Grim signs the globe is about to run short of food
Tuesday 25 August 2026
Just as the global economy was adjusting to higher fuel prices, a new inflationary wave is about to hit. This time, the shortages will involve food and the poorest nations will be the worst affected.
Monday 24 August 2026
Sir Roger Penrose is a 95-year-old British mathematician and physicist who worked with Stephen Hawking on theories about black holes and the beginning of the universe. He received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics for proving that black holes are a natural consequence of Einstein’s theory of relativity.
This is not an actual recording of Roger Penrose speaking. It was uploaded by a third-party channel called “Infinity Engine fan channel”, and its description says “we explore Roger Penrose’s theory”, referring to him in the third person. The narration is therefore produced by the channel and is an AI-generated voice made to resemble Penrose. The video discusses some genuine Penrose ideas, but its dramatic title about what happens after death is misleading. Penrose has not scientifically proved that consciousness survives death. Please treat the video as an unofficial, AI-produced explanation, not as Penrose speaking.
How to rediscover your purpose later in life
Sunday 23 August 2026
You don’t have to ‘reinvent’ yourself to live happily after 60. There’s a better approach grounded in lifespan psychology
Offloading work tasks to AI comes with a cost – to our brains
Saturday 22 August 2026
We risk replacing genuine knowledge with ‘work slop’.
5:30-7:00pm, Tuesday 25 August 2026 Learn who the speakers are HERE and get your free ticket. |
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Australia’s EV sales are skyrocketing. Our charging infrastructure may soon struggle to keep up
Friday 21 August 2026
Tighter regulation and careful planning will ensure our public chargers actually work.
The cognitive bias behind bad climate math
Wednesday 19 August 2026
A new study finds two persistent mental shortcuts—not ignorance—are why people keep overrating recycling and underrating flying less
Scientists detect a surprising shift in human blood as atmospheric CO2 rises
Tuesday 18 August 2026
Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be leaving a measurable imprint inside the human body.
Australia has pledged to restore nature. But could we ever bring back lost ecosystems?
Monday 17 August 2026
Nature is not doing well in Australia. Many unique mammals, birds and insects are struggling. Entire ecosystems are collapsing.
A Story of the Origins of Religion
Sunday 16 August 2026
Where did spiritual beliefs originate?
Hanson is just the tip of the oligarchs’ far-right iceberg
Saturday 15 August 2026
Those of you not into torturous, pantomime-level political inquisitions may not have been following recent events at the NSW Independent…
Henry David Thoreau and the idea of success we forget
Thursday 13 August 2026
No one told us that success might go unnoticed.
Wednesday 12 August 2026
In Australia’s first census in 1911, only 0.4% of us said we had ‘no religion’. Now, ‘no religion’ is Australia’s biggest religious affiliation.
Calls to tax billionaires are growing. Is there a better way to tax the rich?
Tuesday 11 August 2026
Here’s why billionaires can face lower tax rates than people whose income primarily comes from wages.
Inside Big Oil’s $50 billion quarter
Monday 10 August 2026
Fossil fuel giants pull in record wealth, only to reinvest it in the breakdown of our planet.
Sunday 9 August 2026
That moment of sweet immersion in the task at hand: that’s flow. With some strategy, you can experience it more often
The Quiet Life Is the Most Underrated Path to Success
Saturday 8 August 2026
The world keeps telling us that a normal life is a wasted life.
The internet shattered your view of reality
Friday 7 August 2026
As long as the extraordinary is your benchmark, your life will always be insufficient
Thursday 6 August 2026
Hypatia (born c. 350–370 – March 415 AD) was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, at that time in the province of Egypt and a major city of the Roman Empire.
A quarter of India’s lands turning into deserts
Wednesday 5 August 2026
More than a quarter of the country is turning to desert, including the degradation of agricultural areas (ISRO, 2016). Analyses of satellite images show India has about 32% of its land affected by degradation, of which desertification is a major component.
The reading technique that reshaped my mind
Tuesday 4 August 2026
I read slowly, but each page is x10 worth
As the climate worsens, media coverage is falling (10 minute podcast)
Monday 3 August 2026
Last year was Earth’s third warmest year on record, with fires sweeping through parts of Los Angeles, a heatwave killed more than 24,000 in Europe and catastrophic flooding in Southeast Asia. But despite this, media coverage of climate change continues to drop. A new study found coverage of the topic decreased by 14 per cent in 2025 compared to 2024. Is it possible for the trend to be reversed? And is the onus on the media or the public?
The-Game-of-Chess-1555-by-Sofonisba-Anguissola
Sunday 2 August 2026
A Subtle Subterfuge?
Saturday 1 August 2026
As the national conversation shifts to political finger-pointing, an important environmental question deserves careful scrutiny: What is the best approach to maintain urban water quality?
How Do Scientists Know if Climate Change Made a Heatwave, Storm or Wildfire Worse
Friday 31 July 2026
A National Academy of Sciences report examined the latest advances in extreme event attribution science. As four of the authors explain, the type of disaster makes a difference.
Battery-like device sucks carbon dioxide out of thin air
Thursday 30 July 2026
Using electricity and seawater chemistry would be more economical and efficient than today’s direct air capture technologies
There Are No Extraterrestrials
Wednesday 29 July 2026
The link above is wrong about there being no Extraterrestials. There are billions of planets in the universe that have existed for billions of years. Surely, somewhere, intelligent life has evolved. Finding just one civilisation beyond Earth would profoundly change the way we think about our place in the cosmos. Until that day, however, the only confirmed intelligent civilisation we know is our own. We are so accustomed to humanity that we overlook how extraordinary it is. On an ordinary planet orbiting an ordinary star, atoms learned to organise themselves into living cells, cells became conscious beings, and those beings began to ask questions about the universe that created them. We have built cities, composed symphonies, discovered the laws of physics, walked on the Moon, and sent spacecraft beyond the Solar System. Whether we are unique or merely the first civilisation we have encountered, our existence is, for now, the greatest known miracle in the universe.
Tuesday 28 July 2026
The link is a Google Search of YouTube. Many physicists think it is possible. Watch a few videos then let me know what you think.
How the West Almost Turned the Cold War Hot
Monday 27 July 2026
When nuclear war was anything but unthinkable
Celebrating Charles Todd, father of the Overland Telegraph (11 minute podcast}
Sunday 26 July 2026
Charles Todd was the force behind Australia’s first connection with the outside world – the Overland Telegraph. He came from a relatively ordinary background in England and surprised family and friends by deciding to sail to South Australia because he somehow foresaw astounding opportunities at the ‘Ends of the Earth’. Once in Adelaide he became a weather forecaster, an engineer, ran the central GPO and then planned and carried out the connection of Australia with the overseas telegraph. He led the expedition from Adelaide to Darwin thus connecting the wide brown land with the rest of the world. This month Sir Charles Todd would have turned 200 and his great-great-grandson Julian Todd celebrates his achievements, showing how a barely qualified young person can reach the highest levels and make a spectacular difference.
