Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darius von Guttner Sporzynski, Researcher, Historian, Australian Catholic University

In a world where information flows freely, it’s easy to forget that, for centuries, knowledge was much harder to come by. Imagine living in a time when the internet didn’t exist, books were scarce, libraries were few, and most people couldn’t even read.

This was the world of Isidore of Seville, a man dedicated to gathering and sharing knowledge to be passed down for generations.

Thanks to his work, he was named the patron saint of the internet in 1997 by Pope John Paul II, recognising his impact on knowledge and communication.

Importantly, understanding Isidore’s life and work also helps us navigate the murky online world of lies – and find information we can trust.

Isidore’s world and the ‘Dark Ages’

Isidore was a bishop and scholar who lived in Seville in what is now Spain during a time we often call the “Dark Ages”, roughly 500–1000 AD. After the fall of the Roman Empire, much of Europe was in chaos – as if the lights had been turned off.

Political instability, war and disease disrupted learning and culture. Many people were illiterate, and many classical works from ancient Greece and Rome risked being lost forever.

In this world of limited access to learning, Isidore stood out. He wanted to make knowledge more accessible, especially to Christians.

He saw preserving and sharing information as essential to keeping civilisation alive and thriving. To do this, he wrote his most famous work, Etymologiae, which became a go-to book for centuries.

What was Etymologiae?

Think of Etymologiae as one of the first encyclopedias. An encyclopedia is a book that collects information on many topics, often arranged alphabetically, making it easy to find answers.

Isidore’s work covered everything from language, science and geography to theology, the study of God. His goal was to make ancient knowledge easier to find and understand. He wanted to save the best ideas of the past and bring them into his present time.

In Etymologiae, he drew from well-known classical authors such as Aristotle, Cicero and Pliny, alongside Christian writers such as Augustine and Jerome. This book became essential for medieval students and scholars because it saved so much knowledge from being lost.

Later, Isidore’s work was widely used in schools across Europe and helped many people learn about topics they might otherwise never know about. It laid a foundation for preserving ancient ideas through the Middle Ages and beyond.

The power of language in Isidore’s work

For Isidore, words were powerful. He argued that understanding the origin, or etymology, of words gave people insight into the true meaning of things. This focus on language is why he called his book Etymologiae. He saw language as a bridge that connected people to knowledge.

But Isidore went beyond just defining words. He also explained concepts from nature, science and history, making sure people had a well-rounded understanding of the world.

In a time when superstitions and beliefs in supernatural forces often influenced people’s view of natural events, Isidore promoted a rational approach. He wanted people to know the facts about their world.

Isidore’s role in education and the church

Isidore wasn’t just a writer.

As a senior leader in the Christian Church, he played an important role in both religion and education. He set up “cathedral schools” for training future priests. These schools would later inspire the first European universities, where students could study a wide range of subjects.

For Isidore education was essential for everyone, not just the church’s leaders.

By promoting the seven “liberal arts” – subjects such as grammar, logic, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music – he helped create a model for what would eventually become medieval university education. His ideas about learning spread across Europe, inspiring others to value education as a path to both knowledge and faith.

The patron saint of the internet

So, how did Isidore, who lived 1,400 years ago, become the patron saint of the internet? His Etymologiae was, in many ways, the internet of his time – a collection of facts and explanations from various sources.

Just as the internet today connects us to all kinds of information, Isidore’s work aimed to make learning easier for people of his era.

In naming him the patron saint of the internet, the Catholic Church recognised Isidore’s efforts to collect, organise, and share knowledge. Like the internet, Etymologiae allowed ideas to flow across generations, even when people had limited access to books or formal education.

Isidore’s lasting legacy

Isidore’s influence didn’t end with his life. His ideas spread across Europe, especially during the Carolingian Renaissance of the eighth and ninth centuries – a time when scholars worked to revive learning and culture. Etymologiae became a popular text in monasteries and cathedral schools.

In later centuries, scholars relied on his work to understand classical literature, science and theology.

Today, Isidore’s dedication to knowledge serves as a reminder of the importance of preserving and sharing reliable information.

Just as Isidore saw his work as a way to preserve knowledge, we now live in an age of easy access to information. But not all of it is true.

He believed learning should guide us toward wise choices and serve a greater good.

Darius von Guttner Sporzynski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Isidore of Seville: the patron saint of the internet who shaped knowledge for generations – https://theconversation.com/isidore-of-seville-the-patron-saint-of-the-internet-who-shaped-knowledge-for-generations-236792

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Swee-Hoon Chuah, Professor of Behavioural Economics, Tasmanian Behavioural Lab, University of Tasmania

Chances are that the end of the year has made you assess some of your 2024 New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps you, like us, bought a home spin bike or rowing machine in January. Most likely by March, you realised you’ve used it a lot less than you planned. And very probably by June, it has disappeared under a pile of clothes.

You are not alone. A recent Gallup survey shows seven out of ten adults plan to set goals for the next year. According to statista, the most common ones are health goals (exercise and diet) followed by saving money. This is why exercise equipment sales peak in January.

But research shows a quarter of us fail to stick to our New Year resolutions after just one week and more than half within six months. At the end of two years, only 20% succeed.

So why do we keep making resolutions – often accompanied by considerable expense – even though we keep breaking them, and what can we do to persevere? How can you redeem your spin bike? Recent insights from behavioural science hold some answers.

Why we try, and why we fail

You bought a spin bike because you are human.

Other animals do not exercise. Many of them are goal-oriented (they chase or flee), but only humans have the ability to pursue self-improvement to better achieve goals in the future. Exercise is an example of this.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow famously put self-actualisation – fulfilling your potential – at the top of the hierarchy of human needs. You want to be the fittest version of yourself you can be. It’s only natural.

The problem is that regular exercise involves willpower and discipline beyond most of us. Especially when faced with the choice between comfy couch and spin bike. Your ambition may be willing, but your flesh is weak. Exercise feels hard.

This is because our brains evolved in the Stone Age when it made survival sense to loaf about whenever the opportunity arose. With limited food, our ancestors needed to conserve energy for the next chase or flight.

This is true for other vices too, such as binge eating or gorging on sugary foods. But these things are often counterproductive in the modern world where we consume a lot more energy than we normally expend.

Self-regulation

But your bike is also a beacon of hope. Even though our psychology is often at odds with modernity, we have a trump card: the ability to self-regulate. At our best, we can override daily temptations and move towards longer-term goals.

Psychological research has identified two key ingredients to this (in addition to setting goals): monitoring your behaviour for any breaches, and correcting them whenever detected.

You’ve scored two out of three so far: you made the commitment to the bike and you noticed you failed to live up to it. Now it’s time to work on the correction.

Nudge yourself

Zen masters turn weakness into strength. You too can use the human psychological failings from our evolution to your advantage. This is known as self-nudging: changing your own choices to make your best decisions more likely.

An example is the “sunk cost fallacy”, our tendency to base decisions on irrecoverable past expenses.

Here is where the spin bike makes sense: having incurred the expense, you might have a greater motivation to go on your own new bike than to go to the gym. Membership can easily be cancelled, but the bike has been bought.

You could also go wholesale and use the very tools governmental Behavioural Insights Units use, on yourself. For example, policymakers use the EAST framework to make our desired behaviours easy, attractive, social and timely for us.

The spin bike at home is easy to use compared with changing into your fanciest lululemons, packing your gear, driving to the gym and parking your car.

It is also timely. You can use the home spin bike whenever it suits you without needing to queue for lockers, equipment and showers.

Why not make it attractive too? Many home exercisers use a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. In our house, the spin bike is permanently parked in front of the widescreen TV. Behavioural scientists call this temptation bundling.

You can also make your spin bike experience social. This is the Peloton phenomenon: instructors, leader boards and interactions with the exercise community.

Turn over a new leaf

So should you try again in 2025? Yes.

The new year is a natural opportunity for self-improvement due to the fresh start effect. Psychologist found events that mark the passage of time (birthdays, holidays, new years) allow people to mentally consign their failures to the past and start again with a clean slate. It’s an uncanny tactic and it works.

The lesson is that the end of the year provides a great opportunity to ring in much-needed changes. But that’s not enough. You also need some simple strategies to help you stick to them.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why your spin bike has become a clothes rack – and what you can do about it, according to behavioural science – https://theconversation.com/why-your-spin-bike-has-become-a-clothes-rack-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-according-to-behavioural-science-245154

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Fuller, Clinical Trials Director, Department of Endocrinology, RPA Hospital, University of Sydney

As we enter a new year armed with resolutions to improve our lives, there’s a good chance we’ll also be carrying something less helpful: extra kilos. At least half a kilogram, to be precise.

“Weight creep” doesn’t have to be inevitable. Here’s what’s behind this sneaky annual occurrence and some practical steps to prevent it.

Small gains add up

Adults tend to gain weight progressively as they age and typically gain an average of 0.5 to 1kg every year.

While this doesn’t seem like much each year, it amounts to 5kg over a decade. The slow-but-steady nature of weight creep is why many of us won’t notice the extra weight gained until we’re in our fifties.

Why do we gain weight?

Subtle, gradual lifestyle shifts as we progress through life and age-related biological changes cause us to gain weight. Our:

• activity levels decline. Longer work hours and family commitments can see us become more sedentary and have less time for exercise, which means we burn fewer calories

• diets worsen. With frenetic work and family schedules, we sometimes turn to pre-packaged and fast foods. These processed and discretionary foods are loaded with hidden sugars, salts and unhealthy fats. A better financial position later in life can also result in more dining out, which is associated with a higher total energy intake

• sleep decreases. Busy lives and screen use can mean we don’t get enough sleep. This disturbs our body’s energy balance, increasing our feelings of hunger, triggering cravings and decreasing our energy

• stress increases. Financial, relationship and work-related stress increases our body’s production of cortisol, triggering food cravings and promoting fat storage

• metabolism slows. Around the age of 40, our muscle mass naturally declines, and our body fat starts increasing. Muscle mass helps determine our metabolic rate, so when our muscle mass decreases, our bodies start to burn fewer calories at rest.

We also tend to gain a small amount of weight during festive periods – times filled with calorie-rich foods and drinks, when exercise and sleep are often overlooked. One study of Australian adults found participants gained 0.5 kilograms on average over the Christmas/New Year period and an average of 0.25 kilograms around Easter.

Why we need to prevent weight creep

It’s important to prevent weight creep for two key reasons:

1. Weight creep resets our body’s set point

Set-point theory suggests we each have a predetermined weight or set point. Our body works to keep our weight around this set point, adjusting our biological systems to regulate how much we eat, how we store fat and expend energy.

When we gain weight, our set point resets to the new, higher weight. Our body adapts to protect this new weight, making it challenging to lose the weight we’ve gained.

But it’s also possible to lower your set point if you lose weight gradually and with an interval weight loss approach. Specifically, losing weight in small manageable chunks you can sustain – periods of weight loss, followed by periods of weight maintenance, and so on, until you achieve your goal weight.

2. Weight creep can lead to obesity and health issues

Undetected and unmanaged weight creep can result in obesity which can increase our risk of heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and several types of cancers (including breast, colorectal, oesophageal, kidney, gallbladder, uterine, pancreatic and liver).

A large study examined the link between weight gain from early to middle adulthood and health outcomes later in life, following people for around 15 years. It found those who gained 2.5 to 10kg over this period had an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, strokes, obesity-related cancer and death compared to participants who had maintained a stable weight.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take to build lasting habits that will make weight creep a thing of the past.

7 practical steps to prevent weight creep

1. Eat from big to small

Aim to consume most of your food earlier in the day and taper your meal sizes to ensure dinner is the smallest meal you eat.

A low-calorie or small breakfast leads to increased feelings of hunger, specifically appetite for sweets, across the course of the day.

We burn the calories from a meal 2.5 times more efficiently in the morning than in the evening.
So emphasising breakfast over dinner is also good for weight management.

2. Use chopsticks, a teaspoon or an oyster fork

Sit at the table for dinner and use different utensils to encourage eating more slowly.

This gives your brain time to recognise and adapt to signals from your stomach telling you you’re full.

3. Eat the full rainbow

Fill your plate with vegetables and fruits of different colours first to support eating a high-fibre, nutrient-dense diet that will keep you feeling full and satisfied.

Meals also need to be balanced and include a source of protein, wholegrain carbohydrates and healthy fat to meet our dietary needs – for example, eggs on wholegrain toast with avocado.

4. Reach for nature first

Retrain your brain to rely on nature’s treats – fresh vegetables, fruit, honey, nuts and seeds. In their natural state, these foods release the same pleasure response in the brain as ultra-processed and fast foods, helping you avoid unnecessary calories, sugar, salt and unhealthy fats.

5. Choose to move

Look for ways to incorporate incidental activity into your daily routine – such as taking the stairs instead of the lift – and boost your exercise by challenging yourself to try a new activity.

Just be sure to include variety, as doing the same activities every day often results in boredom and avoidance.

