? What…
Certifying timber gives some level of certainty that forest products are sustainable.
CIFOR/Flickr
It can be hard to know whether the forest products you buy have been produced sustainably. Forestry certifications were established to give a bit more certainty, but what do they really mean? When you…
Warning: you may struggle to believe what you’re about to read.
Bluedharma
Just how big are the stars? Earth feels quite big, what with it taking an entire day to fly between Sydney and London, and clearly the sun and moon are quite large in the sky. But with virtually everything…
Like other “dollarised” developing economies, Timor Leste will feel the pain of a US dollar decline.
AAP
Although the US debt ceiling crisis has been resolved for now, the saga has obvious implications for developing countries. Yet, as is often the case, political conflict is obscuring the persistent and…
The battles currently being waged raise serious questions about patent law.
Yonhap/AAPIMAGE
The mobile patent wars, it seems, have reached Australian shores. On Monday, representatives of Apple and Samsung were in the Australian Federal Court, fighting it out over Samsung’s Galaxy Tab tablet…
Barack Obama announces an agreement has been reached to resolve the US debt crisis.
AAP
US President Barack Obama says Democrat and Republican leaders have reached an agreement on reducing US debt, before the August 2 debt ceiling deadline. Failure to reach a deal may have led to a historic…
Despite the clear benefits, Japan’s agricultural sector seems resistent to an FTA with Australia.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was one of the first world leaders to visit Japan after the nation was stricken on 3 March by the earthquake-tsunami-radiation triple disaster. But the Australian government…
Boom to bailout: Ireland’s economic implosion shows the consequences of unfettered policy.
AAP
This year’s Economic Society of Australia conference saw a range of strong views expressed on what Australian policy makers have managed to get broadly right (carbon tax – hurrah!) and wrong (NBN – boo…
News Corp’s decision to move from Australia to the US may have now put it in the firing line.
News Corporation’s 2004 decision to domicile in the US state of Delaware has up to now been highly favourable to the Murdochs. But News Corp may ultimately come to regret its decision as the unfolding…
Nicolas Sarkozy, Christine Lagarde and Angela Merkel share a joke at Thursday’s Greece bailout talks.
AAP
European leaders signed off on a second, 109 billion euro bailout for Greece overnight, while also establishing what has been described as an “infant monetary fund” to intervene if the bloc’s sovereign…
Guidelines say no TV for under 2s, then no more than two hours a day.
Keenen Brown
If you’ve ever sat your toddler down in front of the television to give yourself a few minutes of much-needed rest, you’re certainly not alone. But for many parents, those few minutes of bliss that come…
People with chronic medical conditions and others in high-risk groups should get a flu shot.
mcfarlandmo/Wikimedia Commons
The number of people suffering from influenza in Australia this year has soared compared to recorded numbers from previous years, with nearly 8,000 cases so far compared to about 2,000 last year. We don’t…
Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper empire is reeling under the phone hacking scandal.
AAP
Schadenfreude is the tough-sounding word that wins my vote for describing accurately how millions of people around the world are feeling about Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. For those who were long resigned…
Intense US debt ceiling negotiations in a political war of nerve; but no resolution yet.
AAP
International ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poors have both indicated they would consider downgrading the US’s debt rating as negotiations aimed at raising the country’s statutory US$12.3…
Preventing infection with the Hendra virus remains the most effective measure against the virus.
AAP
Queensland authorities came under attack yesterday for being unprepared for a Hendra virus outbreak after it was found that they’d only stocked 15 doses of virus antibodies. But the case for stocking up…
We still have plenty to learn about our own galaxy.
Doug Klembara
Welcome to the third instalment of If I had a blank cheque … a series in which leading researchers reveal what they could (and would) do in their discipline if money were no object. Today we hear from…