Fifty years ago, the very notion of adolescence, teenagers and youth was only starting to be recognised as a ‘life stage’, with little appreciation of the significance of health issues affecting the young at this time. Even 30 years ago, if you had asked people to describe which life stage they thought was the healthiest, many would unthinkingly have said ‘adolescence’
We are living in the future. No, seriously ... we are, it is true! What was once mere ideas introduced to us through the minds of science-fiction writers has now materialised in the world around us
Every decade, Australian astronomers get together to create a plan for our community. This is an exercise we are currently undertaking for release in 2015. Here I look at how astronomy will help Australia fulfil its aspirations towards a strong, prosperous and secure future
On the evening of 14 April 1912, the Reverend Ernest Carter conducted a religious service aboard a steamship headed for New York. Marion Wright of Somerset, England, who was on her way to get married, sang the final hymn. It was John Henry Newman’s ‘The Pillar of the Cloud’
Some time back, I was reading the death notices in The Age, as one does, of course, when one retires and returns to Melbourne! One death notice intrigued me
Two thousand and twenty has been a surprising and challenging year for many young people, with the unimaginable emergence of a global pandemic and dramatic changes to our day-to-day lives. In the background, before the coronavirus was even contemplating jumping from bats to humans, there had been a global awakening that climate change is real and dangerous, especially among the young populations of the world
Historically, psychology has focused almost exclusively on identifying and alleviating problems. We have done a fantastic job of helping people overcome and deal with stress and depression and anxiety and more but ... is that really all we want for life? For too long, we have assumed that an absence of problems is as good as it gets, but is it? If you want more than just an ‘OK’ life, then keep reading
This chapter proffers a new and exciting approach to managing NCDs that is based on the principles of positive psychology ... it should not be considered as being mutually exclusive of the more traditional approaches, which clearly have an important role to play
What is matter? What is energy? What holds matter together? How do the various constituents of the universe interact at the most basic level? Where does the Earth sit in relation to the rest of the universe? Can we predict the movements of the stars?
For at least a couple of centuries the news media business was relatively simple. Journalists and editors produced content that people wanted to read and view, and distributed it thanks to privileged access to printing presses and broadcasting licences. The publishers or broadcasters were then able to sell the audience to advertisers. Money was made, and some of it was reinvested in the journalism. Simple, and mostly good