6. Prioritise sleep

Set yourself a goal of getting a minimum of seven hours of uninterrupted sleep each night, and help yourself achieve it by avoiding screens for an hour or two before bed.

7. Weigh yourself regularly

Getting into the habit of weighing yourself weekly is a guaranteed way to help avoid the kilos creeping up on us. Aim to weigh yourself on the same day, at the same time and in the same environment each week and use the best quality scales you can afford.

At the Boden Group, Charles Perkins Centre, we are studying the science of obesity and running clinical trials for weight loss. You can register here to express your interest.

A/Prof Nick Fuller works for the University of Sydney and RPA Hospital and has received external funding for projects relating to the treatment of overweight and obesity. He is the author and founder of the Interval Weight Loss program, and the author of Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids with Penguin Books.

– ref. Most adults will gain half a kilo this year – and every year. Here’s how to stop ‘weight creep’ – https://theconversation.com/most-adults-will-gain-half-a-kilo-this-year-and-every-year-heres-how-to-stop-weight-creep-244186

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Euan Ritchie, Professor in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, School of Life & Environmental Sciences, Deakin University

Parasite, zombie, leech – these words are often used to describe people in unkind ways. Many of us recoil when ticks, tapeworms, fleas, head lice or bed bugs are even mentioned. Coming across such unwelcome guests – in our hair, on our skin or in our beds – can be a real nightmare.

Some parasites cause horrific deformities and diseases, maiming and killing millions of people and wildlife. Others may help boost immunity or provide the basis of food chains.

Parasites are often demonised and misunderstood. But the more we study these oddities and wonders of evolution, the more we appreciate their vital roles in ecosystems and our complex relationships with them. They’re essential to life on Earth.

As an ecologist with a focus on wildlife and conservation, I wrote this article to share some of my fascination for parasites and the importance of their extraordinary lives.

What is a parasite?

Parasites rely on living organisms for food, to grow and to reproduce.

They can either live on the outside (ectoparasites) or inside (endoparasites) of their hosts. Far from being invited dinner guests, parasites typically turn up of their own accord and feed at the host’s expense, consuming part or all of them.

Parasites can live within their host (or hosts) for short or extended periods – in some cases many years – going largely unnoticed. For instance, one man lived with a tapeworm in his brain for more than four years until the headaches and strange smells become too much to bear. In other cases, parasites can kill their host.

Perhaps the most gruesome type of parasite, parasitoids, kill their hosts in order to reproduce. The disturbing chest-bursting scene from the 1979 movie Alien is a truly visceral sci-fi example of a parasitoid.

In real life, examples include spider wasps that first immobilise their spider prey, lay an egg on them, and bury them. Then when the egg hatches, the wasp larvae devour the incapacitated spider. That is, of course, if another animal such as a “bin chicken (Sacred Ibis)” or insect doesn’t intervene.

Parasites are typically much smaller than their hosts. Many are furnished with equipment for latching on and remaining attached, including hooks, suckers and “teeth”.

Endoparasites such as tapeworms are often flat, allowing them to live within the tight spaces inside other organisms. The flatworm Diplozoon paradoxum that lives in gills of some fish must conjoin with another to reach adulthood and reproduce. Once fused, they form a permanent, lifelong bond and mate with each other over many years.

As much as 40% of all animal species may be parasites, and this mode of life might have evolved more than 200 times in the animal kingdom. But parasitism is not solely confined to animals. Many plants, fungi, protists, bacteria and viruses are parasites too.

Parasite powers

The leech scene in the iconic 1986 movie Stand By Me comes back to me every time I walk through a damp forest. The idea of providing a blood meal for another species sparks fear in many people. But leeches may also come to our aid, either by helping to reduce pooling of blood or reestablishing blood flow to areas post-surgery. Their anaesthetic saliva also has anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant properties, which are advantageous for medical procedures.

As the blood of leeches contains DNA from their past meals, conservation scientists can use them to search for rare and cryptic wildlife.

One of the world’s most widespread parasites is Toxoplasma gondii. Some estimates suggest as many as one in three people are affected. This parasite’s main host is cats, large and small species. House cats are frequently infected, spreading this parasite through their faeces.

While many infected people appear to have no symptoms, serious effects can include organ damage, complications with pregnancy or abortion, erratic risk-taking behaviour, mental conditions, and more traffic accidents than unaffected people.

There are potential “benefits” too. Research suggests Toxoplasma infection, which can increase confidence and risk-taking, may even be linked with increased entrepreneurial and business-related activities. Indeed, this same study found that nations with higher rates of toxoplasmosis had a lower proportion of individuals concerned about failure related to new business ventures.

Toxoplasma gondii manipulates its host to increase transmission and continue its life cycle. Infected rodents may become unwitting participants in a game of cat-and-mouse-and-parasite in which they lose their fear of cats and instead become attracted to them.

Rather than manipulating host behaviour, as in the case of fungi that turn ants into zombies, some parasites cause body malformations. This makes hosts more likely to become prey for subsequent hosts and hence to continue the parasite’s life cycle. One of the most striking examples is a trematode (flatworms often known as flukes) that causes missing legs, extra legs or deformed legs in frogs and other amphibians. Extra legs, in some cases several, serve no function and simply impede movement, making it harder to escape predators.

Parasites are fundamental to ecosystems and require conservation

Parasites are a big part of life on Earth. A study on the Californian coast found the sheer mass of parasites exceeded that of top predators. In particular, the biomass of trematodes was greater than that of birds, fish, burrowing shrimps and polychaetes (marine worms).

Evidence suggests ecosystems rich in parasites are healthier than those with fewer parasites. But there is increasing concern for the survival of these species amid a growing extinction crisis. So a global plan for parasite conservation was proposed in 2020, with priorities including increased data collection and genetic analysis, making conservation assessments, and raising public awareness.

Sadly, parasites can inflict great pain, meat allergies, suffering, and a heavy death toll. Malaria, schistosomiasis (sometimes referred to as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever), and sleeping sickness are just a few examples.

But they also shape our world in profound ways, have crucial ecological roles, and paradoxically, may in some cases help keep us healthier. Though it may be confronting to admit, we need parasites as much as they need us.

Euan Ritchie is a councillor within the Biodiversity Council, a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and the Australian Mammal Society, and President of the Australian Mammal Society.

– ref. Mind-bending, body-snatching, blood-sucking: parasites are bizarre yet vital for life on Earth – https://theconversation.com/mind-bending-body-snatching-blood-sucking-parasites-are-bizarre-yet-vital-for-life-on-earth-240547

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rod McNaughton, Professor of Entrepreneurship, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Startups have always been at the forefront of innovation. But factors such as artificial intelligence (AI), sustainability and decentralisation are set to reshape industries in 2025.

Businesses are defined as startups when they are in the initial stages of development. They are characterised by the potential for rapid growth and external funding. And they are also sensitive to economic shifts and investment uncertainty.

For Australia and New Zealand, startups play an important role in overcoming geographic and market constraints. They can also help address both countries’ persistent productivity challenges.

Industry body Startup Genome estimates Sydney’s startup ecosystem was worth US$72 billion in 2024 with more than 3,000 startups. New Zealand’s ecosystem is valued at $9 billion across 2,400 startups.

Both Australia and New Zealand have weathered global challenges such as recent slowdowns in investment activity when startups struggled to secure funding.

But venture investments in both countries recovered well in 2024 compared to elsewhere. And the outlook for 2025 is cautiously optimistic.

Global trends in 2025

As global trends reshape industries, local startups could take the lead. Here are eight key trends set to define their path in 2025.

Generative AI: driving creativity and efficiency

Generative AI – a type of artificial intelligence technology that can produce text, images and audio – helps firms to automate complex tasks, create personalised user experiences and lower costs.

The challenge will be to balance rapid innovation with ethical considerations around data privacy, bias and environmental impact.

Businesses that demonstrate transparency and accountability are more likely to stand out in an increasingly competitive field.

Sustainability: a competitive advantage

Sustainability has evolved from a compliance requirement to a strategic benefit.

Globally, carbon capture and green technology are attracting record investments. Sustainability drives some of the most innovative solutions in Australia and New Zealand, where climate resilience is a critical issue.

The rise of sustainable startups aligns with growing consumer expectations and government incentives.

Health tech: the personalisation revolution

Health tech is undergoing a profound shift, moving from reactive care to proactive, personalised solutions.

In 2025, personalisation will continue to influence healthcare. Startups using AI and data analytics to improve outcomes and accessibility are likely to see growth.

Remote work evolution

The shift to remote and hybrid work has reshaped business operations worldwide. This is particularly the case in the aftermath of the global pandemic.

Tools that enhance productivity and enable startups and big companies alike to build global teams will help businesses access talent across borders.

Decentralisation: blockchain beyond cryptocurrency

Blockchain technology is moving beyond its roots in cryptocurrency and is now integral to transparency, efficiency and data security.

Decentralised applications, which run on blockchain technology and rely on peer-to-peer networks, are changing how businesses do things in areas like finance, healthcare and entertainment.

Space tech: scaling the final frontier

Space technology is no longer the exclusive domain of government agencies. Startups such as New Zealand’s Rocket Lab are increasing access to space.

Australian company Fleet Space Technologies is deploying nanosatellites to improve connectivity in remote industries like mining and agriculture.

Diversity in funding and leadership

Globally, funding disparities remain a challenge for underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship, including women, Indigenous peoples and minority communities.

Startups led by these groups often receive a fraction of the funding allocated to their counterparts, limiting their ability to scale and compete.

Female-led startups, for example, attract less than 3% of venture capital. Indigenous and minority entrepreneurs frequently face unique barriers such as limited access to networks and culturally tailored support.

Programs designed to address these inequities can play an transformative role. These initiatives include those aimed at women founders, offering mentorship, funding and business development resources. Similar programs for cultural groups providing funding and culturally aligned advisory services are also important.

In 2025, systemic barriers will continue to attract attention, with increasing demands for startups to be more diverse and inclusive.

Alternative financing models

In the face of a continuing economic downturn, startups will likely continue to explore alternative financing models to fund growth without sacrificing significant equity.

Traditional venture capital often leaves gaps, especially for early-stage ventures or those in underserved sectors.

Bootstrapping, where founders self-fund and grow sustainably, continues to be a cornerstone for many entrepreneurs. However, crowdfunding platforms are evolving rapidly. Other options allow startups to engage directly with their communities and raise significant capital while building customer loyalty.

In 2025, new fintech developments and AI-driven platforms could streamline access to grants, loans and investment opportunities, making funding faster and more accessible.

These changes are set to expand the range of options for founders, reducing reliance on traditional venture capital and creating a more inclusive and dynamic funding ecosystem.

Startups as catalysts for change

Startups will continue to experience greater than usual uncertainty and must navigate the complexities of 2025, tackling global challenges with local ingenuity.

They will continue to reshape industries and address critical economic and environmental issues, harnessing generative AI, advancing green technologies and innovating financing models.

However, to succeed, startups must prioritise inclusivity and support innovative funding approaches to ensure broad-based participation in technology-driven growth.

Rod McNaughton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The multi-billion dollar startup sector is bouncing back – 8 big trends will shape 2025 – https://theconversation.com/the-multi-billion-dollar-startup-sector-is-bouncing-back-8-big-trends-will-shape-2025-245653

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Francisco Perales, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland

Australian women are better educated than men but still face poorer job prospects and lower incomes.

We see this in Australia’s stubbornly persistent gender pay gap – estimated at nearly 22%.

Our research shows how having children plays a significant part establishing and maintaining these inequalities.

What we studied

We looked at how household earnings in Australia have changed over the past two decades. We also examined the degree of women’s economic dependence on their partners, especially after childbirth.

To do this, we modelled longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey.

From this large, nationally representative dataset we looked at the household “breadwinning arrangements” of 8,570 heterosexual Australian couples.

We differentiated between male-breadwinning households (where women contributed less than 40% of labour income), equal-earnings households (women contributed 40% to 60%) and female-breadwinning households (women contributed more than 60%).

We then tracked the share of couples in each of these household categories every year between 2001 and 2019 (the most recent survey year available).

For the 1,379 couples who had their first child during the 20-year study period, we compared partners’ income contributions to the household in each of the ten years before becoming parents and the ten years after.

This analysis revealed the impact parenthood has on traditional earning roles.

What we found

Household breadwinning arrangements are slowly moving towards gender parity, according to our initial findings. This is shown by a growth in equal earnings households and fall in households where men contributed the most.

However, households where men earn the most still dominate. In 2019, they accounted for 54% of Australian households – compared to 29% of those where earnings were equal and 17% where women were the biggest contributors.

Our research found the transition to parenthood is a key cause of this gender imbalance. Having a child increased the likelihood couples relied on the male partners’ income and reduced the chance of equal-earnings arrangements.

For example, the percentage of equal-earnings households dropped from 45% in the year before parenthood to 19% two years after. In contrast, male-breadwinning households accounted for 40% of all households in the year before parenthood, but a much larger 71% two years after.