Sir Charles Todd is commemorated by the Todd River, while his wife Alice Todd is commemorated by Alice Springs, which was originally the name of the nearby waterhole before the town adopted that name in 1933.
Saturday 25 July 2026
Is it too late to escape the rage bait machine? And why are its roots ancient and evolutionary? Leading strategist Ed Coper has used all the tricks of the trade to change hearts and minds. He’s run some of Australia’s and the world’s most effective campaigns, advised change-makers like Sir Richard Branson, Shakira, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai and other Nobel Laureates. Now Ed is ringing an alarm bell in a new book called Angertainment: How Social Media Outrage Ruined Everything.
The text below is from a page in the magazine above I bought in Coles.
Friday 24 July 2026
If you keep waiting to feel ready, you’ll die waiting
Thursday 23 July 2026
In 19th-century Paris, a young man named Auguste Rodin wanted to become a sculptor.
Why the Speed of Light Is NOT a Speed – Leonard Susskind
Wednesday 22 July 2026
Everything you were taught about C is wrong. It’s not a velocity. It’s not a limit. It’s something far stranger — and once you understand what it actually is, the universe will never look the same again.
After 50 years inside the mathematics of spacetime, I need to tell you the truth physics textbooks never explain.
🔴 WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER:
🔴 Why C has nothing to do with light
🔴 How space and time are the same dimension in disguise
🔴 Why faster-than-light travel is geometrically impossible — not just difficult
🔴 What E=MC² is actually telling you about reality
🔴 The real reason massless particles have no choice but to move at C
This isn’t philosophy. This is the geometry of the universe itself.
How to become an irreplaceable artist in the age of AI
Tuesday 21 July 2026
Production is no longer an advantage. Your mindset is.
Bid to fix stubborn Murray River sand slug ‘hamstrung’ by competing demands
Monday 20 July 2026
The Murray Darling Basin Authority is finalising its study on what to do about an increasing river impediment amid a First Nations call to find common ground.
Sunday 19 July 2026
The biggest obstacle to becoming extraordinary is believing in talent.
The looting of science fiction
Saturday 18 July 2026
Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future
Australia wants to ‘manage’ AI. What will that look like?
Friday 17 July 2026
Hours before Albanese delivered a major speech on AI in Sydney, the US state of New York imposed a one-year pause on building new data centres.
Is education policy damaging our democracy?
Thursday 16 July 2026
We are seeing seismic shifts in our politics, as more people than ever turn away from the major parties. Former politician Dr Susan Close has spent her career in the engine room of democracy, and she believes this trend has been caused by failings in public policy that have left people behind, created winners and losers and segregated our community — especially in the way Australia funds its schools.
The 2026 Hugh Stretton Oration was recorded at the University of Adelaide on 2 June 2026.
Species’ ingenious survival strategies no match for human destruction, red list reveals
Wednesday 15 July 2026
Newly endangered animals include desert frogs and snails in extreme ocean depths, both threatened by mining
Tuesday 14 July 2026
An information sharing event for people to learn what biodiversity is, why it is important, and how you can get involved in improving it in Port Phillip. This event has been co-organized by the Port Phillip Emergency Climate Action Network (PECAN) and the Port Phillip EcoCentre.
Aboriginal oral history offers clues about Australia’s volcanism
Monday 13 July 2026
The first item in this podcast is “Aboriginal oral history offers clues about Australia’s volcanism”. It is a facinating story about how volcanic activity can be dated via the use of aboriginal “Creation Stories”. In particular the areas around Mt.Gambier are mentioned. I have been there many times as my wife grew up there and we often visited her parents over the past 40 years.
Eight economic myths that are helping destroy our future
Sunday 12 July 2016
Eight persistent economic myths help protect vested interests, deepen inequality and accelerate environmental destruction. The economy must be rebuilt around wellbeing, sustainability and justice.
Paved in Sunlight: The Case for Solar Lids
Paved in Sunlight: The Case for Solar Lids
Saturday 11 July 2026
Clean power over every road and parking lot? Politics is the only real barrier.
If a river is declared a legal “person” — can it talk, remember, feel?
Friday 10 July 2026
What if the way we think about rivers as resources to be allocated, infrastructure to be managed, problems to be solved, is just fundamentally wrong. What if they are in fact living entities with rights?
The Bhagavad Gita’s Answer to Existential Crisis
Thursday 9 July 2026
The Bhagavad Gita teaches that the highest purpose of life is to perform one’s duty with integrity, wisdom, and compassion, while letting go of attachment to success or failure. Presented as a dialogue between the warrior Arjuna and the god Krishna on the eve of battle, it explores questions of moral responsibility, self-discipline, and the nature of the soul. The Gita teaches that the true self is eternal, that people should act according to righteousness (dharma), and that spiritual fulfilment comes through selfless action, devotion to God, and the pursuit of knowledge. Its central message is that inner peace and liberation are found not by withdrawing from life, but by living with purpose, detachment, and a deep awareness of the divine.
Wednesday 8 July 2026
Most governments remain hooked on oil instead of making the vital changes humans and the planet need for global energy transformation.
Should Australia pause building new data centres? We asked 5 experts
Tuesday 7 July 2026
As data centres have grown in size and number in Australia, they have also become the subject of fierce public debate. So what’s the best way forward?
Monday 6 July 2026
Do to a dog what we do to a factory-farmed pig, and you’d be arrested.
Do it to ten thousand pigs in a shed, and it’s breakfast.
Most of us say cruelty to animals is wrong.
And then most of us are happy to have them killed and eat them.
Both our panellists think the way we treat animals is a moral catastrophe.
But they get there by opposite roads. One says animals matter because they suffer. The other says they matter because they’re God’s creatures.
Support a full gambling ad ban
Sunday 5 July 2026
Please support Senator David Pocock‘s total ban on gambling advertisements campaign. It will only take one minute of your time to use his website to email all Labor politicians who will make the decision.
You Are Not Small. You Are the Universe Remembering What It Is.
Saturday 4 July 2026
In 1957, four astrophysicists published 103 pages proving the atoms in your body were forged in dying stars. That paper did not make life feel insignificant. It made it the single most unlikely and extraordinary fact in the known universe
Prof Brian Cox on whether Elon Musk owns the moon
Friday 3 July 2026
This podcast Hamish Macdonald and Jonathan Webb had with Prof Brian Cox is fascinating.
