ANU was established, in 1946, to advance the cause of learning and research for the nation. It is consistently ranked among the world’s best universities and many ANU graduates go on to become leaders in government, industry, research and academia.
Human enhancement is one of the most controversial and exciting areas in bioethics: advances in science promise a future world where we can radically alter our basic capabilities. This future may include…
The downgrading of US debt by Standard & Poor’s may sound the starting gun for an enduring rebalancing of global economic power. For decades, investors worldwide sought the safety of US government…
In Australia, as in most of the developed world, about one baby in three is now delivered by caesarean section. To put things in perspective, the rate of caesarean birth has almost doubled over the past…
A solar energy revolution is brewing that will put the coal and nuclear industries out of business. Solar is already reaching price parity with coal in many parts of Australia. In contrast to coal and…
The stock market has taken us on a wild ride in recent times. Some, such as BHP Chairman Jac Nasser and Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, have suggested that in light of the ongoing economic uncertainty…
When does “national interest” equal “national sovereignty”? Apparently when Australia looks south. That position seems to be emerging from think tanks and senior government officials in the stop/start…
In the past week, many media outlets have reported the discovery of an antimatter “belt” circling the earth. A range of potential uses for this belt have already been floated – perhaps the most exciting…
After falling by almost 20% in week-long sell-off, the Australian share market has bounced back and began trade today up more than 3.5%. The market’s recovery follows a strong comeback on Wall Street overnight…
Three days of rioting across London since Saturday have once again raised the question of “why?”. Do riots “just happen” or is there a science, an underlying formula, that can be employed to predict and…
AFTER THE INTERVENTION: ANU’s Jon Altman investigates Noel Pearson’s efforts to improve Indigenous welfare on Cape York. In discussions about the NT intervention, Noel Pearson’s work in Cape York is often…
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…
Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has seized on positive comments about Australia’s economy in an International Monetary Fund report as evidence the country can endure another global financial crisis. The report…
Sometimes an historian will challenge one of the key ideological myths of Australian capitalism. Henry Reynolds does it in his work on the colonial treatment of Aborigines, a treatment some go so far as…
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has found Myriad Genetics is entitled to patents on two sets human genetic mutations used to predict if women have an increased risk of breast and ovarian…
As the world grapples with the competing imperatives of the tragic fallout from the Fukushima meltdown, and the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, some are turning to new forms of nuclear…
The Conversation asked Professor James Jupp to read through the infamous 1,500 page manifesto of Anders Breivik. This is his analysis of the document, giving an insight into the mind of the mass murderer…
Steven Schwartz, vice-chancellor of Macquarie University, recently claimed that universities should break from being treated as businesses and recapture their moral purpose. He used the example of Jonas…
Health professionals and patients alike breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she had struck a final deal with the states to reform the nation’s hospital system…
Providing equitable access to the findings of scholarly research is an expensive and vexed business, as many recent stories here on The Conversation have highlighted. Open access offers a way to freely…
The recent massacres by Anders Breivik in Norway drew the attention of the world to a growing reactionary element in Europe who resent the three Ms – Muslims, multiculturalism and Marxism. So how do these…
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Health Economics, Wellbeing and Society, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University