Importantly, we found little evidence of a return to pre-parenthood arrangements a decade after couples had their first child.

By that point, 56% of households relied on the man’s earnings, 20% on the woman’s and 24% contributed equally. These results underscore the long-lasting impacts parenthood has on women’s financial and economic independence.

Our findings mirror claims from decades of feminist scholarship showing couples often revert to traditional gender roles when they become parents. This is evident in both attitudes and behaviours.

Such shifts are motivated by personal beliefs about who should look after the children and by broader workplace and government policies. This might include a lack of workplace flexibility or expensive child care discouraging mothers from taking on paid employment.

Breaking the cycle

The federal government last year announced a plan to end gender inequality, including violence against women, the unequal sharing of domestic and care work and the under-representation of women in leadership. Central to this was promoting women’s economic security and independence.

Our research shows achieving this goal requires careful consideration of how parenthood affects households’ financial arrangements. It reveals that, under current policies, childbirth marks the start of a long period of economic dependence and insecurity for Australian women.

Fairer paternity leave schemes, tax incentives for two income households and tougher legislation protecting working mothers against discrimination would help ensure women’s job prospects do not worsen upon motherhood.

Becoming parents represents a cherished and transformative event for many couples. But it doesn’t have to see a deterioration in women’s employment and finances.

Janeen Baxter receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Centre of Excellence grant (CE200100025) and a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship (FL230100104). She is a member of the Council for the Committee for Economic Development in Australia.

Francisco Perales and Ruth Steinbring do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How having a baby makes it more likely Australian couples rely on the man’s income – https://theconversation.com/how-having-a-baby-makes-it-more-likely-australian-couples-rely-on-the-mans-income-238673

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Susan Hazel, Associate Professor, School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide

According to Britannica, “art” can be described as something “consciously created through an expression of skill or imagination” – whereas Wikipedia defines it more narrowly as a human activity. But are humans the only species that makes art?

If we take art to be something that is beautiful and consciously created – and animals consciously create things that look like art – shouldn’t we accept these productions as art, too? As Edgar Degas put it, “art is not what you see, but what you make others see”. Indeed, we see beautiful creations all across the animal kingdom.

Some of these works, such as the bowerbird’s nest, are defined in the eyes of their animal beholders. Others have a largely functional purpose, such as mating or feeding, yet manifest in patterns and/or colours that make them beautiful to behold.

On that note, here are some of our favourite animal “artworks”.

Molluscs

Walking on the beach, you can’t help but notice the beautiful patterns on seashells scattered across the sand.

Molluscs such as sea and land snails have delicate bodies, so they need protection. They create their shells by layering a calcium carbonate secretion that hardens once it leaves their bodies.

On these spiral shells, you will find all manner of stripes, swirls and oblique lines that resemble geometric abstraction in art.

Pufferfish

In 1995, some divers off the coast of Japan noticed intricate and beautiful circular patterns etched into the sea floor. These “underwater crop circles” remained a mystery for more than a decade. In 2011, it was finally discovered a pufferfish – in this case the white-spotted pufferfish (Torquigener albomaculosus) – was responsible.

Male pufferfish spend several days creating these circles by repeatedly swimming in and out while digging into the sand with their fins. The circles themselves have two uses. They help attract a mate – wherein the males that make the most beautiful circles are more likely to have success – while the centre of the circle functions as a nest for eggs.

Some of these circles have even been found off the coast of Western Australia.

Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds are found across Australia and Papua New Guinea. While it’s unclear what their nests looked like before the plastic era, today they are often dominated by blue plastic.

The male birds scavenge and steal all things blue to take back to their nest, where the objects are scattered around two walls of carefully formed sticks bending towards each other.

Beauty is definitely in the eyes of the beholder, as researchers have found these nest decorations are linked to mating success for male bowerbirds.

Other bird nests

Apart from the bowerbird’s uniquely bedazzled nests, a range of other bird species make nests that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Hummingbirds, for instance, will often make nests with contrasting green and white moss and lichen, thought to be added for camouflage.

Meanwhile, male weaver birds build intricately woven nests to attract potential mates. These are made using twigs or plant material (whichever is readily available) and can contain more than 1,000 strands of grass.

Whales

A humpback whale can eat up to one tonne of fish in a day. This includes shoaling fish such as herring and mackerel. Humans catch large amounts of these fish using nets. But how do whales catch them?

The answer is something called bubble-net feeding. This cooperative activity requires two or more whales which dive deep below schools of fish and blow bubbles through their blowholes to stun and trap the fish closer to the surface. As one whale blows the bubbles, the other/s follow the fish to the surface in spiral patterns to keep them trapped.

The patterns made in this process are stunning. One photo of bubble-net feeding by humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) even won the 2024 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition.

Sticklebacks

Great art is sometimes made with innovative materials.

The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a small fresh-water fish that develops a bright red throat during breeding season. But that’s not enough to attract a mate, so it also creates an underwater nest made from weeds held together by spiggin, a secretion that comes from the kidneys.

The stickleback’s spiggin is highly adhesive and sticks the weeds together, even in water. As many teenage boys know, you can’t leave the house without hair gel.

But the displays don’t stop there. Once the nest is ready, the male will try and lure females to it through a rather erratic courtship dance.

Beavers

While many artists make sculpture from natural materials such as stones or wood, beavers are arguably the experts at this.

Beavers make dams using trees they fell using their large front teeth, as well as other branches, mud and stone. These dams change the flow of streams, converting them into slow-moving lakes that provide the beavers protection from land-based predators.

Beyond helping themselves, the new lakes also create an ecosystem for lots of other animals, and can even help reduce flooding in human habitats.

Whether you agree animals make “art” or not, you can’t deny they make plenty of beautiful and functional works.

Susan Hazel is affiliated with the Dog & Cat Management Board of South Australia and RSPCA South Australia.

Jono Tuke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Can animals make ‘art’? These examples from nature suggest so – https://theconversation.com/can-animals-make-art-these-examples-from-nature-suggest-so-237126

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Lomb, Honorary Professor, Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland

In addition to the annual parade of star pictures or constellations passing above our heads each night, there are always exciting events to look out for in the sky. The year 2025 is no exception and has its fair share of such events.

Though the night sky is more spectacular from a dark country sky, you can see the events outlined here even if, like many others, you live in a light-polluted city. For most events you do not need a telescope or binoculars.

Here are some of the highlights.

March and September: eclipses of the Moon

During the early morning of Monday 8 September, the full Moon will move into the shadow of Earth and be totally eclipsed. The Moon will turn a red or coppery colour, because sunlight is bent or refracted by Earth’s atmosphere onto the Moon. The bent light is red, as we are looking at the reflection of sunrises and sunsets from around the globe.

Total eclipses of the Moon are more common than those of the Sun. They can be seen from all the regions on Earth where it is night.

Unlike eclipses of the Sun, lunar eclipses are safe to watch with the unaided eye. They are also safe to photograph. A tripod will help, as will a camera or phone able to take timed exposures.

The eclipse starts with Earth’s shadow gradually covering the Moon over about an hour. Similarly, after totality the shadow takes about an hour to leave the Moon.

Seen from Australia’s east coast, the total eclipse will last from from 3:30am to 4:53am on September 8. From New Zealand, this will be from 5:30am to moonset; from South Australia or the Northern Territory, 3:00am to 4:23am, and from Western Australia 1:30am to 2:53am.

Earlier in the year, on the evening of Friday March 14, people in Aotearoa New Zealand will be able to see a totally eclipsed Moon as it rises above the horizon just after sunset. Watchers in eastern Australia will also get a brief glimpse of a partially eclipsed Moon after moonrise, for 34 minutes from Sydney, 43 minutes from Brisbane and 16 minutes from Cairns.

March: Saturn’s ‘disappearing’ rings

Gazing at Saturn and its rings through a telescope is always a thrill, whether you are seeing them for the first or the hundredth time. However, in early 2025 the rings will seem to vanish as Earth passes through the plane of the rings.

This phenomenon occurs twice during Saturn’s 29-year path around the Sun, that is, at roughly 15-year intervals. Unfortunately, on March 24, the date when this will occur, the planet will be too close to the Sun in the sky for us to observe.

However, in the evenings until mid-February and in the morning from late March we will be able to see Saturn with quite narrow, tilted rings.

Note that a small telescope is needed to see Saturn with or without its rings. If you don’t have one yourself, you can go on a night tour at a public observatory like Sydney Observatory or an observing session with a local astronomical group, such as those at Melbourne Observatory with the Astronomical Society of Victoria.

May and December: meteor showers

The two main meteor showers of the year are the Eta Aquariids and the Geminids.

In 2025, the Eta Aquariids are best seen on the morning of Wednesday May 7, while the Geminids will be most visible on the mornings of Sunday December 14 and Monday December 15.

This year, viewing conditions for both meteor showers are favourable, in the sense that there will be no bright Moon in the sky during those mornings. To see them, look towards the north-east (Eta Aquariids) and north (Geminids) before dawn starts brightening the sky.

The darker the sky you can find, the better. Keep away from street lights or any other light.

January, April and August: planets

The five planets you can see with the naked eye – Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – move across the sky along a line called the ecliptic.

As the planets move, they sometimes appear to pass close to each other and take on interesting patterns. Of course, they only appear close from our point of view. In reality the planets are tens or hundreds of million kilometres apart.

In 2025, these patterns include:

• January 18–19: the brightest planet, Venus, is close to the ringed planet Saturn in the evening sky

• April 1–15: Mercury, Venus and Saturn form a slowly changing compact group in the eastern sky near sunrise

• August 12–13: Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, are only separated by two moon-widths in the morning sky.

June and August: constellations

As the year progresses, different constellations appear in the evening sky. The perpetual chase of Orion and Scorpius (the hunter and the scorpion) across the sky was noted in 2024.

In 2025, keep an eye on the Southern Cross (known as Crux to astronomers) and Sagittarius (the archer).

The Southern Cross is the best-known constellation in the southern sky. It is easy to find, as it is made up of a compact group of bright stars in the shape of a cross.

Two pointer stars from the neighbouring constellation of Centaurus, the centaur, also help to show its position. From Sydney and further south, the Southern Cross is always above the horizon. However, in the evenings, it is best viewed around June, when it is high in the southern sky.

The constellation Sagittarius is next to Scorpius. In the evenings, it is best placed for observation in August, as at that time of the year it is directly overhead.

A join-the-dots look at the brightest stars of the constellation gives the impression of a teapot, and it is often referred to by that name. Sagittarius is an important constellation for Australian astronomers, as it contains the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.

The information in this article comes from the 2025 Australasian Sky Guide. The guide has monthly star maps and has much more information to help with viewing and enjoying the night sky from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Nick Lomb has received author’s fees for the 2025 Australasian Sky Guide.

– ref. A total eclipse of the Moon, Saturn’s rings ‘disappear’, meteors and more: your guide to the southern sky in 2025 – https://theconversation.com/a-total-eclipse-of-the-moon-saturns-rings-disappear-meteors-and-more-your-guide-to-the-southern-sky-in-2025-242601

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Peden, NHMRC Research Fellow, School of Population Health & co-founder UNSW Beach Safety Research Group, UNSW Sydney

It’s the morning after a big night and you’re feeling the effects of too much alcohol.

So it can be tempting to “refresh” and take the edge off a hangover with a swim at the beach, or a dip in the cool waters of your local river or pool.

But you might want to think twice.

The day after heavy drinking can affect your body, energy levels and perception of risk in many ways. This means you’re more likely to drown or make careless decisions – even without high levels of alcohol in your blood.

Alcohol + water + summer = drowning

Alcohol is one of the main reasons why someone’s more likely to die due to drowning. And Australians consume a lot of it, including around the water.

The risk of drowning, and injury, including incidents involving alcohol, dramatically increases over the summer festive period – in particular on public holidays and long weekends.

Among people aged 18 and over who drowned in rivers where alcohol was
involved, we found some 40% had a blood alcohol concentration of at least 0.20%. That’s four times the upper legal limit of 0.05% when driving a car on a full licence.

When we breathalysed people at four Australian rivers, we found higher levels of blood alcohol with higher temperatures, and particularly on public holidays.

At the beach, intoxication due to alcohol and/or drugs is involved in 23% of drowning deaths with an average blood alcohol concentration of 0.19%.

How about if you’re hungover?

Getting alcohol out of your body is a relatively slow process. On average, alcohol is metabolised at a rate of 0.015% per hour. So if someone stops drinking at 2am with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.20%, their alcohol levels don’t drop to zero until 4pm the next day.

Although hangovers can vary from person to person, typical symptoms include headache, muscle aches, fatigue, weakness, thirst, nausea, stomach pain, vertigo, irritability, sensitivity to light and sound, anxiety, sweating and increased blood pressure.

As well as feeling a bit dusty, the day after an evening of heavy drinking, you’re not so good at identifying risks and reacting to them.