Was Epstein running a Russian spy operation?
Thursday 2 July 2026
This ABC RN podcast with Geraldine Doogue and Hamish Macdonald has elements of credibility and conspiracy theory.
Stanley Kubrick directed a film in 1999 called Eyes Wide Shut that covered just this subject.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness: Solved!
Wednesday 1 July 2026
It’s not a mystery after all
The Man Who Made Himself Unkillable
Tuesday 30 June 2026
Recently my film group watched the 2017 film “The Death of Stalin“. It is a farcical account of what happened but nevertheless has strong elements of truth.
Closer to the TRUE STORY in todays posting. This posting made me think how Putin lives when he knows what happened to the monster who proceeded him. It reminds me of the quote “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” from William Shakespeare, in Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, Scene 1, written around 1597–1598.
An Electron Never Runs Out of Energy. Why Not? | PROF. LENE HAU
Monday 29 June 2026
Why doesn’t an electron ever run out of energy? Classical physics predicted every atom in the universe should collapse in trillionths of a second, as orbiting electrons radiate their energy away and spiral into the nucleus. They don’t. This video walks through the actual quantum mechanics that solved one of the strangest problems in physics history, from Rutherford’s gold foil experiment to Bohr’s stationary states, de Broglie and Schrödinger’s matter waves, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. You’ll learn why electrons behave as standing waves, why a true zero-energy state is physically forbidden, and why this single mechanism is the reason solid matter holds its shape at all.
Sunday 28 June 2026
The ranks of people who have never asked an AI chatbot for health advice are thinning. After all, why wouldn’t you type your symptoms into a system that promises to plow through a vast quantity of information to puzzle out a diagnosis in seconds?
In fact, AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude are getting better and better at diagnosing health concerns. That really isn’t surprising, notes Andrew Parsons, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Virginia who studies how doctors make clinical decisions. The pattern-matching and categorization process of AI is pretty similar to the one doctors use to make diagnoses.
But where AI falls short, Parsons explains, is knowing how to use that information to decide – along with the patient – what to do about it. That decision “depends on who that patient is and what they value, and on a doctor’s judgment about where the evidence is reliable and where genuine uncertainty remains,” he writes – and AI simply isn’t up to the task of navigating that kind of nuance.
Alla Katsnelson, Associate Health Editor, The Conversation U.S.
‘Termination shock’: trust our expert warnings on geoengineering’s planetary risks
Saturday 27 June 2026
Do we really want to play dice with our planet?
A Missing Piece in Climate Models: Nature’s Own Emissions
Friday 26 June 2026
Rising temperatures are set to drive up emissions from wildfires, fermenting wetlands, and melting permafrost, but these feedback loops are poorly captured in climate models. Scientists are racing to make sense of these emissions to gauge how much warming may lie ahead.
Life Beyond Earth #2: The Universe Doesn’t Build Organisms the Way We Expect.
Thursday 25 June 2026
From Europa’s dark oceans to Jupiter’s endless skies — Life might already exist. Not creatures. Not forms. Just survival shaped by physics.
Wednesday 24 June 2026
For years, builders and developers have treated “sustainable” homes as someone else’s problem. Solar panels, batteries, double-glazed windows, correct insulation, good ventilation and better materials have been thought to be too expensive, too niche and too unprofitable to include in new homes, so they were left out.
A 12-Year-Old Hid from Bullies in a Library. What He Found There Changed the World.
Tuesday 23 June 2023
In 1943, a homeless teenager and a neurologist who ran on whiskey and ice cream asked one question together: what if the human brain is just math? The answer became artificial intelligence. Now quantum mechanics is asking the same question again, and the answer may be something stranger still.
The Making of One Nation: podcast out now
Monday 22 June 2026
From a fish and chip shop in regional Queensland to the heart of Australian politics: our new podcast series tracks the unlikely story of the country’s most controversial minor party.
How to do less for your children
Sunday 21 June 2026
Being an intensive parent will make you anxious and stifle your children’s development. Help them by learning to let go
What’s left to explore? Our planets secrets yet to be unlocked
Saturday 20 June 2026
In part one of this special episode of Global Roaming we speak to one of the world’s most respected living explorers.
Friday 19 June 2026
A project to measure how reflective paint reduces indoor temperatures is delivering tangible benefits across Africa
Your AI habit is wasting precious resources. Here’s how to use it responsibly
Thursday 18 June 2026
If someone used a large truck to deliver one envelope across the street, what would your reaction be? You would probably say it worked, but it was wasteful. The envelope arrived, but the method made little sense.
Half of world’s children exposed to at least three climate hazards, Unicef says
Wednesday 17 June 2026
Almost every child, including those from high-income countries, is now exposed to at least one hazard
The houseplant that changed the British Empire
Tuesday 16 June 2026
On the face of it, it’s just a box. It has wooden slats, a peaked roof and glass panels. But inside this box is something that will breathe, grow, and impact lives around the world, for better or worse.
Almost no one outside of electrical engineering and applied mathematics even knows his name.
Monday 15 June 2026
They spent millions of dollars trying to make the lines perfect.
The World’s First Trillionaire
Sunday 14 June 2026
A trillion is 1,000 million.
Inside the campaign to discredit a key climate science report
Saturday 13 June 2026
An emerging field of research that can measure how much climate change has worsened individual disasters is under attack by friends of the fossil fuel industry. Billions of dollars are at stake.
Air pollution in our cities is endangering health
Friday 12 June 2026
Australians are too complacent about allowing diesel-run vehicles in urban areas. Diesel exhaust is carcinogenic and can cause other illnesses.
Climate change has already made Australians in one state much poorer, and more’s to come
Thursday 11 June 2026
The world’s hottest years over the past decade have coincided with stagnant economic productivity, rising prices and geopolitical instability.
Wednesday 10 June 2026
The Global Justice Project attempts to set out a new vision for global progress in the 21st century: grounding human development and equality in planetary habitability. It explores the conditions under which the world could move toward this horizon and traces an economically and ecologically consistent transition path from 2026 to 2100.
Tuesday 9 June 2026
Artificial intelligence is already changing how we live and work, while being sold as the technology that could cure disease, transform productivity and solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Steve Cannane investigates the race to build ever more powerful AI systems and asks whether it is moving faster than governments and communities can keep up with.
A good life for the 99% isn’t a pipe dream: it can be done. Here’s how
Monday 8 June 2026
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions drop as renewable energy, batteries surge
Sunday 7 June 2026
By climate reporter Nathan Morris
Kerbside parking is great for drivers – but terrible for everyone else.
