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The Latest Breaking News from the Australian Research Council

Found in a cave in Indonesia, we can now show the world’s oldest figurative art is 51,200 years old

Figurative rock art – art that presents lifelike representations of subjects – provides visual insights into ancient cultures, beliefs and societal practices, offering a direct window into human cultural evolution.

The Conversation

Oldest living culture: our new research shows an Indigenous ritual passed down for 500 generations

We often hear that Aboriginal peoples have been in Australia for 65,000 years, “the oldest living cultures in the world”. But what does this mean, given all living peoples on Earth have an ancestry that goes back into the mists of time?

The Conversation

‘I don’t really wanna consume his content’: what do young Australian men think of Andrew Tate?

Public debates at the moment are awash with concerns about young men’s sexist and unsafe behaviour online. This includes reports of school students making AI deep fake pornography of their peers, ranking female classmates as well as anxieties about the “manosphere” radicalising young men into misogyny.

The Conversation

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More than half of Australian young people are using strangulation during sex: new research

We recently surveyed thousands of young Australians about their experiences of strangulation (or choking) during sex and found more than half (57%) reported being strangled by a partner during sex. About half (51%) said they had strangled their partner during sex.

The Conversation

We mapped the entire bilby genome – and now we can use poo to save Australia’s ‘Easter bunny’ from extinction

Commonly known as Australia’s “Easter bunny” due to its large ears and hopping movement, the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is the last of its kind. Today we published its reference genome – all 3.66 billion pieces of it.

The Conversation

Devastating coral bleaching will be more common, start earlier and last longer unless we cut emissions

Coral bleaching is becoming much more common as a result of increasingly severe and frequent marine heatwaves. Four global mass bleaching events have happened since 1998. Two of these were in the past decade.

The Conversation

How quickly does groundwater recharge? The answer is found deep underground

You would have learned about the “water cycle” in primary school – water’s journey, from evaporation to rainfall to flowing in a stream or sinking into the ground to become groundwater.

The Conversation

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Violence towards refugee and migrant women often goes undetected. We’ve found a way to help fix that

Recent deaths have highlighted the seriousness of intimate partner violence nationally. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, the number of women killed by partners increased by 28% from 2022 to 2023. While the overall homicide rate remains low, the numbers were decreasing prior to 2022. It’s a concerning uptick.

The Conversation

Australians say AI shouldn’t produce political news, but it’s OK for sport: new research

There has been a lot of hype about the emergence of generative AI products such as ChatGPT. Organisations, including news outlets, are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence technologies to boost productivity and creativity. Some news organisations are also cutting deals with AI companies to pay them for scraping their content.

The Conversation

Of ice and fire: what sea salt in Antarctic snowfall reveals about bushfires worse than the Black Summer

Australia has a long history of bushfires. The 2019-2020 Black Summer was the worst in recorded history. But was that the worst it could get?

The Conversation

A renewable energy transition that doesn’t harm nature? It’s not just possible, it’s essential

Earth is facing a human-driven climate crisis, which demands a rapid transition to low-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar power. But we’re also living through a mass extinction event. Never before in human history have there been such high such rates of species loss and ecosystem collapse.

The Conversation

What will Australia’s proposed Environment Information Agency do for nature?

Last week, the Albanese government introduced legislation to create a new statutory body called Environment Information Australia. The bill is due for debate in parliament today. The government clearly expects the bill will pass, because the new body has already been allocated A$54 million over four years in the May…

The Conversation

Voluntary assisted dying laws have been passed in the ACT. Here’s what happens next

The Australian Capital Territory parliament passed its voluntary assisted dying law yesterday by 20 to five.

The Conversation

Bad weather, hills and the dark deter cyclists, particularly women. So what can we do about it?

The gender gap in urban cycling worldwide is staggering. Most cyclists are young to middle-aged men – hence phenomena such as “lycra cyclists” or “mamils”.

The Conversation

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The Conversation

Fresh water and key conditions for life appeared on Earth half a billion years earlier than we thought

We need two ingredients for life to start on a planet: dry land and (fresh) water. Strictly, the water doesn’t have to be fresh, but fresh water can only occur on dry land.

The Conversation

Australia’s ‘learning by doing’ approach to managing large mines is failing the environment

High-profile legal disputes, such as the current case between coal giant Adani and the Queensland government, show Australia’s approach to managing large mining projects is flawed.

The Conversation

What’s that in my nest? How the evolutionary arms race between cuckoos and hosts creates new species

How do new species arise? And why are there so many of them? One possible reason is the arms race between animals such as predators and parasites, and the victims they exploit.

The Conversation

Thieves, needlewomen, Aboriginal warriors and a ten-year-old boy: the free people transported as convicts to Van Diemen’s Land

Emma Cotton (or Cotterell) sailed into Sydney harbour on the Rubicon in 1833 as a free immigrant. A 32-year-old woman of independent means, she took on needlework in the colony. Emma’s genteel life unravelled four years later when she appeared before a Sydney court charged with stealing a bundle of…

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The Conversation

Buried kelp: seaweed carried to the deep sea stores more carbon than we thought

Deep in the ocean lies the world’s largest active carbon reservoir, which plays a pivotal role in buffering our planet’s climate. Of the roughly 10 billion tonnes carbon dioxide we emit each year, about 3 billion tonnes are taken up and stored in the oceans – and largely by plants.

The Conversation

Heavy water: how melting ice sheets and pumped groundwater can lower local sea levels – and boost them elsewhere

Imagine you’re standing near the edge of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, gazing out over the ocean, when the ice near you starts to melt very rapidly. A surge of meltwater flows into the ocean. Surprisingly, you watch the sea level fall – not rise.

The Conversation

What OpenAI’s deal with News Corp means for journalism (and for you)

OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, and News Corp, the international media conglomerate, have signed a deal that will let OpenAI use and learn from News Corp’s content.

The Conversation

Why knock down all public housing towers when retrofit can sometimes be better?

The Victorian government is planning Australia’s largest urban renewal project. The plan is to knock down and rebuild 44 large public housing towers in Melbourne. The government says these towers, built in the 1960s and ’70s, are no longer fit for purpose and will cost more to maintain and upgrade…

The Conversation

A rare find in ancient Timorese mud may rewrite the history of human settlement in Australasia

Humans arrived in Australia at least 65,000 years ago, according to archaeological evidence. These pioneers were part of an early wave of people travelling eastwards from Africa, through Eurasia, and ultimately into Australia and New Guinea.

The Conversation

Diddy is just the latest in a long line of musical abusers. How should fans respond?

The perennial question of what to do with musicians and their work when they are found to have been abusive has arisen again this week, as distressing video footage of rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting his then girlfriend Cassandra Ventura in a hotel in 2016 was released by CNN.

The Conversation

People with dementia aren’t currently eligible for voluntary assisted dying. Should they be?

Dementia is the second leading cause of death for Australians aged over 65. More than 421,000 Australians currently live with dementia and this figure is expected to almost double in the next 30 years.

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