Steampunk is a burgeoning subculture. Part Victorian gothic, part sci-fi fantasy, it’s growing in popularity and ambition. At first glance, Steampunk represents an alternative technological vision of the future—one powered by steam rather than modern forms of energy. But at its heart, it’s not really about technology at all, it’s a playful challenge to our...

The humble light-bulb has now entered the ‘smart’ technology zone. Australian inventor Phil Bosua has created a screw-in LED bulb that’s also a Wi-Fi enabled computer. His device could do for lighting what the smart-phone did for the mobile. And he’s not alone in his efforts to reinvent and re-interpret artificial illumination. Welcome to the...

The number of maths major enrolments in Australian universities fell by about 15 per cent in the past decade, while at the same time the demand for mathematicians increased by 52 per cent. The proportion of year 12 students taking physics, chemistry and biology fell by about a third in the past 10 years, and...

Three very different perspectives on the evolution of the city. We look at the history of four ‘future’ cities; we examine the role of the suburb in the 21st century; and we hear from architect Joyce Hsiang, the co-creator of the incredibly ambitious City of 7 Billion Project. Guests Daniel Brook Journalist and author of...

It's one of the great unseen drivers of our world -- silently altering and shaping our social lives, the way we communicate, our access to information, our economies, our culture, the very future itself. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you—the algorithm! OK, It’s not as dramatic as all that, but if we’d said 'We’re doing...