Saturday 6 June 2026
Friday 5 June 2026
It was Peruvian fishermen, hundreds of years ago, who first noticed the unusually warm ocean currents that would appear in some years near South America, disrupting their fisheries and triggering heavy rainfall across the lands.
Fast Food Nation predicted today’s chronic illness epidemic, 25 years ago
Thursday 4 June 2026
Today’s epidemic of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses are caused by ultra-processed, profit-driven fast foods.
It’s already too late to stop AI
Wednesday 3 June 2026
The Modern Mind Was Built Out of Sand
Tuesday 2 June 2026
The skeleton inside the body is the part you cannot see and cannot live without
The household battery revolution that could change energy bills … and the world
Monday 1 June 2026
Australia is pioneering a revolution in home renewables and battery use, proving what is possible with the right policies
What Happens to Ecosystems When Bees Disappear?
Sunday 31 May 2026
Responsible for a third of global food production, bees are essential for life as we know it. To celebrate World Bee Day 2026, we look at what it would mean for us – and the world around us – if they disappeared.
The lost art of thinking slowly
Saturday 30 May 2026
What is reality?
6 daily habits to slow aging, from a Harvard brain expert
The link to the above article has been removed. It was to a Washington Post article. The Washington Post is aggressive in seeking subscriptions to their publication and attempts to sign you up with “pay pop-ups”. I apologise for this as it is very annoying.
Friday 29 May 2026
Harvard scientist Rudolph Tanzi shares his plan for brain health and aging well, including habits for sleep, stress and social interaction.
Doing puzzles and joining clubs could help you age well: new research
Thursday 28 May 2026
Growing old is a fact of life. But thanks to improved health care and innovative technology, more of us are living longer and healthier lives.
Wednesday 27 May 2026
Many proposals to create so-called ‘healthy forests’ through thinning and repeated burning risk further damaging Australian ecosystems already degraded by logging, clearing and over-management.
Tuesday 26 May 2026
When Instagram trolls accused actor and director Rachel Ward of ‘letting herself go’, she used the attention to talk about her passion, regenerative farming, which has given her a renewed sense of purpose.
Nature is good for business – and we now have numbers to show it
Monday 25 May 2026
When rivers degrade, pests spread or drought hits crops, nature sends a bill.
Perfect Days: the movie that changed my life
Sunday 24 May 2026
My change of mindset about routine, time, and happiness
Geothermal 2.0: how superhot rocks underground could help power Australia
Saturday 23 May 2026
Long before sunlight sustained life on the surface, Earth’s internal heat powered the deep-sea vents where scientists believe life began.
Can the rules keep up?: Lawsuits, LLMs and the looming oil recession – Outrage + Optimism podcast
Friday 22 May 2026
An unprecedented government move to outrun the courts. A country racing to write AI into its constitution. And a global energy crisis that’s already moved faster than any possible fix. Are our institutions and the rules they rest on still fit for the world they’re supposed to protect?
How the regenerative farming movement transformed Charles Massy’s sheep station
Thursday 21 May 2026
On a still autumn morning in 2016, Charles Massy walked up a hill above his farm to sit beside a favourite old snow gum.
Elon Musk sued OpenAI and lost. But the core question of the case remains unanswered
Wednesday 20 May 2026
On Monday, a nine-member federal jury in Oakland, California took less than two hours to dismiss Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.
Truth in political advertising
Tuesday 19 May 2026
It is time to outlaw misleading political advertising – before the next election.
Monday 18 May 2026
Australia is in the midst of an electric vehicle boom. The combined rise of battery electric, plug-in hybrids and conventional hybrid cars is steadily shifting the long-term market dominance of petrol and diesel.
This anthology of everyday awkwardness is a cringy good time
Sunday 17 May 2026
Awkwardness is ultimately a form of anxiety – often an uncomfortable, self-conscious feeling that the social order has been punctured in some small way. Yet there can be something quite funny about these low-stakes faux pas in retrospect, as this animation by the artist Nata Metlukh illustrates. Through a montage of relatable awkward incidents, from being unable to navigate past a stranger on the street to not quite being dressed for the occasion, Metlukh’s short serves as a highly entertaining reminder that you’re far from alone when it comes to cringing through it.
Federal budget disappointment for farmers and environmental groups
Saturday 16 May 2026
Federal budget cuts to national pest and weed control programs have been labelled “savage” and “tragic” as feral animal numbers rise across the country.
Something startling is happening in the Gulf of Mexico
Friday 15 May 2026
Its waters are heating up twice as fast as the global oceans, with huge implications for hurricane risk.
Thursday 14 May 2026
The psychology behind identity change
Wednesday 13 May 2026
Survey of 27,000 Australian supermarket items found some products boasting environmental benefits had significantly higher emissions than unlabelled counterparts
Forget passwords, passkeys are the future of personal device security
Tuesday 12 May 2026
If you use a phone or computer at all, you’ve probably noticed services prompting you to create passkeys for logging in. And you’ve probably been hitting “not now” to avoid them. Who needs yet another authentication step to remember?
The Marx Algorithm: Artificial General Intellect
Sunday 10 May 2026
On Marx’s most neglected idea, its Silicon Valley rebrand, and the alienation nobody noticed
How to train your brain to think differently
Saturday 9 May 2026
You can train your brain to think better.
“Blows your mind:” Regulator says boom in home batteries and PV puts 82 pct renewables within reach
Friday 8 May 2026
Regulator says surge in home battery and rooftop PV installations puts the 82 pct renewables target back in reach because it reduces the burden on large scale projects.
Bowen lauds EV surge as a climate wars win
Thursday 7 May 2026
Sales of electric vehicles have surged past a quarter of all car sales in the wake of the war-induced petrol price shock, as Energy Minister Chris Bowen declared progressives were winning the climate wars.
Wednesday 6 May 2026
Experts say expanding oil infrastructure, instead of embracing electric vehicles, would ignore basic economics
Climate concern in regional Australia
Tuesday 5 May 2026
Concern about climate change is growing across regional Australia, according to Farmers for Climate Action, with new polling showing strong support for clean energy among country communities and increasing frustration over high power bills.
First they’ll make fun of you, then they’ll want to be like you
Monday 4 May 2026
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, in front of about 80,000 people, a nearly unknown young American prepared for his first attempt in the high jump event. He wasn’t the favorite— in fact, he was a pretty average athlete.