In a pool, this might mean not noticing it’s too shallow to dive safely. In natural waterways, this might mean not noticing a strong river current or a rip current at the beach. Or someone might notice these hazards but swim or dive in anyway.

In one study, we found that after a four-day Australian music festival where people drank heavily, even people who were sober (no longer had alcohol in their blood) were still affected.

Compared to baseline tests in the lab we ran three weeks before the festival, people who were sober the day after the festival had faster reaction times in a test to gauge their attention. But they made more mistakes. This suggests hangovers coupled with fatigue lead to quicker but more careless behaviour.

In and around water this could be the difference between life and death.

Positive blood alcohol readings, including of alcohol from the night before, are commonly implicated in drowning deaths as a result of risky behaviours such as jumping into the water, both at a river and along the coast. Jumping can cause physical injury or render you unconscious, leading to drowning.

Alcohol, including the day after drinking, can also make drowning more likely for a number of other reasons. It also reduces people’s coordination and reaction times.

What else is going on?

Alcohol makes the blood vessels near your skin open up (dilate). So more blood flows into them, making you feel hot. This means you may stay in colder water for longer, increasing your risk of hypothermia.

Alcohol can even make CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) less effective, should you need to be resuscitated.

Normally, your body controls levels of certain minerals (or electrolytes) in the blood. But electrolyte imbalance is common after heavy drinking, including the day after. It’s the reason why hangover symptoms such as muscle pain can lead to cramps in your arms or legs. This can become dangerous when being in or on the water.

Low blood sugar levels the day after drinking is also common. This can lead to people becoming exhausted more quickly when doing physical activities, including swimming.

Other hazards include cold water, high waves and deep water, all of which your body may not be capable of dealing with if you’re feeling the effects of a big night.

What can we do about it?

Authorities regularly warn about the dangers of alcohol intoxication and being near the water. Young people and men are often targeted because these are the groups more likely to drown where alcohol is involved.

Beaches may have alcohol-free zones. Rivers rarely have the same rules, despite similar dangers.

How to stay safe around water if you’re drinking

So take care this summer and stay out of the water if you’re not feeling your best:

• do your swimming before your drinking
• look out for your mates, especially ones who may have had a few too many or are hungover
• avoid getting back into the water after you’ve drunk alcohol or if you’re not feeling your best the next day.

Over the past five years, Amy Peden has received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Meta, Surf Life Saving Australia. the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the NSW Government Office of Sport. Dr Peden is affiliated with Royal Life Saving Society – Australia as an honorary senior research fellow.

In the past five years, Emmanuel Kuntsche has received funding from La Trobe University, National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Research Council, Victorian Health Promotion Foundation, University of Bayreuth Centre of International Excellence ‘Alexander von Humboldt’, Veski Foundation, the University of New South Wales, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, Healthy Canberra, Swiss National Science Foundation, Queensland Mental Health Commission, and New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services.

Jasmin C. Lawes is the National Research Manager at Surf Life Saving Australia. Over the past five years, Jaz has received funding from the Australian government and the Australian Research Council. Jaz is a co-founder of the UNSW Beach Safety Research Group and is also an invited member of the International Lifesaving Federation’s drowning prevention commission.

– ref. The surprising ways ‘swimming off’ a hangover can be risky, even if alcohol has left your system – https://theconversation.com/the-surprising-ways-swimming-off-a-hangover-can-be-risky-even-if-alcohol-has-left-your-system-243243

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Darcy Watchorn, Threatened Species Biologist, Wildlife Conservation & Science Department, Zoos Victoria, and Visiting Scholar, School of Life & Environmental Science, Deakin University

It’s just past midnight in the cool, ancient forests of Tasmania. We’ve spent a long day and night surveying endangered Tasmanian devils. All around, small animals scurry through bushes. A devil calls in the darkness. Microbats swoop and swirl as a spotted-tailed quoll slips through the shadows. Working here is spine-tingling and electric.

Weeks later, we’re in a moonlit forest in Victoria. It was logged a few years earlier and burnt by bushfire a few decades before that. The old trees are gone. So too are the quolls, bats and moths that once dwelled in their hollows. Invasive blackberry chokes what remains. The silence is deafening, and devastating.

In our work as field biologists, we often desperately wish we saw a place before it was cleared, logged, burnt or overtaken by invasive species. Other times, we hold back tears as we read about the latest environmental catastrophe, overwhelmed by anger and frustration. Perhaps you know this feeling of grief?

The new year is a chance to reflect on the past and consider future possibilities. Perhaps we’ll sign up to the gym, spend more time with family, or – perish the thought – finally get to the dentist.

But let us also set a New Year’s resolution for nature. Let’s make a personal pledge to care for beetles and butterflies, rainforests and reefs, for ourselves, and for future generations. Because now, more than ever — when the natural world seems to be on the precipice — it’s not too late to be a catalyst for positive change.

A trail of destruction

Our work brings us up close to the beauty of nature. We trek through deserts, stumble through forests and trudge over snowy mountains to study and conserve Australia’s unique wildlife.

But we must also confront devastating destruction. The underlying purpose of our work – trying to save species before it is too late – is almost always heartbreaking. It is a race we cannot always win.

Since Europeans arrived in Australia, much of the country has become severely degraded.

Around 40% of our forests and 99% of grasslands have been cut down and cleared, and much of what remains is under threat. Thousands of ecological communities, plants and animal species are threatened with extinction.

And it seems the news only gets worse. The global average temperature for the past decade is the warmest on record, about 1.2°C above the pre-industrial average. Severe bushfires are more and more likely. Yet Australia’s federal government recently approved four coalmine expansions.

Australia remains a global logging and deforestation hotspot. We have the world’s worst record for mammal extinctions and lead the world in arresting climate and environment protesters.

To top it off, a recent study estimated more than 9,000 native Australian animals, mostly invertebrates, have gone extinct since European arrival. That’s between one and three species every week.

Many will never be formally listed, named or known. Is this how the world ends – not with a bang, but with a silent invertebrate apocalypse?

This destruction provokes ecological grief

The degradation of our environment affects more than distant plants and animals. It resonates deeply with many humans, too.

Ecological grief is an emotional response to environmental degradation and climate change, damaging our mental health and wellbeing. It can manifest as sadness, anxiety, despair or helplessness. Or it might bring a profound sense of guilt that we all, directly or indirectly, contribute to the problems facing the natural world.

Academic research on ecological grief is growing rapidly, but the concept has been around for decades.

In 1949, American writer and philosopher Aldo Leopold – widely considered the father of wildlife ecology and modern conservation – eloquently wrote in his book A Sand County Almanac that:

One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.

Ecological grief is certainly a heavy burden. But it can also be a catalyst for change.

Turning grief into action

So how do we unlock the transformative potential of ecological grief?

In our experience, it first helps to share our experience with colleagues, friends and family. It’s important to know others have similar feelings and that we are not alone.

Next, remember that it is not too late to act – passivity is the enemy of positive change. It’s vital to value and protect what remains, and restore what we can.

Taking action doesn’t just help nature, it’s also a powerful way to combat feelings of helplessness and grief. It might involve helping local wildlife, supporting environmental causes, reducing meat consumption, or – perhaps most importantly – lobbying political representatives to demand change.

Lastly, for environmental professionals such as us, celebrating wins – no matter how small – can help buoy us to fight another day.

We are encouraged by our proud memories of helping return the mainland eastern barred bandicoot to the wild. The species was declared extinct on mainland Australia in 2013. After more than three decades of conservation action, it was taken off the “extinct in the wild list” in 2021, a first for an Australian threatened species.

Our work to support mountain pygmy-possum populations after the Black Summer fires helped to ease our grief at the loss of so many forests, as did seeing the end of native forest logging in Victoria a year ago.

So, for our New Year’s resolution, let’s harness our ecological grief to bring about positive change. Let’s renew the fight to return those lost voices, and protect our remaining ancient ecosystems. We can, and must, do better – because so much depends on it.

And maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get to the dentist.

Darcy Watchorn works for Zoos Victoria, a not-for-profit zoo-based conservation organisation. He is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia, the Australian Mammal Society, and the Society for Conservation Biology.

Marissa Parrott works for Zoos Victoria, a not-for-profit zoo-based conservation organisation. She is the Vice President of the Australian Mammal Society and is a member of multiple national and state threatened species Recovery Teams, and IUCN Specialist Groups. She receives no additional payment or funding from outside Zoos Victoria for any work related to threatened species.

– ref. In 2025, let’s make it game on – not game over – for our precious natural world – https://theconversation.com/in-2025-lets-make-it-game-on-not-game-over-for-our-precious-natural-world-245761

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra

Economists may sometimes sound like they are speaking a language out of this world. But perhaps there are lessons about economics from a galaxy far, far away.

The Star Wars saga – the science fiction trilogy of trilogies that spun out of the original 1977 movie – tells the tale of a small group of rebels, led by the brave and wise Jedi Knights, who fight against a corrupt empire.

The films earned more than US$10 billion at the box office. Then there were profits from cartoons, comics, books, and even more from toys.

Legal scholar Cass Sunstein, best known as the coauthor of Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness, estimated that since 1977 the Star Wars franchise has generated as much in earnings as the gross domestic product of entire countries such as Iceland and Jamaica.

This stellar performance is based on stories that themselves contain some economics lessons, on topics such as trade, money, automation, forecasting, cost-benefit studies and behavioural economics.

As the Jedi elder Yoda would put it, “about economics, it can teach”.

Galactic trade wars

The galactic federation in Star Wars has been estimated to have a gross galactic product of between five sextillion and 200 octillion US dollars. Much of this wealth is generated from interplanetary trade.

Indeed, the star wars started from an interplanetary trade dispute.
Interplanetary trade seems based on the resources each planet has in abundance, which may be some minerals or cheap labour.

Galactic trade is conducted by corporations but also by smugglers like Han and Chewbacca.

There is a lesson here, both about the gains from trade and the risks of starting trade wars, which incoming US President Donald Trump should heed. If other countries retaliate against the large tariffs he is proposing, global trade may contract significantly. This will make the world poorer.

Digital currency vs precious metals

The federation, however, suffered from the lack of a common currency. Galactic credits, a digital currency, are the most commonly used and there are also planetary credits and dataries (Republic credits). But the credits lacked credibility. Han would only accept payment in precious metals.

Some planets, such as the young Jedi Rey’s homeworld of Jakku, use barter rather than any currency. Notably these tend to be poorer planets.

Another impediment to trade is trust, in the absence of respected legal systems. Han offered to take the heroes Luke Skywalker and his Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to the planet Alderaan for 10,000 credits. The agreement was instead 2,000 immediately plus 15,000 on arrival. Obi-Wan wanted to align Han’s incentives better.

These examples illustrate the conclusions from economic studies that have shown having a common trusted currency encourages trade. It is the economic motive for the euro project, that introduced a common currency to the European Union.

The automated workplace

The federation relies on droids for much of its work. The droids take the place of humanoids in an example of capital/labour substitution. And the droids specialise in different tasks, showing the division of “labour”.

Once the relatively peaceful federation splits into an empire and republic, military expenditure becomes very large. The massive planet-destroying Death Star demonstrates the empire devotes huge amounts of resources to it.

This could explain the apparent paradox of an economy with both highly advanced technology but much apparent poverty. While there are droids there are also manual workers in drudgery.

The impact of automation, even if we have not yet got as far as humanlike droids such as C-3PO being commonplace, is an issue in our world too. Economists are asking how will it affect jobs and incomes.

Cost–benefit analysis

The characters are sometimes faced with decisions requiring a cost–benefit analysis in uncertain times. Cost-benefit analyses usually involves comparing future benefits with immediate costs.

The droid robot C-3PO must decide whether to risk losing his memory to translate an important message. His droid friend R2D2 wants to beat the ape-like wookie Chewbacca at a kind of chess. But when Han warns of wookies’ temper, C-3PO’s wise advice to his fellow droid is “let the wookie win”.

Luke calculates the short-run costs of some further education will be exceeded by the longer-term benefits. He hopes to increase his human capital by attending the flight academy. But his uncle prioritises helping with the harvest. Later he seeks training in the “force”, from the initially reluctant Jedi master, Yoda.

Cost-benefit analysis is used by economists advising a company on whether to build a factory or a government on whether to build a railway.

The concept of opportunity cost is illustrated when Luke must decide whether to go to Alderaan with Obi-Wan. Initially he declines as he does not want to leave his aunt and uncle. But when he learns of their murder, the cost of going with Obi-Wan is much reduced.

The famous bar scene illustrates search costs. Obi-Wan and Luke go there because it has a concentration of potential pilots.

The concept of search costs is used by economists to answer questions such as how long a person should keep searching for a job, or a romantic partner, before “settling”.

Negotiating

Negotiation is illustrated when Princess Leia negotiates with Jabba for Chewbacca’s release. Neither the original offer of 25,000 credits nor the asking price of 50,000 are acceptable but they reach an agreement on 35,000.

Another negotiation in which Leia is involved is when the evil Governor Tarkin offers her the choice of revealing the location of the rebel forces or watching her home planet of Alderaan destroyed.

