Apr
28
2018
Finally, hearts thumping, they tipped their first south-western devil out of the trap: a hefty, healthy older male, with a thick coat and excellent teeth. Best of all, his face was clear and clean — he was cancer-free.
Challenging the maladies
Apr
28
2018
Not to spoil the story too much but the answer appears to be yes. You can die of a broken heart. Nikki Stamp, one of Australia’s few female heart and lung surgeons, loves the muscly organ that sits somewhere under the ribs. She admires its versatility and endurance and marvels at its influence on the …read more
Alexis Wright’s Stella-winning Tracker nurtured at WSU
Apr
18
2018
A university writing centre and an academic research grant gave the indigenous writer Alexis Wright the space and time to write Tracker, a prize-winning book with an innovative and particularly indigenous perspective on biography.
Stephen Hawking departs, leaves a big black hole
Mar
15
2018
Stephen Hawking has left a big black hole in the hearts of millions: people who admired his enormous intellect, his wicked sense of humour, and his extraordinary courage in battling a debilitating medical condition that left him slumped in a wheelchair and communicating via a machine.
Great progress, but gaps remain
Mar
8
2018
Professor Margaret Gardner has been watching women’s progress in academia for many decades. These days, as vice-chancellor of Monash University and chair of Universities Australia, she can push hard for gender parity in her own institution and influence the whole of Australia’s tertiary education sector.
China pressures Australia through higher education sector
Feb
21
2018
Escalating signs that China is using its $9 billion annual spend by international students as leverage in its increasingly tense relations with Australia has prompted rapid action in Canberra to try to limit the damage in one of the nation’s most lucrative export markets.
Fine line between relief and craving in opioid war
Feb
14
2018
Natalie Elliott is fed up with being treated like a drug addict. From Werribee in Melbourne, the 35-year-old has endured a range of serious medical conditions for most of her life, including the incurable Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and severe degeneration in her cervical spine (in her neck) requiring a spinal fusion, as well as …read more
Exit strategy: planning can make death less painful
Jan
27
2018
Aged 79 and frighteningly thin, Judy had end-stage lung disease and pneumonia. Even before she caught pneumonia, Judy had difficulty breathing and she could only walk a few steps. If her pneumonia was treated, it would likely take her a long time to recover and her breathing would almost certainly be even further impaired.
Medicinal cannabis can’t come quickly enough for some
Jan
18
2018
Nicole Cowles has been dosing her daughter with cannabis for years. Before she began, Alice, now nearly 12, often had dozens of seizures a day. The so-called “hippie drug” has made all the difference for one little girl.
Confessions of a frequent crier
Jan
15
2018
She is the red-nosed, wet-cheeked sodden mess blubbering over there in the dark corner. I have spent decades doing my best to ignore her, scorning her weakness, driven to distraction by her spinelessness, by her weak and easy emotion and her baby tears.