Sunday 3 May 2026
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The price of wanting to please everyone
Saturday 2 May 2026
Why Marlon Brando Rejected His Oscar. How does someone learn not to live dependent on others’ opinions?
https://followmentalgarden.substack.com/
How unhealthy ultra‑processed foods are designed and marketed to make us crave them
Friday 1 May 2026
Consumption of ultra-processed foods – including soft drinks, snacks and ready meals – is growing worldwide, despite evidence they are unhealthy.
Tooth powder and blocked drains: My week without single-use plastic
Thursday 30 April 2026
Single-use plastic is ubiquitous, but alternatives are growing. It should be simple for an environment reporter to live for a week without it, right? Wrong.
Stop wondering how much longer you have to go
Wednesday 29 April 2026
Obsessing over the goal won’t get you there any faster
Tuesday 28 April 2026
Over-use of sugar causes many health problems, especially for young children. Nonetheless,
sugar is the largest global agricultural crop, and generates 600,000,000t/year of bagasse
waste, which is often burnt to provide power for sugar processing mills. There is a much
better use for it – sugarcrete – an excellent, very low greenhouse emissions, construction
building block that researchers are learning how to make and use effectively. At the end of a
building’s working life this construction material can also be readily recycled to make more
sugarcrete. This seems a very productive use for sugar production waste.
You don’t have to be a ‘cyclist’ to ride a bike. Here’s how to start again
Monday 27 April 2026
As fuel prices climb and oil supply shocks multiply, you might be thinking – perhaps for the first time in years – about dusting off the bike and riding again. Perhaps you’re kicking yourself you haven’t done it already.
Sunday 26 April 2026
The transition to renewable energy is proceeding apace as can be seen by looking at the data compiled by the folks at Open Electricity. This data tracks the gigawatt hours (GWh) and is therefore a measure of Energy rather than max/min megawatts (MW) that AEMO track and publish. Accordingly we have interpreted it a little differently.
A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it
Saturday 25 April 2026
Scientists say a crucial Atlantic system is more likely to collapse than previously thought. But the billionaire death cult that steers humanity’s destiny doesn’t do existential crises
Rutger Bregman wants you to stop wasting your talents and show some ‘moral ambition’
Friday 24 April 2026
Dutch historian and writer Rutger Bregman is good at making wealthy people uncomfortable. In 2019, he called out the billionaires at Davos for their tax avoidance. His new book Moral Ambition calls on the world’s best and brightest to quit their meaningless corporate jobs and start working on the world’s biggest problems – from disease prevention, to climate change.
Pretend play is a magical part of childhood. New research suggests it can also help mental health
Thursday 23 April 2026
Pretend play is a significant and often magical part of childhood. Children have huge imaginations and use these to turn rocks into spaceships, tables into forts or pens into fairies. They might pretend to be “mum” or to “cook dinner”. Or they may invent their own characters, worlds and concepts that have no bearing on anything adults are able to come up with.
How does imagination really work in the brain? New theory upends what we knew
Wednesday 22 April 2026
Your brain is currently expending about a fifth of your body’s energy, and almost none of that is being used for what you’re doing right now. Reading these words, feeling the weight of your body in a chair – all of this together barely changes the rate at which your brain consumes energy, perhaps by as little as 1%.
One Japanese town sorts waste into 40 different categories. How does Australia’s recycling compare?
Tuesday 21 April 2026
Kerbside wheelie bins have been used in Australia since the 1980s but the recycling rate is stuck at 44%. Will another recycling bin make a difference?
This fuel crisis could last for a while. It’s time for a new approach to fuel use ‑ end it
Monday 20 April 2026
Australia is in the middle of a fuel crisis, but the way the state and federal governments have chosen to respond signals a firm commitment to fossil fuels.
More than 60% of home battery installations inspected in Australia are ‘substandard’
Sunday 19 April 2026
More than 60% of battery system installation work inspected under a federal government green energy program is substandard and 1.2% unsafe, according to a recent report by the Clean Energy Regulator.
Australian households are powering the DIY clean energy transition
Saturday 18 April 2026
Energy Minister Chris Bowen has seized on the fuel crisis to underline the need for electrification and renewable energy. But a lot of Australians have already done it. Households are spending their own money, taking the risk, and figuring out how to cut fossil fuels out of their lives. Some are even getting close to off-grid, in the middle of cities. So here’s the real question: if people are doing the heavy lifting, is the system keeping up?
Friday 17 April 2026
In 1989, environmentalist Bill McKibben announced to the world that nature was dead. Due to the rapid rate and scale of anthropogenic climate change, he argued, the idea of nature as an entity independent of human activity had become obsolete.
The One Thing the War With Iran Has Confirmed
Thursday 16 April 2026
I don’t know why people think this is controversial
From https://medium.com/brain-labs/the-one-thing-the-war-with-iran-has-confirmed-cede3b48414d
“Birds avoid turbines:” Two new studies suggest wind farms are not “killing machines” after all
Wednesday 15 April 2026
Two new studies demonstrate that wind turbines might not be the “bird killing machines” they are often accused of being – and that birds are good at adapting.
Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing
Tuesday 14 April 2026
In the quantum realm, the laws of physics are different. Now its mind-bending tech could soon transform our lives. How does it work?
Most People Will Be Broken by What’s Coming. This Will Make You Unstoppably Resilient
Monday 13 April 2026
As the world is reorganising for instability, use this to become unbreakable.
Sunday 11 April 2026
A new Earthset image has been captured by the crew of Artemis II, 58 years since the iconic Earthrise photograph taken by the crew of Apollo 8. Over these past six decades, the climate has changed dramatically.
A Marriage Twist in a Brilliantly Comic Painting
Saturday 11 April 2026
Greed and infidelity in a riotous masterpiece
This little‑known government scheme can help retirees tap into $3 trillion of housing wealth
Friday 10 April 2026
For many Australians, most of their retirement wealth is tied up in their home. A simple, well-designed program to tap into those trillions in home equity could help boost their retirement incomes.
Thursday 9 April 2026
It’s understandable the government is focused on the immediate problem. Australia imports almost all its liquid fuels via very long supply chains, making it highly exposed to disruption. But as the war on Iran drags on, it won’t be nearly enough.
A Major Job Crisis is Coming. Or The Entire AI Industry Is Screwed
Wednesday 8 April 2026
The AI boom looks unstoppable.
Patricia Piccinini – ABC PODCAST Duration: 27 minutes
Tuesday 7 April 2026
Patricia Piccinini, the artist who creates strange creatures from the frontiers of science and technology, tells us of the future that is already here and why she is compelled to “create the worlds” that live in her mind.