But as it is not a repeated game, Tarkin is not concerned about his credibility and breaks his word. Even after Leia tells him (inaccurately) the location of the rebels, he still orders the planet’s destruction.

These aspects of game theory are widely used by economists in situations where outcomes are affected by how rivals respond. An example is a firm in an industry with a small number of rivals. The impact of cutting price will depend on how the rivals respond.

John Hawkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Star Wars can teach us about the economy or as Yoda might say, ‘about economics, it can teach’ – https://theconversation.com/star-wars-can-teach-us-about-the-economy-or-as-yoda-might-say-about-economics-it-can-teach-245578

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Hanaghan, Senior Research Fellow in Latin Christianity in Late Antiquity, Australian Catholic University

People throughout history have deliberately tried to forget corrupt or criminal leaders who offend the public’s sense of morality or justice. The term damnatio memoriae (“condemnation of memory”) describes this kind of deliberate forgetting in ancient times.

Damnatio memoriae refers to the deliberate political erasure of a person following their political failure and, usually, their death. It’s like a kind of post-mortem cancel culture.

So where did this idea come from and what did it look like in Ancient Rome?

An old idea

The term was probably first coined in the title of a thesis written by two late 17th century philologists named Christoph Schreiter and Johann Heinrich Gerlach. But it described a much older practice.

In antiquity, erasure might include the removal of heads from statues or the deletion of names on inscriptions.

Several emperors – including Nero and Domitian – were subject to the kind of erasure practices encapsulated by the term damnatio memoriae.

But one particularly good example of damnatio memoriae involves Crispus, the first son of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great (the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity).

In 326CE, Constantine executed Crispus by – according to one version of the tale – “cold poison”. Constantine, in all likelihood, had discovered Crispus was having an affair with Constantine’s second wife, Fausta. This was especially scandalous because Fausta was Crispus’ own stepmother.

Fausta later died in an overheated bath. This may have been a botched abortion attempt or a deliberate albeit unusual method of execution.

Whatever the case, Crispus was killed and, in the aftermath, was subjected to damnatio memoriae.

Crispus the Cancelled

At the time of his death, Crispus was an important political figure. A political deal had raised him to the position of Caesar (which meant “junior emperor” and, arguably, heir to the throne).

Crispus’ military campaigns had been successful and he’d been the subject of public praise. He had held the highest constitutional office – the consulship – on no less than three occasions.

This meant Crispus’ name had been written on stone all across the Roman empire, from official government proclamations to the more mundane milestones marking Roman roads.

In 2022, I visited the northern Italian city of Brescia, which was once a significant Roman town. As I wandered through the museum, admiring its rich collection, I made my way down some stairs and was stopped in my tracks by one such milestone.

A line is clearly missing in the picture between the words victori semper Aug (meaning “the eternally victorious senior emperor”) and the next line Fl Iul Constantio (the name “Flavius Julius Constantius”).

The museum’s plaque confirmed Crispus’ name had once appeared there alongside his fellow junior emperors – his half-brothers Constantine II and Constantius II.

It once read in full:

To our four masters, Flavius Constantine the Great, the eternally victorious senior emperor, and to our most noble junior emperors, Flavius Julius Crispus, Flavius Claudius Constantine, and Flavius Julius Constantius.

The gap where Flavius Julius Cripus was once written is quite obvious – and that is really the point.

This is not a secret erasure of someone’s name, but a public display of its removal.

It served as a powerful reminder of the ongoing stigma that should be associated with Crispus’ name for all Romans making their way along the road in the years that followed.

At the same time, this erasure directly challenged Crispus’ importance and relevancy to history by removing a record of his existence, and in this particular case, of his prominence as a junior emperor.

The name of Crispus’ half-brother Constantine II was also chiselled away from this milestone, almost certainly after he was killed in a civil war against his younger brother Constans in the year 340.

How was damnatio memoriae done?

It was once assumed damnatio memoriae must have been ordered and organised. In recent years, however, scholars have come to understand the deliberate erasure of names as a far more organic and localised process.

Centuries before Crispus, inscriptions referring to Julius Caesar’s close confidant, Marc Antony, had been similarly deleted and removed. After Caesar’s death, Marc Antony had taken up with Caesar’s ex (Cleopatra) and fallen out spectacularly with Caesar’s heir (Octavian, who would soon rename himself Augustus).

Marc Antony was subjected to damnatio memoriae after losing his war against Augustus, but not all mentions of his name were erased – many, including some that
celebrate Antony’s sexual prowess, remain.

Prominent women could also be subject to this kind of memory erasure.

Messalina, the famously promiscuous second wife of Claudius, was the subject of a senatorial decree after her death that sought to erase her name and even ban its mention. Yet inscriptions referring to Messalina nevertheless remain.

But even if we don’t know exactly how damnatio memoriae was done, or how consistently it was applied, we do know it happened.

In the case of the milestone I saw in Brescia, we can only really speculate as to why Crispus’ name was removed from this one in particular. Maybe it was in a prominent position where it gained too much attention, or perhaps there was a localised push to remove his name.

Whatever the case, this milestone is physical evidence for something that we all instinctively do when a politician has failed in controversial, embarrassing or upsetting circumstances: we do our best to forget them.

Michael Hanaghan receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. What was damnatio memoriae? How to get cancelled in Ancient Rome – https://theconversation.com/what-was-damnatio-memoriae-how-to-get-cancelled-in-ancient-rome-242193

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Fox-Harding, Lecturer/Researcher, Edith Cowan University

Men are dominant at most athletic events but ultra-endurance sports (exercising for six hours or more) represent a unique domain where the performance gap between men and women is narrowing significantly.

In traditional endurance events like marathons, men consistently outperform women by about 10%.

However, in ultra-distance competitions this disparity can be as small as 4%.

In some cases, women have even outpaced men.

What explains this shift? The answer lies in a combination of physiology, metabolism and strategy.

Fatigue resistance: an advantage for women

Women’s muscle composition is optimised for endurance. They have a higher proportion of type I (slow-twitch) muscle fibres, which are more efficient and resistant to fatigue during prolonged activity compared to type II (fast-twitch) fibres.

This gives women an edge in maintaining muscle function during prolonged activities, reducing the risk of muscle failure as events progress.

Women can also experience less neuromuscular fatigue and accumulate fewer anaerobic by-products (lactate and hydrogen ions) during sustained effort. While lactate itself doesn’t cause muscle fatigue, the accumulation of hydrogen ions can contribute to the sensation of fatigue.

Even womens’ respiratory muscles like the diaphragm experience less fatigue than men.

Men still have an edge in shorter, more intense events due to their greater muscle mass and higher aerobic capacity – factors that contribute to better performances in marathons and shorter distances.

Nevertheless, the metabolic advantages women display in ultra-endurance sports are narrowing this gap as events lengthen.

A metabolic edge

Ultra-endurance events rely heavily on oxidative metabolism, which uses both carbohydrates and fats as fuel.

Women are more efficient in this regard, exhibiting up to 56% higher fat oxidation rates than men.

Estrogen, a predominant hormone in women, enhances fat metabolism and promotes glycogen conservation, which refers to the body’s ability to save or preserve glycogen (a stored form of sugar in muscles and the liver) for use during physical activity.

This is important because glycogen is the body’s preferred fuel source for exercise. By conserving it, the body can use fat as an alternative energy source, allowing glycogen to last longer and helping improve endurance.

During ultra-endurance events, these benefits become increasingly important as the body shifts from carbohydrate-based energy to fat utilisation.

Estrogen also helps reduce inflammation and muscle damage, allowing women to recover more quickly during prolonged exertion.

While men generally benefit from higher levels of testosterone, which enhances muscle mass and strength, these attributes are less crucial in ultra-endurance events compared to anaerobic or power-based sports.

In long-duration races, women’s hormonal profile may better support sustained energy use and resilience, allowing them to compete more closely with men.

Despite these advantages, the hormonal fluctuations women experience, particularly during menstrual cycles or hormonal shifts related to menopause, can present additional challenges in endurance events.

Managing these factors effectively will be crucial as women continue to push the boundaries in ultra-endurance sports.

Body composition and performance

Women’s higher fat mass, often viewed as a disadvantage in traditional endurance sports, may offer benefits in certain ultra-endurance events like swimming. This is because more body fat can enhance thermoregulation by conserving heat in cold water, enabling women to maintain performance during prolonged exposure to challenging conditions.

Increased buoyancy, reduced drag and smaller body sizes and shorter lower limbs are also advantageous for women. This can allow for smoother and more energy-efficient movement through the water.

Psychological resilience

Ultra-endurance events test not only physical stamina but also mental toughness. In this area, women often shine.

Research in sports psychology highlights women’s superior ability to modulate pain sensitivity, maintain focus, and stay motivated during lengthy and gruelling competitions.

Emotional resilience, a trait linked to women’s coping mechanisms, plays a crucial role in overcoming the psychological challenges in ultra-endurance sports.

Anecdotal evidence and race outcomes demonstrate women’s ability to remain mentally composed, even under extreme fatigue, which allows them to push through the later stages of competition.

Although men still hold records in many ultra-endurance events, women’s psychological strength may be helping to close the gap.

Smarter pacing and decision-making

Pacing is crucial in ultra-endurance sports. Women often excel in this area, too.

Studies show women adopt more conservative and consistent pacing strategies compared to men, who are more likely to start strong but risk burnout as the race progresses.

This difference may be partly physiological but also psychological.

Testosterone, linked to risk-taking behaviour, may influence men to adopt overly aggressive strategies. In contrast, women’s more cautious and consistent pacing minimises energy wastage and optimises long-term performance.

Nonetheless, men still tend to achieve faster overall times in shorter endurance events, thanks to their higher peak speed and power.

In ultra-endurance though, where pacing strategy often influences outcomes, women continue to close the gap as they refine their approaches and gain more competitive opportunities.

The road ahead

While men remain the top performers in ultra-endurance events, the gap between genders is much smaller compared to marathons and shorter racing distances.

Women’s ability to metabolise fat efficiently, their hormonal advantages, strong psychological resilience and effective pacing strategies are all factors driving this progress.

However, continued advancements are necessary to fully level the playing field. These include:

• improved training regimens
• targeted research on female athletes
• increased participation opportunities.

Addressing challenges such as hormonal fluctuations and societal barriers (such as gender stereotypes and media representation) will also be crucial in empowering women to compete at the highest levels.

Ultra-endurance sports are unique in their ability to challenge traditional notions of gendered athletic performance.

While men still hold the edge, women’s rapid progress suggests a future where they may outperform men in extreme endurance events.

For now, they are proving that the longer the race, the closer the competition.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The longer the race, the closer it gets: women are closing in on men when it comes to ultra-endurance events – https://theconversation.com/the-longer-the-race-the-closer-it-gets-women-are-closing-in-on-men-when-it-comes-to-ultra-endurance-events-243799

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University

Have you ever wondered why most disinfectants indicate they kill 99.9% or 99.99% of germs, but never promise to wipe out all of them? Perhaps the thought has crossed your mind mid-way through cleaning your kitchen or bathroom.

Surely, in a world where science is able to do all sorts of amazing things, someone would have invented a disinfectant that is 100% effective?

The answer to this conundrum requires understanding a bit of microbiology and a bit of mathematics.

What is a disinfectant?

A disinfectant is a substance used to kill or inactivate bacteria, viruses and other microbes on inanimate objects.

There are literally millions of microbes on surfaces and objects in our domestic environment. While most microbes are not harmful (and some are even good for us) a small proportion can make us sick.

Although disinfection can include physical interventions such as heat treatment or the use of UV light, typically when we think of disinfectants we are referring to the use of chemicals to kill microbes on surfaces or objects.

Chemical disinfectants often contain active ingredients such as alcohols, chlorine compounds and hydrogen peroxide which can target vital components of different microbes to kill them.

The maths of microbial elimination

In the past few years we’ve all become familiar with the concept of exponential growth in the context of the spread of COVID cases.

This is where numbers grow at an ever-accelerating rate, which can lead to an explosion in the size of something very quickly. For example, if a colony of 100 bacteria doubles every hour, in 24 hours’ time the population of bacteria would be more than 1.5 billion.

Conversely, the killing or inactivating of microbes follows a logarithmic decay pattern, which is essentially the opposite of exponential growth. Here, while the number of microbes decreases over time, the rate of death becomes slower as the number of microbes becomes smaller.

For example, if a particular disinfectant kills 90% of bacteria every minute, after one minute, only 10% of the original bacteria will remain. After the next minute, 10% of that remaining 10% (or 1% of the original amount) will remain, and so on.

Because of this logarithmic decay pattern, it’s not possible to ever claim you can kill 100% of any microbial population. You can only ever scientifically say that you are able to reduce the microbial load by a proportion of the initial population. This is why most disinfectants sold for domestic use indicate they kill 99.9% of germs.

Other products such as hand sanitisers and disinfectant wipes, which also often purport to kill 99.9% of germs, follow the same principle.

