If you visit the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) exhibition, now at the Queensland Museum, you’ll see the recreation of a moment when the scientist who saw the first results indicating discovery of the Higgs boson laments she can’t yet tell anyone. It’s a transitory problem for her, lasting as long as it takes for the...

This paper surveys the debates about the relevance of the social sciences, and how to understand and better communicate their various types of impact.

Over a number of years, ASMR has observed, with deep concern, the erosion of Australia’s health and medical research workforce. A large proportion of this workforce is supported by the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the peak funding body for Australian health and medical research. However, five years of static investment into the...

Gas industry funding and direct involvement in research committees of GISERA, the research body that conducts research on social and environmental impacts of CSG, is potentially compromising the scientific independence of CSIRO. The five main Queensland gas companies provide the lion’s share of funding to the Gas Industry Social and Environmental Research Alliance (GISERA) –...

Poking at layabout academics for ‘wasting’ tax dollars on seemingly frivolous projects reminds me of nothing more than the schoolyard bully who secretly knows he peaked in year 9. Today, the Tele flattered me by holding up one of my own projects for ridicule, ironically illustrating their point that rusted-on ideology, and patronage provide the...