The problem Is Not Just Bad Men, It’s Who Stands Beside Them
Monday 6 April 2026
I just read about Stephen Hawking in the Epstein files
Why chatbot therapists can’t offer what we need
Sunday 5 April 2026
Today’s world is fuelling a craving to be truly seen by another – and that’s exactly what AI therapists can’t ever deliver
2025 CBC Massey Lectures: Alex Neve on renewing human rights in a fractured world
Saturday 4 April 2026
When we overcome doubt by making human rights real, we can prevail, says Canadian lawyer
The Books Einstein Swore By (And The Thinkers Who Built His Genius)
Friday 3 April 2026
Before Einstein changed the world, these thinkers changed Einstein.
Is fuel rationing inevitable? – Energy Insiders podcast
Thursday 2 April 2026
How did it come to this? Energy security expert and former deputy chief of the RAAF John Blackburn on how Australia’s has done nothing to prepare itself for the current fossil fuel crisis.
Climate misinformation inquiry stops short on reform
Wednesday 1 April 2026
Australia’s first inquiry into climate misinformation finds a systemic problem distorting public debate – but its strongest solutions sit outside the main report.
Watch a star get destroyed by a supermassive black hole in the first simulation of its kind
Tuesday 31 March 2026
Giant black holes in the centres of galaxies like our own Milky Way are known to occasionally munch on nearby stars
The cost of fuel: for Australians who can, it’s time to embrace ‘green’ transport
Monday 30 March 2026
Looking for ways to save on fuel and help the environment? Simple swaps can make a difference
Quantum Physics with Paul Davies (Start the recording at the 24.11 mark)
Sunday 30 March 2026
Below is a summary of Paul’s talk. A Podcast from the ABC Science Show on Radio National.
Paul Davies — Quantum 2.0 (summary)
Paul Davies explains that we are entering a new phase of physics he calls “Quantum 2.0”—a shift from simply understanding quantum theory to actively engineering it.
- First quantum revolution (early 20th century):
Scientists like Einstein and Bohr uncovered the strange rules of the quantum world—uncertainty, superposition, and entanglement. These ideas explained atoms and led to technologies like transistors and lasers. - Second revolution (now):
We are no longer just observing quantum effects—we are controlling them. This includes:- quantum computers
- ultra-secure communication
- new kinds of sensors
- Why it matters:
Quantum systems can process information in fundamentally different ways, potentially solving problems that are impossible for classical computers. - But there’s a catch:
Quantum states are fragile—they collapse when disturbed. The big challenge is maintaining stability long enough to make useful devices. - Bigger picture (Davies’ style):
He hints that quantum theory may still be incomplete. Understanding it more deeply could reshape our ideas about reality itself, not just technology.
Einstein Believed in God. But What He Meant by That Will Unsettle You
Saturday 28 March 2026
It will challenge everything you think.
Is Australia’s social media ban *actually* working?
Friday 27 March 2026
Australia banned under-16s from social media at the start of summer, and the world has been watching. Today, we’re doing a full audit. What the ban is doing, what it isn’t, and whether we even built it on the right foundations.
Mushin: The Japanese concept for effortless focus
Thursday 26 March 2026
How to enter a mental state where everything flows
Oppenheimer’s Legacy: Peace for the Powerful, Violence for the Rest
Wednesday 25 March 2026
There are no heroes and villains in geopolitics, there are only victims, incentives and the stories that justify them
Why Some People Are Built for Belief
Tuesday 24 March 2026
Why some people lean into faith, others walk away, and why the answer may have less to do with truth than with personality, upbringing, and social wiring.
Federal politics is about to become all about the gas industry
Monday 23 March 2026
Scott Morrison’s assertion that the chase to secure vaccines in early 2021 was “not a race” cost him dearly. A similar global contest is already underway, only this time it involves securing energy supplies.
I Spent Years Studying Carl Jung. These Are 7 Ways He Completely Changed My Life
Sunday 22 March 2026
Seven pieces of wisdom from an iconic psychiatrist for life.
Saturday 21 March 2026
Or are we falling prey to old stereotypes
Friday 20 March 2026
“We’re in a hell of a lot of trouble. Us, America, but the world is in a lot of trouble because the most powerful man in the world is both evil and demented.”
Psychologist Dr John Gartner lays out the signs and symptoms he sees of “dementia and malignant narcissism” in Donald Trump, and explains why he thinks the president won’t make it to the end of his term “compos mentis”.
Dr John Gartner is founder of Duty To Warn and former assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University Medical School.
Portable solar-in-a-box system to provide 80 pct of dairy farm’s power needs, and save $20k
Thursday 19 March 2026
Innovative solar-in-a-box design by a Melbourne startup could change the economics of farming and remote power systems.
Innovation — from the spinning jenny to AI
Wednesday 18 March 2026
A wide-angle lens on the history of Innovation. The past 250 years has seen an unprecedented surge in human ingenuity — creating six great waves of innovation. What drove these breakthroughs? And where are we now headed?
Australia’s biodiversity report card omits fossil fuel support
Tuesday 17 March 2026
A target to identify financial support of fossil fuel industries harmful to the environment was unmet in Australia’s self-assessment on its progress to meeting international biodiversity commitments.
Inventions That Were Supposed To Save Us But Made Everything Worse
Monday 16 March 2026
Progress Was Never The Problem. The Side Effects Were.
Daring Greatly (Creating a Life You Love) in This Economy
Sunday 15 March 2026
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
Australian governments subsidising fossil fuel use by more than $30,000 a minute, analysis finds
Saturday 14 March 2026
Australia Institute data finds state and federal subsidies for coal, gas and oil products increased 10% in past year, growing at a faster pace than funding to NDIS
Ending native forest logging subsidies need not cost jobs
Friday 13 March 2026
Claims that environmental reforms will destroy jobs in native forest logging are overstated. Labour market dynamics and the growth of plantation forestry point to a manageable transition.
The strange and persistent psychological distance between us and climate disaster
Thursday 12 March 2026
An analysis of dozens of previously published studies reveals people systematically underestimate their own vulnerability to climate threats.
Carl Jung Warned Us. He Knew Why You Can’t Enjoy Life (Even When Nothing’s Wrong)
Wednesday 11 March 2026
The pattern that won’t make sense to you.
Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds
Tuesday 10 March 2026
Researchers identify sharp rise to about 0.35C every decade, after excluding natural fluctuations such as El Niño
For those who think war is a video game
Monday 9 March 2026
A primer for what war really is
Why Trump is fighting with AI company Anthropic
Sunday 8 March 2026
A US government official has called Anthropic a national security risk, after the company drew ethical lines around its technology being used for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons. How comfortable would you be with AI firing missiles?
Plus, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, sold seven million pairs of AI-enabled Ray-Bans last year. And now they want to add facial recognition. How will that change public spaces?