Real-world implications

As with a lot of science, things get a bit more complicated in the real world than they are in the laboratory. There are a number of other factors to consider when assessing how well a disinfectant is likely to remove microbes from a surface.

One of these factors is the size of the initial microbial population that you’re trying to get rid of. That is, the more contaminated a surface is, the harder the disinfectant needs to work to eliminate the microbes.

If for example you were to start off with only 100 microbes on a surface or object, and you removed 99.9% of these using a disinfectant, you could have a lot of confidence that you have effectively removed all the microbes from that surface or object (called sterilisation).

In contrast, if you have a large initial microbial population of hundreds of millions or billions of microbes contaminating a surface, even reducing the microbial load by 99.9% may still mean there are potentially millions of microbes remaining on the surface.

Time is is a key factor that determines how effectively microbes are killed. So exposing a highly contaminated surface to disinfectant for a longer period is one way to ensure you kill more of the microbial population.

This is why if you look closely at the labels of many common household disinfectants, they will often suggest that to disinfect you should apply the product then wait a specified time before wiping clean. So always consult the label on the product you’re using.

Other factors such as temperature, humidity and the type of surface also influence how well a disinfectant works outside the lab.

Similarly, microbes in the real world may be either more or less sensitive to disinfection than those used for testing in the lab.

Disinfectants are one part infection control

The sensible use of disinfectants plays an important role in our daily lives in reducing our exposure to pathogens (microbes that cause illness). They can therefore reduce our chances of getting sick.

The fact disinfectants can’t be shown to be 100% effective from a scientific perspective in no way detracts from their importance in infection control. But their use should always be complemented by other infection control practices, such as hand washing, to reduce the risk of infection.

Hassan Vally does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Why do disinfectants only kill 99.9% of germs? Here’s the science – https://theconversation.com/why-do-disinfectants-only-kill-99-9-of-germs-heres-the-science-241127

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Franklin, Professor of Public Health, James Cook University

Every summer, Australians look for ways to cool down. Millions of us head to the beach. Those inland head for rivers, waterholes and waterfalls. But cooling off comes with risks, from dangerous rips in the ocean to hidden logs in rivers.

In recent years, a surprising number of people have died at waterfalls and waterholes. These natural spectacles have hidden dangers, from slippery rocks to unexpected currents, to turbulent water.

While many of us know about the risks of drowning in the ocean, rivers are actually more deadly. Over the last 22 years, slightly more people have drowned in rivers and creeks than any other body of water. The drowning figures from 2022–23 show 76 people died in rivers and creeks, compared to 75 at beaches.

Every drowning death leaves a trail of grief. Here’s what you can do to stay safe.

How common are these deaths?

Deaths at popular waterfalls in recent years include:

• Isabella Falls, inland from Cairns: three deaths in the last two years
• Millaa Millaa Falls, inland from Cairns: two deaths this year
• Dangar Falls in northern New South Wales: three deaths since 2012.

Then there are locations such as Babinda Boulders south of Cairns. While more waterhole than waterfall, this famous location has claimed 21 lives since 1959, leading authorities to fence off dangerous channels and pools where churning water can push swimmers under and keep them there. Even so, deaths continue.

Why are waterfalls dangerous? As water cascades, it often carves out a deep pool, known as a plunge pool. Visitors often swim at these pools, drawn by the natural beauty and deeper water.

But these idyllic scenes come with hidden risks. For instance, where the waterfall hits the pool, it creates turbulence and currents. If large volumes of water are falling, the pressure can be enough to push people underneath. Currents can also carry people underneath a rock ledge and trap them.

Adrenaline-seekers might jump off the lip of the waterfall. This is very risky, especially if you don’t know how deep the water is.

Droplets and mist from the falls mean the rocky sides are inevitably slippery and often covered in algae or moss.

Finally, there’s the popularity factor. The more inexperienced people who go, the higher the chance of something going wrong. Social media reels of influencers at beautiful locations encourage more people to seek out secluded waterfalls.

Are these deaths getting more common? We don’t know. That’s because deaths at waterfalls are rolled into statistics for river-related deaths. By one estimate 5% of drownings in inland water sources took place at waterfalls or swimming holes over the ten years to 2021.

We do know there’s been a surge in selfie deaths worldwide in recent years. Some of these deaths take place at waterfalls, usually when visitors jump the fence or make their way to the lip of the waterfall before slipping and dying. When you’re searching for the perfect selfie location, you’re not paying close attention to risks.

If you do get into trouble, help is often a long way away. Rescuers can take hours to arrive, while drowning happens very quickly. While popular beaches usually have lifeguards able to spring into action, waterfalls, waterholes and rivers do not.

How can we stay safe?

Waterfalls are some of the world’s great natural spectacles. The most famous attract millions of visitors each year, from Niagara Falls on the Canada-United States border to Victoria Falls between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Venezuela’s Angel Falls, the tallest uninterrupted waterfall. They are created when soft rock is washed away, or where a river meets a natural drop such as a cliff.

We’re drawn to these places, and that’s not going to change. So how can we visit safely?

Authorities have put up signs around many popular swimming spots, including waterfalls. These can be useful to indicate danger or prohibit an activity. But most people simply ignore them, according to a Queensland government spokesperson.

The most important thing is to proceed with caution. Just as you would check a new beach for signs of rip currents or dangerous waves, you should check waterfalls and waterholes for hidden dangers. Don’t assume picturesque places are safe because they’re pretty.

Familiarity matters too. Many people who have died at waterfalls have been visitors, whether from interstate or overseas. If you grew up near a waterfall or waterhole, you’re more likely to have learned about the dangers.

If you’ve checked the swimming hole, swimming should be reasonably safe. But it’s best to avoid going directly under the waterfall.

Climbing waterfalls is very dangerous. It might look fun, but slippery rocks can send you crashing to your doom, while turbulent water and hidden rocks under the surface can be lethal. The lip of a waterfall is extremely slippery and gravity is not on your side.

Alcohol and waterfalls are a bad mix. Alcohol makes some people take more risks. Swim first, drink later.

Check the chance of rain before you go, and not only at the waterfall but upstream. Intense rain upstream can create flash floods surprisingly quickly, sweeping you off your feet.

And if you’re in northern Australia, you need to do one more vital check – for crocodiles. Many popular waterfalls and swimming holes are seen to be safe because they are elevated or far from the sea. But crocs can pop up in unexpected places.

Does this mean you should avoid waterways entirely? No. As Paul McCartney advised:

Don’t go jumping waterfalls

Please, keep to the lake

People who jump waterfalls

Sometimes can make mistakes.

Richard Franklin is affiliated with Royal Life Saving – Australia, Kidsafe, and the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine.

– ref. Don’t go chasing waterfalls: slippery rocks, currents and daredevil jumpers make Australia’s waterways surprisingly deadly – https://theconversation.com/dont-go-chasing-waterfalls-slippery-rocks-currents-and-daredevil-jumpers-make-australias-waterways-surprisingly-deadly-243937

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kimberley Beasley, Lecturer and Academic Chair in Early Childhood, Murdoch University

During school holidays, playdates can provide a brilliant opportunity for social interactions for both children and their parents. They can help children get to know kids at their current or future daycare and school.

So, what makes a great playdate – and how can parents make them less stressful?

Here are some things to consider.

Play is good for children

Play is how children learn and make sense of the world around them.

Through play, children can:

• develop their social and emotional skills
• practice sharing and taking turns
• get better at reading other children’s emotions
• learn to negotiate conflict
• solve problems
• navigate challenges
• develop thinking skills as they make up new games and encounter new ideas.

Play can support children’s executive functions, meaning the mental skills we use when we think flexibly, use our memory and practise self-control.

Play nurtures a child’s imagination, allowing them to build on each other’s ideas to invent new imaginary worlds. Imagination helps us develop the skills for abstract thinking.

Playdates can also help parents find support and understanding from someone going through the same thing. They can discuss challenges and share solutions for common parenting struggles, such as sleep routines and healthy meal ideas.

Offering your child a diverse buffet of playdate options

Playdates can also provide children with possibilities they can’t get in the family home. That includes giving them an understanding of our diverse communities.

So, it’s great for parents to put some intention into who their child plays with and who gets invited to a playdate.

Think about how diverse your child’s world is now and if you are limiting their world to people just like you. Is there an opportunity to open their world to the rich diversity they will experience in society as they grow?

It is important for children to value difference, embrace diversity and be exposed to different languages.

This can help children think about language, improve their cultural awareness and develop more flexible and inclusive social skills.

A little planning can go a long way

Planning a playdate can be stressful. Parents can end up worrying about where to go, what to do, whether the house is tidy enough, or that you might be judged about the food you offer. Meeting in a public space such as a local park or playground can help.

Parents also worry their child might misbehave, not play well with others or announce they’re bored. But playdates are about giving kids a chance to learn social skills and resolve conflicts. When disputes arise, support them to identify their feelings and brainstorm solutions.

If you are meeting at home, think up some play activities that are open-ended and suitable for a range of age groups and interests. Examples include:

• painting
• drawing
• pavement chalk
• cutting and gluing from magazines
• playing or constructing things with cardboard boxes
• ball games with simple targets (like a saucepan or laundry basket)
• building blanket forts
• camping indoors or outdoors with a small tent.

For a playdate in a park, a nature scavenger hunt is fun – can the kids each find a feather? A gumnut? A special rock?

Another idea for an outdoor playdate might be a bush walk, where kids can learn to identify local native plants.

My own research has found many adults and children know very little about native plants.

Building this knowledge is important to be able to recognise toxic plants, as well to understand some Indigenous knowledges about the plants in our local environment.

Some can be used to make delicious drinks or to add to food, or to take the sting out of an ant bite.

Learning together with another family using a plant app such as Inaturalist can make learning more enjoyable.

Ditch the stress and don’t compare

During playdates, it is common for parents to compare their child with other children. They can end up stressing about milestones and if their child is “behind”.

Research shows while there are general milestones that most children will reach, this can happen within a broad timeframe. Usually, there’s nothing to worry about.

If you’re really concerned, your local child health nurse or your GP is the best place to go.

Instead of talking in depth about “milestones” during playdates, try chatting instead about local places to play, books you or your child enjoys or recipe ideas for families.

For a successful playdate, try to focus on the enjoyment of the children and supporting them to play.

Have in mind some activities suitable for the venue you choose. Then step back and let the children explore the world around them while they get to know each other.

Kimberley Beasley is a full-time academic in early childhood and primary education at Murdoch University. She owns a company called Childscapes, which designs nature playgrounds for childcare centres.

– ref. Holiday playdates are great for kids – but ditch the stress and don’t compare milestones – https://theconversation.com/holiday-playdates-are-great-for-kids-but-ditch-the-stress-and-dont-compare-milestones-243791

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Megan Grainger, Senior Lecturer in Analytical Chemistry, University of Waikato

As I write, the summer landscape is bright with pōhutukawa flowers. Sitting in the shade of the “New Zealand Christmas tree”, I can hear bees humming as they move between flowers collecting nectar.

Pulling the picnic basket near, I cut a slice of fresh bread and cover it in white honey – made from that very pōhutukawa nectar. This is indeed the taste of summer – sweet, like butterscotch with a hint of salt.

But pōhutukawa honey, like other native varieties, tends to live in the shadow of its famous cousin, mānuka. That’s a shame, because the options, and the potential for more industry growth, are certainly there.

To continue driving the industry forward, we need to be thinking about those lesser-known New Zealand native honeys. At the moment, however, these are often mixed as “bush honey”, since there isn’t a large market for their individual sale.

All honey is primarily glucose and fructose, but the flavour profile comes from other compounds found in nectar that remain once it is converted into honey by bees. The combination of compounds varies between species, giving rise to some delectable flavours.

Not so long ago, consumers only had a choice of red or white wine. Now there are multiple varieties, each suited to their own occasion. Honey, too, can spread its variety around a bit more.

Liquid gold rush

New Zealand mānuka honey is still highly sought-after, of course. Its unique non-peroxide antibacterial activity was discovered in the 1980s by biochemist Peter Molan. It wasn’t until 2008 that the compound responsible, methylglyoxal, was identified. This allowed honey to be graded by its antibacterial activity – and the price of mānuka dramatically increased.

Mānuka honey is now a household name and valuable brand. It’s used medically, as well as on toast, and even been endorsed by celebrities such as Novak Djokovic and Ariana Grande. The most expensive jar ever sold went for NZ$4,964 for 230 grams at Harrods in London in 2021.

In 2022, 76% of the $583 million generated by the New Zealand apiculture (beekeeping) sector was from mānuka honey exports. Many beekeepers chased the mānuka flowering season while honey prices were high and honey was easy to sell, with 918,026 beehives registered in 2019.

But hive numbers are now down 34.5% and it appears the liquid gold rush might be over. A large honey surplus and weaker consumer demand are tipping the supply and demand balance in the wrong direction for now.

