LATEST ARTICLES

When it comes to reputation, Group of 8 dominate

When it comes to reputation, Group of 8 dominate

Australia’s oldest and most prestigious universities, mostly sandstone and clad in ivy, have topped the global reputation category in The Australian Financial Review’s Best Universities Ranking, despite faring poorly in measures of student satisfaction. The University of Melbourne ranked first for global reputation, followed by equal second for the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland …read more

‘A new wave of VR and AR technology is taking off’

'A new wave of VR and AR technology is taking off'

The day will come when comfortable augmented reality headsets will replace mobile phones and be worn nearly all the time, says Tim Dwyer, leader of Monash University’s data visualisation and immersive analytics lab. Gardeners wearing one of these headsets might gaze into a garden and see a variety of plants with an overlay of Latin botanical …read more

‘Our research shows benevolence makes people happy’

'Our research shows benevolence makes people happy'

Richard Ryan has spent a lot of time researching motivation: understanding why people do what they do, why they choose certain courses of action and why they reject others. A clinical psychologist, Ryan jointly developed the self-determination theory of motivation which he says is applicable in the workplace, in education, in healthcare systems and even in …read more

She researches the cobot, a collaborative robot

She researches the cobot, a collaborative robot

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) for marketing and in commercial enterprises like hotels and restaurants has become the focus of Catherine Prentice’s current research. She plans to further explore how AI can improve the consumer experience and foster consumer loyalty to a brand or an organisation as well as how it can improve employee efficiency. …read more

‘Australia has one of the most unique currents’

'Australia has one of the most unique currents'

A physical oceanographer, Jessica Benthuysen monitors real-time data on the temperature, salinity and currents of oceans thousands of kilometres from her desk in Perth. She has worked with the Australian Institute of Marine Science for the last decade, first in Townsville and now in Western Australia, using ocean observations and ocean models to understand more about …read more

Her work has helped transform resuscitation

Her work has helped transform resuscitation

Naomi Hammond’s research collaborations have focused on the care of critically ill patients who are often unconscious. She has taken part in research that has found an intravenous fluid widely used in much of the world increases acute kidney injury and has other adverse reactions. A sister clinical trials group in Scandinavia found this IV fluid …read more

‘The fabric of the internet is laser-based’

'The fabric of the internet is laser-based'

David Moss and his colleagues set a world record in 2020: the fastest data transmission down an optical fibre from a single chip. Published in Nature Communications, the paper on this record-setting research almost immediately attracted huge world-wide attention. Moss first saw an article about it on the BBC website and it took a few seconds …read more

‘More ethnically diverse places are more able to build a state’

'More ethnically diverse places are more able to build a state'

Laura Panza looks to the past to understand the growth of economic development in various nations, largely in the near East: Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Palestine, with a particular focus on Palestine. It’s difficult work because usable data is hard to come by in the Near East, she says. “There are very few sources; it’s …read more

‘We’re trying to target different parts of the cell’

'We're trying to target different parts of the cell'

Philip Gale and his research colleagues are working on chemistry fundamentals which could pave the way for the molecular-level treatment of diseases such as cancer and cystic fibrosis. Molecules can be seen as little machines that perform a certain function, he says, and understanding how these tiny “machines” operate and interact provides an essential foundation of …read more

The final stop before landfill: waste-to-energy plants

The final stop before landfill: waste-to-energy plants

A massive waste-to-energy plant south of Perth will be up and running by the end of next year, transforming residential waste including plastics and metal into energy or reusable materials. Construction began on the privately-owned East Rockingham Waste-to-Energy plant in 2020 and by the time it’s fully operational it will deal with 300,000 tonnes of “red …read more