And, Microsoft tried to ban the word ‘microslop’. It didn’t go well.
Here is an article from Steven Levy on the same subject.
Steven Levy on Backchannel
Why Facts Don’t Change Minds (And the 4 Things That Actually Do)
Saturday 7 March 2026
The truth about persuasion no one wants to admit
World Book Day: Climate-related reads that offer hope, healing and growth
Friday 6 March 2026
Looking for an inspiring climate read? A bookworm shares five favourites
Australia’s volunteer crisis threatens frontline climate action
Thursday 5 March 2026
New research into environmental volunteers reveals a concerning pattern: younger volunteers grapple with hopelessness as Australia’s volunteer rates decline, meaning fewer people are stepping up when we need them most.
We are losing the stars, night by night, light by light
Wednesday 4 March 2026
For most of human history, the night sky has been a shared inheritance, a source of wonder. Now, more than a billion children see barely any stars in the night sky above their homes. So what does that mean for humanity?
The strikes on Iran show why quitting oil is more important than ever
Tuesday 3 March 2026
As Israel and the United States strike Iran, global oil markets are on edge.
A scorching summer has left Australian wildlife on the brink, but it doesn’t have to be this way
Monday 2 March 2026
Unsettling predictions are now our catastrophic reality, but a brighter future is still within reach if our political leaders change course
I’m a philosopher who tries to see the best in others — but I know there are limits
Sunday 1 March 2026
Seeing someone charitably requires a balancing act between taking them seriously and trying to see the good in them
10 Times Someone Found Something Impossible And Changed History Forever
Saturday 28 February 2026
They were impossible until they weren’t.
Catastrophe apathy: Why understanding the climate crisis isn’t enough – Outrage + Optimism podcast
Friday 27 February 2026
Extreme weather is transforming the world’s rivers. We need new ways to protect them
Thursday 26 February 2026
In the summer of 2022, extreme heat and unprecedented drought drove parts of the world’s third largest river, the Yangtze, to dry up.
Wednesday 25 February 2026
If you stand beside Seven Creeks in Victoria or Spring Creek in Queensland, they might seem small and unremarkable. But these creeks flow into the mighty Goulburn and Condamine Rivers, and punch far above their weight.
Tuesday 24 February 2025
The spectre of failure has hung over climate conversations for years. In an interview last July for the Toronto online journal iPolitics, Canadian ecologist David Suzuki declared that the battle to contain global warming was lost. The return of Donald Trump, he said, was “the dagger in my heart”.
Pollution from trucks and buses costs Australians $6.2bn in health effects each year, study finds
Monday 23 February 2026
Research describes children exposed to air pollution equivalent to eight cigarettes a day by attending childcare near major roads
Sunday 22 February 2026
Listen to these four podcasts then let me know what you think via the CONTACT page.
Moral revolution — Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s BBC Reith Lecture 1
A time of monsters
Rutger Bregman believes we are living in a time of moral decay, in a world governed by un-serious elites. But history shows us that we have been here before, and just like in past times, we can overcome it again.
Moral revolution — Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s BBC Reith Lecture 2
How to start a moral revolution
Do you have the power to change the world? Do you think the world needs changing? In the past, eras of corruption gave birth to transformative movements, such as the 19th Century campaign to abolish slavery.
Moral revolution — Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s BBC Reith Lecture 3
A conspiracy of decency
Do you dare to dream of a world that is different? From the Fabians to the Neoliberals, small groups with big ideas, perseverance and long-term vision, have conspired to transform societies, systems and governments. Where are they now?
Moral revolution — Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s BBC Reith Lecture 4
Fighting for humanity in the age of the machine
Humanity is facing an existential risk posed by unchecked tech and AI. But what if these technologies were used, not to increase the wealth and power of individuals, but to shape a better future — for everyone.
Saturday 21 February 2026
When science knocks on the door it agreed never to open
‘Canary in the coal mine’: The possum on the frontline of Australia’s extinction crisis
Friday 20 February 2026
The lemuroid ringtail possum is one of 34 species that have just been added to Australia’s threatened species list.
Climate change is accelerating but nature is slowing down
Thursday 19 February 2026
Even as the climate heats up, nature’s once-constant reshuffling of life is grinding to a worrying halt.
Graham Readfearn steps into our climate future – Full Story podcast
Wednesday 18 February 2026
Extreme heat is already the most common cause of weather-related hospitalisations in Australia and with heatwaves intensifying, our climate and environment correspondent Graham Readfearn put his body to the test in an experiment.
Australian government ‘silent’ on $26b hole in its biodiversity targets
Tuesday 17 February 2026
The federal government funds $26 billion of incentives each year that may be harmful to the environment and is yet to report on its international commitments, researchers say.
Dozens more plants and animals added to Australia’s endangered lists
Monday 16 February 2026
The list now includes a charismatic possum, a flightless fly and a glossy skink.
Barack Obama’s Conversation with Brian Tyler Cohen (47 Minutes)
Sunday 15 February 2026
Why Facts Don’t Change Minds (And the 4 Things That Actually Do)
Saturday 14 February 2026
The truth about persuasion no one wants to admit
We need to plan for what we fear, not just what we expect
Thursday 12 February 2026
The Murray-Darling Basin Plan Review is now open for public consultation. With climate impacts uncertain, we need to stress-test our rivers now to protect them
Australians bearing the brunt of ‘second-best’ climate plans
Wednesday 11 February 2026
Australians are paying the price for second-best policies to deal with climate change, the head of the Productivity Commission has warned, lamenting that a carbon tax or emissions trading scheme would have been better than the policies on offer from the government or opposition.
Tuesday 10 February 2026
In less than ten years, Australia has to cut its emissions 62–75% below 2005 levels. Given reductions in emissions over the past 20 years, that translates to cutting emissions 47–65% below current levels. As of last year, that’s about 440 million tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent.
Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn
Monday 9 February 2026
States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points
‘Stark warning’: pesticide harm to wildlife rising globally, study finds
Sunday 8 February 2026
Toxicity from farm chemicals increased for most species groups between 2013 and 2019, with insects worst affected
Bob Brown on the role of defiance in the climate crisis
Saturday 7 February 2026
For more than 50 years, Dr Bob Brown has been breaking and making laws to protect the environment. Now aged 81, he is hoping to give strength to new generations who are facing the climate and extinction crises front on.
Interview: De-Extinction, Dire Wolves, and Jurassic Park with Beth Shapiro
Friday 6 February 2026
Can we bring extinct species back to life? Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro claims we just did. As Chief Science Officer at Colossal, her team made headlines in spring 2025 with the announcement of the de-extinction of the dire wolf. She takes us behind the headlines to explain how this is no “Jurassic Park” fantasy.