Putting all the eggs in one basket – or all bees on one flowering crop – is a risk for beekeepers. And these days, extreme weather events during summer can add to the uncertainty.

Heavy rains in some places last summer resulted in a 45% decrease in honey production compared to the previous year. The mānuka tree flowers for a short period, and such events can affect the volume of honey harvested and hence annual revenue.

Sweet variety

Apiculture New Zealand wants to future-proof the industry and believes the honey sector can more than double by 2030, mostly due to increasing mānuka exports. This will take time as the supply-demand scale is rebalanced.

Diversification can be another strategy. Nectar-producing native plants produce a wide range of honey flavours, all worthy choices for the consumer.

In fact, other varieties can compete successfully with mānuka internationally, and a rewarewa honey was awarded “world’s best tasting honey” at the 2021 Black Jar Honey Contest in the United States.

Rewarewa has a rich, malty flavour. But it is also reported to have anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory properties. While this is promising news, there are currently only a few studies based on limited samples.

Further research on honeys from various geographical locations and seasons is needed. But this takes time, money and resources. In the meantime, we can just enjoy one of the world’s oldest foods for its taste. Here are five New Zealand native honeys to keep an eye out for:

• tāwari has been described as tasting like white chocolate melting off the tongue, and is superb on pancakes or ice cream

• kāmahi is sweet with a buttery finish, and is a match with camembert or goat’s feta

• kānuka is described as earthy with a toffee-like finish

• rata is mild and rich, not too sweet, with a fruity taste and hint of salt

• pōhutukawa is salty-sweet, a touch of butterscotch with a sprinkle of salt.

Increasing the profile of more native honeys would benefit the apiculture industry, build resilience into beekeeping businesses, diversify exports over time, and help maintain ecological biodiversity – which is important for our native fauna.

This summer, why not head to a farmer’s market, or even jump online from your deckchair, and support New Zealand’s smaller beekeepers by trying some of these native honeys. You may just find your next favourite to add to that charcuterie board or drizzle on your ice cream.

Megan Grainger is a committee member for the Apiculture New Zealand Science and Research Focus. She carries out research on mānuka honey and other native honeys, and has worked on projects with various companies in the apiculture industry.

– ref. Move over mānuka – here are 5 other delicious native NZ honeys to try this summer – https://theconversation.com/move-over-manuka-here-are-5-other-delicious-native-nz-honeys-to-try-this-summer-244284

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Edwell, Associate Professor in Ancient History, Macquarie University

Therefore, who would not know that effrontery hijacks the public interest? […] It ratchets up the prices of things for sale, not fourfold or eightfold but so
much that the human tongue’s reckoning cannot untangle what to call the
accounting and the deed!

The language is different but this edict on maximum prices, issued in 301 CE by Roman emperor Diocletian, reflects a feeling familiar to many: why is everything so expensive lately?

Diocletian’s edict highlights the deep outrage he and and his imperial colleagues felt at the rampant inflation that had engulfed the Roman empire for much of the third century.

Inflation eroded the pay of the soldiers whose loyalty was the basis of the emperors’ authority.

So, how did the Roman Empire get into this mess – and how did it get out of it?

Too many coins with too little value

For much of the third century, the Roman Empire faced unprecedented crises, including foreign invasions by the Persian Sasanians and conflict with various Germanic tribes, such as the Goths.

There were also civil wars, plagues, disease outbreaks and food shortages. This period is now known as the Crisis of the Third Century.

Political stability was a distant memory; dozens of short-reigning emperors were installed and deposed as these problems grew worse.

With the scale of the military problems Rome faced in the third century, the Roman army grew larger. By the time of Diocletian’s reign (284-305) it numbered around 600,000 men. This compares with 250,000 in the first century.

A larger army (demanding ever higher salaries and bonuses) meant Roman mints needed to produce more silver coins to pay the soldiers.

Coins also functioned as political propaganda and helped cement a new emperor’s legitimacy. Every new emperor would issue new coins bearing his image. With so many emperors ruling in the third century, this contributed further to the increase in coin production.

Today’s authorities sometimes use “quantitative easing” – which is often (and somewhat inaccurately) described as “printing more money” – as a way of stimulating economic activity. The vast increase in coin production and its inflationary effects in third century Rome might bear some comparison.

With ever more coins in circulation in the Roman Empire during this time, the individual value of these coins fell.

As the empire began to contract in the third century, silver became harder to get. This saw a precipitous drop in the amount of precious metal that was actually in the silver coins, a process known as debasement.

In short, they became less valuable; people (especially the soldiers) had less faith in the capacity of these debased coins to retain value, so they demanded more coins.

If they didn’t receive them, the emperor was often dispatched in quick time.

Another factor contributing to inflation will be familiar to anyone who lived through the era of COVID restrictions: supply chain bottlenecks.

War and disease (including the epidemic known as the Plague of Cyprian, which caused manpower shortages) drove instability. This led to supply chain problems that helped drive up the price of goods.

Currency reform

The Romans did not have an understanding of modern economic theories to help control inflation. Neither did they have institutions such as central banks to curtail the peaks and troughs of inflationary cycles.

What Roman authorities did control, however, was coin production.

They attempted to address the lack of faith in silver coins via currency reforms in the third century, which included a slight increase in silver content under the emperor Aurelian (270-275).

However, none of them worked. Faith in the silver currency had been permanently damaged.

Emperor Diocletian came to power toward the end of the third century, and despaired at the political and economic chaos he’d inherited.

When he issued his edict on maximum prices in 301CE, he legislated an empire-wide cap on prices of around 1,200 items.

In this law, he emphasised the impact of inflation on the soldiers. The army was the key constituency on which his imperial authority lay.

The edict, however, failed.

It was unenforceable across the vast territory of the Roman Empire, and placing official caps on prices inevitably created a black market. He brought some political stability to Rome during his reign but having failed to cure it of hyperinflation, Diocletian later retired to become a cabbage farmer.

When the emperor Constantine (306-337) reformed the currency in the fourth century, he introduced a new gold unit known as the solidus.

Faith in this unit was higher due to its status (it was used chiefly by soldiers and wealthy people), high precious metal content and more controlled output. This appears to have reduced inflationary pressures.

Constantine also brought a return to political stability and single rule of the empire (compared to a fraught system of co-emperors, known as the Tetrarchy, under Dicoletian). This stability helped with inflation. Supply bottlenecks were reduced and minting of coins became more consistent across the empire.

Today’s cost-of-living crisis

There are good reasons to be critical of how today’s inflation problems have been managed by central banks and governments. But we can at least be thankful that, compared to the Roman Empire, periods of high inflation in modern economies have been and will likely be short.

Much of this is due to our advanced capacity to analyse economic data and devise theories to control inflation before it runs rampant – undermining the economic, political and social stability we so often take for granted.

Peter Edwell receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

– ref. Skyrocketing prices are an age-old problem. Here’s how Roman emperors battled runaway inflation – https://theconversation.com/skyrocketing-prices-are-an-age-old-problem-heres-how-roman-emperors-battled-runaway-inflation-243921

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anita Manfreda, Senior Lecturer in Tourism, Torrens University Australia

About ten years ago, while working at Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in the Swiss town of St Moritz, I was shocked to learn a guest once requested an elephant be brought in to deliver a birthday gift to his wife. And the hotel made it happen, squeezing the elephant into the lobby.

This over-the-top gesture symbolised what luxury travel once meant: wealth and power, expressed through grand displays. Think millionaires and billionaires in lavish suites and on private yachts, enjoying exclusive services most of us would never dream of, let alone actually ask for.

Consulting group McKinsey defines the luxury traveller as someone prepared to spend US$500 or more per night on accommodation. But luxury tourism is evolving. Thanks to demographic shifts, sustainability concerns, and a post-pandemic desire for connection, luxury travel has become more personal and meaningful. And luxury travellers these days aren’t always the super rich elites.

Despite the cost-of-living crisis, luxury travel is booming. So, what’s driving this growth and how is luxury travel changing?

A trillion dollar industry

The luxury travel sector has shown remarkable resilience, even during economic downturns and the COVID pandemic. Globally, it is projected to grow from US$1.4 trillion in 2024 to $2.2 trillion by 2030.

The Asia-Pacific region is leading the surge at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% (a way of measuring growth that assumes profits are reinvested) from 2024 to 2030.

In Australia, the trend is similar: the luxury travel market generated US$37.4 billion in 2023 and is forecast to reach US$70 billion by 2032.

This growth is driven not just by affluence among the wealthy but by younger travellers. As Forbes magazine points out, these travellers are often non-millionaires who may not earn enormous salaries or even own their own homes – but are willing to pay top dollar for meaningful experiences.

And some are splurging on trips to make up for time and opportunities lost due to the pandemic – a trend industry experts sometimes refer to as “revenge” and “revelry” travel. As one luxury travel industry observer put it:

We’re seeing travel at all costs, where people are determined to have the experience they want, regardless of what that price is.

Many consumers are prioritising luxury travel experiences over other discretionary items, including luxury goods.

Luxury can have many meanings

Today’s luxury travel isn’t just about extravagance; it can also include forking out for meaningful experiences. Luxury travellers are willing to pay up for holidays that promise authenticity, wellness and connection with people and places.

It can mean access to something rare, like an uncrowded natural environment or an authentic cultural experience that feels deeply personal.

It can also come from expertise – like appreciating the nuances of a rare bottle of wine, or touring a place with an expert or celebrity guide who has been there many times before.

Where it was once defined by price and status symbols, luxury travel today is about stories worth sharing (on social media and in real life) and experiences that align with personal values.

Wellness, adventure and the digital detox

In my 17 years of working in and researching luxury travel, I have seen a lot of different luxury holidaymakers. Everything from humble retirees relishing the rewards of their hard work to VIP celebrities who send 32 pages of requests before even stepping foot in the hotel.

While older high-net-worth individuals from North America and Europe remain a significant demographic, a growing proportion of luxury travellers are millennials, Gen Z, and tourists from emerging markets like Asia and the Middle East.

Traditional hallmarks of luxury travel – like presidential suites and private islands – are still popular among high-net-worth individuals.

But a growing number of travellers seek cultural experiences, adventure, and small, intimate group trips.

These travellers are opting for off-peak seasons and less-visited destinations to avoid crowds, and may be more vocal about sustainable tourism.

The future of luxury travel lies in its ability to adapt to evolving consumer values. Wellness retreats, slow travel (including by train), and sustainability-focused experiences are becoming central to the luxury travel narrative.

In a hyper-connected world, luxury travel marketing is now often linked with the idea of a digital detox. The chance to disconnect and fully immerse in the moment has become a modern indulgence.

Luxury travellers today use their trips to explore and learn, and to reconnect with the world, their relationships, and themselves.

Anita Manfreda is the secretary and executive committee member of the Council for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education. She previously worked in the luxury travel industry but currently has no affiliations, paid work, consultancy, or relationships with any organisations mentioned in this article.

– ref. What cost-of-living crisis? Luxury travel is booming – and set to grow further – https://theconversation.com/what-cost-of-living-crisis-luxury-travel-is-booming-and-set-to-grow-further-244727

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan McHugh, Honorary Associate Professor, Journalism, Consulting Producer, The Greatest Menace, Walkley-winning podcast, University of Wollongong

This year saw podcasts attract widespread attention for their influence on the political agenda (a hack that goes back to 2015, when Obama caused outrage with his raw take on race on Marc Maron’s WTF).

Spotify continues to push “video podcasts”, but apart from the technical problems they present, they hold no appeal for those who love audio at least in part because it frees them from screens.

The podcasts below, my picks for the year, do much more than that: they inform, illuminate, touch the heart and unleash the imagination.

1. In The Dark

In The Dark’s new series forensically unpacks a day in 2005 when United States marines went on a rampage in Haditha, Iraq, killing 24 civilians.

Over four years, host Madeleine Baran and team conducted hundreds of interviews and secured thousands of previously unreleased government documents. As Iraqi family members speak in Arabic about their horrendous loss, superlative production makes their testimony deeply moving. In one heartbreaking scene, the interpreter herself breaks down.

I’ve only heard this happen once before, when American oral historian Studs Terkel interviewed survivors of Hiroshima to open his acclaimed documentary Born To Live.

Apex investigative journalism that underlines the human cost of war.

2. Come by Chance

The gentle but gritty Canadian podcast Come by Chance probes the intertwined meaning of family and identity.

Set in remote Newfoundland, it investigates the origins of two men who look strikingly dissimilar to their siblings. You can guess the outcome, but that doesn’t diminish the pleasure and pain of discovering what happened.

We warm to locals whose unaffected demeanour and distinctive phrasing make for revelatory storytelling that is never exploitative.

3. Australia Fair

This timely series Australia Fair provides a fresh take on Australia’s “weird and troubled immigration history”.

Host Janak Rogers, whose mother came from high society Delhi and whose father was “a big hulking white guy” from Birmingham, is well placed to untangle this tapestry.

