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.
Industry self-regulation has failed to change the amount of fast food advertising targeting Australian children, according to new research from the Prevention Research Collaboration and NSW Cancer Council…
An FDA audit of CSL’s laboratories has found the company doesn’t follow good manufacturing practice.
AAP
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has just issued a warning letter about the safety of CSL’s influenza vaccine, Fluvax. The letter follows FDA’s latest annual inspection of CSL laboratories and…
Why do the legs of galloping horses appear as a blur?
Eadweard Muybridge, 1878
What’s the fastest thing you can see? Events that play out over a scale of minutes or seconds are easy to see. Events at much smaller timescales — milliseconds and shorter — can be entirely invisible to…
Screen shot at PM.
Malcolm Vickers/Australian Skeptics (Victorian Branch)
The SensaSlim company’s recent defamation suit against Dr Ken Harvey of La Trobe University highlights some of the regulatory problems facing complementary products in Australia. Dr Harvey initiated a…
Decisions about listing medicines on the PBS can’t be ad hoc.
The fanfare around Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s announcement yesterday that the government would fund 13 new medicines on the PBS is a reminder of the power and influence involved in the selection and…
When a black hole devours a nearby star, bright gamma-ray flashes can result.
Mark Garlick (University of Warwick)
Some 3.8 billion years ago a star in the constellation of Draco wandered a little too close to a nearby black hole. The star was violently torn apart by the black hole’s tidal forces, creating two massive…
It’s time for a more holistic approach to pest control.
AAP
We welcome the move by the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee (POPRC) of the Stockholm Convention to eliminate the insecticide endosulfan from the global market, although some exemptions have…
Are we treating normal sadness as a clinical disorder?
Gatis Gribusts
It’s normal to feel down in the dumps from time to time, so drawing a line between low moods and mental illness is understandably fraught. But are health professionals treating normal sadness as a clinical…
Is another cosmic beginning just beyond the horizon?
evanlane.com
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” These words, the Biblical creation of the universe, are quite…
Ancient Athens practically invented Western culture, but xenophobia led to the collapse of the Empire.
Flickr/SantiMB
Those debating Australia’s future, and its immigration policy would do well to consider a lesson from the past. Anybody can establish a successful state, the real difficulty is maintaining its success…
Will Andrew Forrest succeed in his push to change the mining tax? Others have succeeded in the past.
AAP
Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s visit to Canberra earlier this week didn’t prove particularly effective in swaying the government on its freshly drafted mineral resources rent tax (MRRT) legislation. But the…
The hospitality of the Pacific people is well-known, but they need help to lift themselves out of poverty.
AAP/Torsten Blackwood
It’s easy for the tourists thrilled by the beauty of the Pacific Islands to miss the flourishing squatter settlements just away from their resorts and buzzing nightlife. Many of the friendly islanders…
Hard laws and regulations are needed to protect our genetic information.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
The rapid development of genetic science and technology holds hope for greatly improved health outcomes, with better diagnostics, treatments and cures, as well as the beginning of pharmacogenomics and…
ALP stalwart Senator John Faulkner’s recommendations do not go far enough.
AAP
Let’s get serious, Senator Faulkner, the problem is the process of candidate selection. John Faulkner’s excellent speech last night describes a process of ALP decline that has been underway for most of…
The Dalai Lama addresses a crowd in Melbourne.
AAP
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is currently in Australia yet Prime Minister Julia Gillard has refused to confirm whether she will meet him or not. Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Greens…
Measles is one of the few infectious diseases for which elimination is possible.
USACE Europe District/flickr
Despite high vaccination rates, Australia and other developed countries periodically have small outbreaks of measles, as seen in the recent scares in Victoria and New South Wales. Until about 40 years…
What tasty treats await astronomers in the next few decades?
Lea/Flickr
Predicting the future is a mug’s game. When I reflect back on what we thought we knew at the start of my research career in the mid-1990s, I sound like a wizened octogenarian, recalling a simpler time…
NBN Co chief Mike Quigley and Stephen Conroy still face many tough tasks.
AAP
The news that NBN Co has found a way to move forward from the crucial cost-of-construction issue must have surely lifted the Gillard Government’s spirits. NBN Co, the government-owned corporation in charge…
Brown: “I’m not here to fear being bitten”
AAP and John Keane
Welcome to “In Conversation”, the first in a series of discussions between leading academics and major public figures in Australian life. Today Politics Professor John Keane is in conversation with Senator…
Early intervention is the way to turn children’s chances around.
Paul nine-o/Flickr
Speak to any teacher who has worked in a school with a high level of social disadvantage and you’ll find plenty of concern about the links between educational failure and long-term social exclusion. Teachers…