The University of Melbourne has a project called TIGRR LAB aimed at bringing back the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. Read about it at https://tigrrlab.science.unimelb.edu.au/
The simple, science-backed way to help clear microplastics from your body
Thursday 5 February 2026
All of us are ingesting microplastics. Could dietary fibre help us get it out?
Welcome to the ‘Homogenocene’: how humans are making the world’s wildlife dangerously ‘samey’
Wednesday 4 February 2026
The age of humans is increasingly an age of sameness. Across the planet, distinctive plants and animals are disappearing, replaced by species that are lucky enough to thrive alongside humans and travel with us easily. Some scientists have a word for this reshuffling of life: the Homogenocene.
Household rat poisons found to be ‘unacceptable risk’ to native animals. So why aren’t they banned?
Tuesday 3 February 2026
The Australian authority that regulates pesticides has finally released its long-delayed review of the rodenticide poisons used by millions of Australians to combat rat and mice infestations.
Why the backyard sprinkler is on the climate change frontline
Monday 2 February 2026
Billions of litres of water are sprayed onto household gardens every day during summer, allowing cities to stay green. Now water is running low. Has the sprinkler had its day?
Podcast on the latest with EVs
31 January 2026
The EV PODCAST starts at 34.55 minutes.
Friday 30 January 2026
Very close to 100% renewable electricity is feasible for Australia’s main grid at reasonable cost using just several hours of storage. Four years of data proves this is so.
Renewables’ record surge sends power prices tumbling in ‘landmark moment’
Thursday 29 January 2026
Electricity prices in eastern Australia have fallen sharply amid record-breaking contributions from renewables and large-scale
Explainer: What happens to the human body in 49C heat? Australians are finding out
Wednesday 28 January 2026
Doctors warn there are biological limits to temperatures we can survive, and exposure to extreme heat can provoke a heart attack
Yes, feral cats and foxes really have driven many Australian mammals to extinction
Tuesday 27 January 2026
Millions of years of isolation have shaped Australia’s extraordinary mammal fauna into species unlike anywhere else in the world, from platypus to koalas and wombats.
EPA Will Now Put Zero Value on Human Lives
Monday 26 January 2026
The agency will no longer value life when deciding how much air pollution to allow. Do they know what this does to our bodies? This writer does.
What is the World’s Happiest Country
Sunday 25 January 2026
It’s cold, and personal taxes are crazy high. But this country has had the happiest people in the world for the past eight years
Saturday 24 January 2026
Rethinking the value travellers leave behind
Climate change made January heatwave five times more likely, study finds
Friday 23 January 2026
A study by World Weather Attribution has analysed temperatures during the intense early January heatwave. It found that what was once a rare event is now happening far more often.
Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows
Thursday 22 January
Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account
Era of ‘global water bankruptcy’ is here, UN report says
Tuesday 21 January 2026
Overuse and pollution must end urgently as no one knows when whole system might collapse, says expert
The rise of battery storage, and why the grid is rapidly passing gas!
Tuesday 20 January 2026
Although batteries still account for a modest share of total capacity, they are exerting a disproportionate influence in Australia’s main grids.
The New Craft of AI Assisted Learning
Saturday 24 January 2026
How AI can make students think more, not less
Only 0.1% of Species Are Alive Today
Sunday 18 January 2026
The other 99.9% failed evolution’s 15-million-year test
How to cope with disruptive change
Saturday 17 January 2026
You can’t stop life from throwing changes your way, big and small. But you can get a lot better at dealing with them
Major new developments will need to be assessed on River Murray
Friday 16 January 2026
Environmental protections along a huge stretch of the River Murray will be boosted, following a decision to officially list the area as “critically endangered”, the federal government says.
What life was like in 2025 across the planet in a changing climate
Thursday 16 January 2026
Extreme heat, droughts, storms and deadly floods challenged resilience not only in Australia, but across the globe.
Mapped: how the world is losing its forests to wildfires
Wednesday 14 January 2026
Wildfires now destroy twice as much tree cover per year as two decades ago – a crisis fuelled by climate change
What is the global water cycle and how is it amplifying climate disasters?
Tuesday 13 January 2026
Floods, droughts and heatwaves continue to dominate headlines around the world and in Australia.
World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam
Monday 12 January 2026
Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget, study shows
The Caretaker’s Dilemma: When Duty Outlives Love
Sunday 10 January 2026
The tension between wanting to be a good person and wanting your life back.
God Isn’t Scared of Evolution — You Are
Saturday 10 January 2026
You Say You Believe in God. Great. But Don’t Be Afraid of Rocks and Bones.
We discovered microbes in bark ‘eat’ climate gases. This will change the way we think about trees
If the video in the article does not work try this instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcV0cfm8-u4
Friday 8 January 2026
We all know trees are climate heroes. They pull carbon dioxide out of the air, release the oxygen we breathe, and help combat climate change. Now, for the first time, our research has uncovered the hidden world of the tiny organisms living in the bark of trees.
Energy Wars are for Declining Empires And Crusty Old Men Chasing Yesterday’s Fuel
Thursday 8 January 2026
Late last year marked a milestone of human ingenuity. For the first time, renewable energy — solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and other resources — surpassed coal.
As the world warms, more trees are dying in Australian forests
Wednesday 7 January 2026
From Tasmania to the Top End, Australia’s forest trees are dying at higher rates due to climate change, according to new research.
Plants can’t absorb as much CO2 as climate models predicted
Tuesday 6 January 2026
CO2 can stimulate plant growth, but only when enough nitrogen is available—and that key ingredient has been seriously miscalculated.
Trump’s Crime the same as Putin’s
Tuesday 6 January 2026
Are Trump’s actions any different than Putin’s war on the Ukraine?
15 Signs that somebody is not intelligent.
Monday 5 January 2026
It’s PC to pretend that everybody is smart.
Sunday 4 January 2026
From Chaos Theory to Existentialism
Ron McCallum’s story of ‘being born blind at the right time’
Saturday 3 January 2026
Law professor Ron McCallum was a premature baby, and the treatment he received as a newborn in the 1940s left him totally blind.
Where Are All The Hidden Dimensions?
Friday 2 January 2026
The image above is a static four-dimensional cube. The reason it is changing is that the point of view in the fourth dimension is changing. Does the universe have a fifth, folded up, dimension?
How LLMs Work – Grok, Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT Are Not What You Think They Are.
Thursday 1 January 2026
Chatbots are not “digital libraries” or “autocomplete on steroids.” Neither are they unified “entities.”