May
29
2018
The crowded medical products aisle of the Woolworths supermarket in Sydney’s working-class suburb of Eastlakes offers a selection of nicotine products to passing consumers. Crammed on the shelf above the heartburn products is a range of quit smoking aids: nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges, nicotine patches and nicotine mouth spray.
May
16
2018
In November, Central Queensland University vice-chancellor Scott Bowman signed a contract for another five-year term at the helm of the sprawling regional institution, but over Christmas he and his wife, Anita Bowman, changed their minds.
May
2
2018
Margaret Sheil’s reputation as a gender warrior preceded her at the Queensland University of Technology. Only a few months after she began in the top job, women academics have already contacted her with an eye to moving to QUT. “I’ve been approached now by women from other places,” she says. “They’ve been saying, ‘we know …read more
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.