Jun
28
2021
Transforming fluffy white silkworm cocoons nurtured on Chinese mulberry trees into high-fashion silk shirts, blouses, jackets and other garments is a long, multi-stage process of harvesting, washing, spinning, weaving, dying and sewing. One privately owned Hong Kong company will soon own and manage every stage of this silk journey.
May
16
2021
The robot arm zooms back and forth in the workshop of LifeArt in Hong Kong, shaping a sheet of thick, hard cardboard into a modern and environmentally kind cardboard coffin, or eco-coffin. Wilson Tong, chief representative of LifeArt, the only manufacturer of eco-friendly cardboard caskets and coffins in Hong Kong, believes they are the way …read more
Mar
30
2021
Grace Wu and Jenny Leung first met as twelve-year-olds at St Francis’ Canossian College in Hong Kong, and now the long-term friends are organising an international cooking class fundraiser through their popular online World Kitchen Club. Over the past year the Club has run private parties, corporate events, and a series of group and private classes …read more
Mar
25
2021
Those loaves of bread won’t be fresh enough for customers tomorrow, so tonight they will be collected by a charity for distribution to the hungry. The containers of cooked soup won’t be ordered by restaurant customers for a set lunch today, so tonight they will go to a discount food rescue app for a flash sale. …read more
Nov
13
2020
The Covid-19 upheaval has combined with global trade scuffles to lift the number of professionals eyeing school-teaching as a potential career-changer. In uncertain economic times, thousands of Australians swing towards teaching as a secure career, and this year has been no exception.
Nov
13
2020
David Bruce is one of thousands of Australians choosing to further their nursing careers with a master’s degree in nursing or in the allied health professions. With the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating the need for health services and disrupting the economy, many have decided to boost their qualifications or retrain to find a more secure career …read more
Oct
1
2020
Considered an important medicine in China for 2,000 years, rhubarb has been discovered over and over again in its long history. Full of oxalic acid, rhubarb leaves might have poisoned a US president; smuggling valuable rhubarb root warranted death in Russia, and, centuries later, when the heavily sugared stalks were used in desserts, rhubarb was mercilessly …read more
Sep
24
2020
Dietmar Muller’s primary research focus is the physical fabric of the world and how it has evolved over more than a billion years, reaching back to a time when life as we know it didn’t exist. Using the latest advances in machine learning and computing technology, the Sydney University geophysicist and his colleagues use the geophysical …read more
Sep
24
2020
More “robust” peacekeeping by United Nations peacekeepers working to calm or resolve conflicts comes with its own dangers, and it’s fertile ground for Charles Hunt’s research. Once, UN peacekeepers were strictly prohibited from ever using force for anything other than self-defence, no matter the provocation. Hunt, now an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at RMIT university, …read more
Sep
24
2020
It took Maria Forsyth a while to settle on her real research interests. Beginning with a broad foundation of study in materials engineering and chemistry, she sailed through her doctorate at Monash University. With a questing mind, she worked on materials for new optic fibres and chemistries for improved in-vitro fertilisation methods, before her focus moved …read more