Heartfelt accounts from successive waves of arrivals, interwoven with illuminating archival clips and expert commentary, reveal fraught undercurrents. The Chinese attacked on the goldfields. Pacific Islanders kidnapped to cut cane. European migrants lampooned after World War II, the xenophobia shifting to Vietnamese boat people, Muslims from the Middle East, Africans. All alongside unrelenting racism towards Indigenous Australians.

A major flaw is its depiction of settler Australia as a monolithic white society, ignoring the vilification of the Irish from the arrival of the first political convicts in 1791. But overall, Australia Fair offers a bracing challenge to our oft-claimed status as a “successful” multicultural country.

4. Empire

Empire, hosted by polymath historian William Dalrymple and journalistic offsider Anita Anand, examines how empires rise and fall and how they shaped the world.

Dalrymple’s puppydog enthusiasm belies his vast knowledge of power hierarchies from India to the Ottomans, while Anand deftly retrieves him from rabbit holes.

Episodes verge into the history of pirates, North Korea, the Cuban Revolution, the dispossession of Native Americans and a cracker analysis of the Vietnam War.

5. The Belgrano Diary

Lauded Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan examines the political and military machinations behind the 1982 Falklands War in The Belgrano Diary.

O’Hagan’s shrewd but unshowy narration and writerly eye for character are a major asset. A former naval officer, Narendra Sethia, whose diary is the British government’s undoing, is “skinny, covered in tattoos, with […] the appearance of someone who’s been on a lifelong gap year”.

Episode two, Gotcha, is the ghastly telling of the sinking of Argentinian cruiser the Belgrano with the loss of 323 lives. Archival tape and eye-witness testimony are interwoven with burbling underwater sonic detectors and muffled explosions of torpedoes. A survivor describes how those burnt the worst were given morphine first, “M” dabbed on their foreheads in their own blood.

Consummate sound design allows us to absorb its huge emotional and moral heft and weep for the dead of Islas Malvinas, as Argentinians call the Falklands.

6. The Gauguin Dilemma

The sparky series The Gauguin Dilemma, commissioned by the National Gallery of Australia, shows “branded podcasts” need not be schmaltzy PR.

Coinciding with the recent Paul Gauguin exhibition, it delves deep into controversial aspects of the artist.

Was he simply a destructive, colonising paedophile, to be cancelled forthwith? A robust range of perspectives complexifies this vexed topic.

7. Elon’s Spies

Elon’s Spies drills into Musk-the-man, featuring chilling stories of those who have crossed him.

They include Vernon Unsworth, architect of the Thai schoolboys’ cave rescue in 2018. Musk branded him “paedo-guy” because Unsworth slighted Musk’s mini-submarine proposal.

Musk’s then-girlfriend Amber Heard was surveilled on the Gold Coast; a whistleblower was bankrupted; Scottish Muslim leader Humza Yousaf was mercilessly hounded.

Musk’s capacity for vengefulness makes Trump seem almost benign.

8. Short Cuts

In its 12 years, Short Cuts has showcased eclectic, poetic audio features from producers all over the world.

Winningly hosted by comedian Josie Long, the 30-minute episodes have diverse short pieces, loosely linked by a theme: the tipping point, a piano, or beasts (in which Laurie Anderson performs a concert for dogs).

It is, mystifyingly, to be axed – unless a petition changes the BBC’s plans. Listen while you can.

9. Stop and Search

Stop and Search tracks how 20-year-old apprentice tradie Brad Balzan was shot dead in his backyard in Western Sydney after a police encounter went wrong.

Host Paul Farrell meticulously exposes the bigger context: how proactive police searches discriminate according to class and race. Depressingly, Indigenous people and lower socio-economic areas are more likely to be targeted, searches are often unlawfully conducted and 90% of searches found nothing.

10. This is Alice Springs

This is Alice Springs, hosted by Yorta Yorta man Daniel James, takes us behind the miserable headlines about youth violence and curfews in Alice Springs.

It makes such a difference to hear Indigenous people telling their own stories, and not to a white journalist. Keenly observed writing and immersive sound bring the camps, streets and landscape alive, providing nuanced insight into a complex, troubling situation.

Siobhan McHugh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Elon Musk, Gauguin and are we Australia fair? The 10 best podcasts of 2024 – https://theconversation.com/elon-musk-gauguin-and-are-we-australia-fair-the-10-best-podcasts-of-2024-244155

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, researching Greco-Roman antiquity, The University of Melbourne

The Roman writer Claudius Aelian (2nd–3rd century CE) tells us a curious story about a boy and a pet snake:

A boy bought a small snake and reared it with great care. When it grew he spoke to it as if it could hear, played with it and let it stay in his bed while he was sleeping. When it became very big the city had it sent to an uninhabited spot. Later, when the child, now a young man, came back from an entertainment, he and his companions were set upon by brigands. There was a commotion, and the snake appeared. It dispersed some of the attackers and killed others, saving the young man.

The boy was lucky. His pet snake remembered his earlier kindness, and came to save him in his moment of need, if we can believe the story.

This is one of many tales from the Greco-Roman world about people and their pets.

Just like today, people back then loved and enjoyed the company of animals in their homes. So, what sorts of pets did they keep and what do we know about them?

Some famous stories about pets

Many stories about pets survive from Greco-Roman times. These stories usually attest to the close bonds humans and animals can form with one another.

Here are a few of them.

One day, the Roman general Paulus Aemilius (229–160 BCE) arrived home after work and found his little daughter Tertia crying.

Why was she crying? The biographer Plutarch(1st–2nd century CE) tells us what happened:

Paulus asked the reason. And she said, “Our Perseus is dead”.

Perseus was the name of their pet dog. We don’t know what Perseus died from, but Paulus’ daughter was obviously deeply fond of the animal.

In some ancient stories, people’s pets were sometimes their only source of support in difficult times.

The Theban general Epaminondas (410–362 BCE) was charged with various petty crimes by his political enemies at Thebes. After proving himself innocent of the charges in court, he finally got to go home:

when he returned from the court his little Melitaean dog greeted him with a wag of the tail. This led him to say to those who were present: “This dog thanks me for my favours, but the Thebans, after the benefits I conferred on them, tried me on a capital charge”.

The philosopher Lacydes of Cyrene (died 205 BCE) had a close bond with his pet goose:

when he went for a walk, it went too. When he sat down, it would remain still and would not leave him for a moment. And when it died Lacydes gave it a most costly funeral as though he were burying a son or a brother.

But one of the most famous ancient pet stories is about Darius III (died 330 BCE), the King of Persia. He was defeated by Alexander the Great and then betrayed by one of the Persians, called Bessus:

when Darius, the last king of Persia, was struck by Bessus in the battle against Alexander and lay dead, all abandoned the corpse, only the dog which had been reared under his care remained faithfully at his side, unwilling to abandon, as though he was still alive, the man who could no longer tend him.

Darius’ dog stayed loyal to him to the end, unlike the people around him.

Different types of pets

Dogs were the most popular house pet in Greco-Roman times. The favourite breed of dog was called the Melitaean.

This breed of dog was originally from Carthaginian Africa. It was very small with long hair, a bushy tail and sharp nose, and apparently barked with a squeaky voice.

Other favourite pets were monkeys, snakes and birds of many different kinds. Even the Roman emperor Tiberius (42 BCE to 37 CE) had a pet snake.

Pet cats of the kind we are familiar with were, for a long time, mainly found in Egypt. The Egyptians’ word for “cat” actually sounded like the noise cats make, “meow”.

Ancient Greeks and Romans seem not to have kept these sorts of household cats as pets.

But there is evidence that in Athens in the 5th century BCE, it was trendy for wealthy people to own exotic big cats such as cheetahs, possibly for hunting purposes.

Some wealthy people even had lions as house pets. For example, Berenice (273–226 BCE), wife of Ptolemy III of Egypt, had a tame lion as her companion. “It would softly wash her face with its tongue and smooth away her wrinkles”, says Aelian. It would also eat at her table at dinnertime.

The loyalty of animals

Ancient writers such as Aelian praised animals for their loyalty.

Aelian says animals become loyal when you do simple things for them like giving them food and love, whereas human beings can be disloyal no matter how much you do for them:

well-treated animals are good at remembering kindness […] a human being however […] can become the bitter enemy of a friend and for some trifling and casual reason blurt out confidences to betray the very man who trusted him.

Aelian gives as an example of this the story of a boy who was given a baby eagle to care for:

he reared the bird not as a plaything to sport with, but as a favourite or as a younger brother […] as time passed it lit the flame of a strong mutual friendship. It happened that the youth fell sick, and the eagle stayed at his side and nursed its keeper. While he slept, the bird remained quiet. When he woke, it was there. If he took no food, it refused to eat. And when the youth at last died, the eagle also followed him to the tomb, and as the body burned it threw itself on to the pyre.

So, if there’s one message that Greco-Roman writers give about pets, it’s that the bonds between humans and animals can sometimes be stronger than the bonds between humans and other humans.

Konstantine Panegyres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Like your pet more than people? So did some of the Greco-Romans – https://theconversation.com/like-your-pet-more-than-people-so-did-some-of-the-greco-romans-236592

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Clarke, Senior Lecturer in History, specialising in built heritage and material culture, University of the Sunshine Coast

Big Things first appeared in Australia in the 1960s, beginning with the Big Scotsman (1962) in Medindie, South Australia, the Big Banana (1964) in Coffs Harbour, New South Wales, and the Big Murray Cod (1968) in Tocumwal, NSW.

These structures were inspired by earlier North American examples, such as Lucy the Elephant (1882) in New Jersey, and several big doughnuts in California.

While they differed in subject matter, all aimed to attract the attention of passing motorists: in the 1950s–1960s, private car ownership had soared and highway construction spread.

Towns and regions across Australia, New Zealand and North America used oversized landmarks to get travellers to stop, take a photo and hopefully spend money at local businesses.

As awareness of these giant landmarks grew, so did the desire of other communities to have their own.

Within a few decades, Australia’s Big Things had become a beloved fixture of road trips and summer holidays.

A big cultural impact

My research shows the number of Big Things being constructed in Australia hit an initial peak in the 1980s before experiencing a temporary decline.

By the 2000s, however, towns as far afield as Tully in Queensland (Big Golden Gumboot), Cressy in Tasmania (Big Trout), and Exmouth in Western Australia (Big Prawn) were reviving the tradition.

Soon, Big Things became firmly entrenched in Australian popular culture: featuring on limited edition Redheads matchboxes (2010), and on sets of Australia Post stamps (2007 and 2023).

But some of the older structures experienced declining popularity: the Big Wool Bales in Hamilton, Victoria (closed 2020), Victoria’s Giant Gippsland Earth Worm in Bass (closed 2020) and the Big Cask Wine in Mourquong, NSW (closed 2012), survive only in holiday photos and people’s memories.

Icons like Larry the Lobster (Kingston, SA), the Big Prawn (Ballina, NSW), and the Big Pineapple (Nambour, Queensland) have battled changes in ownership, threat of demolition, and closure.

Read more:
Australia’s ‘big’ problem – what to do with our ageing super-sized statues?

Despite these challenges, and debates over heritage conservation, construction of these giant landmarks has not slowed.

The Big Bogan was erected in 2015 in Nyngan, NSW, by community members who were eager to encourage visitors to the area.

A local progress association in the small town of Thallon in Queensland unveiled William the Big Wombat in 2018, also with the aim to bring attention to the area.

Similar hopes were held for the Big Watermelon erected in 2018 (Chinchilla, Queensland), and the Big Tractor (Carnamah, WA) which opened this year.

Through my research, I spoke with many people involved with projects such as these, and they said they’d selected objects that were iconic to their area.

This could be a product they specialise in, a local native animal, or, in the case of the Big Bogan, a joke based on the name of nearby Bogan River.

Most builders openly acknowledge their primary motivation is to promote the region, attract tourist dollars and investment, and revive towns that have seen better days.

But do Big Things actually achieve these goals? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer.

An economic return?

Local economies are complex, as are the reasons people choose to visit. Many Big Things are constructed on the sides of highways that connect Australia’s numerous regional towns.

People who stop for photos may not set out with the goal of visiting that Big Thing – it may simply be convenient to take a break there while on the way somewhere else.

And if people do stop, it doesn’t guarantee they will spend more than the cost of filling up their car with petrol, if that.

Over the years, tourism researchers have developed several different models for calculating the impact of rural and regional tourism on local economies.

However, none of these approaches has proven to be universally effective. Most scholars agree tourists aren’t likely to travel long distances for any one reason.

They will consider a range of factors including food and accommodation, and the closeness of numerous attractions. In other words: building a Big Thing won’t guarantee a sustained increase in tourism to the area on its own.

Communities should factor this in when considering erection of a Big Thing, especially given the cost of construction.

The Big Mango in Bowen reportedly cost $A90,000 when it was built in 2002, while the organisers of the Big Tractor in Carnamah raised more than $600,000 to cover its price tag.

The spread of social media and easy access to media outlets via the internet offers communities another reason to build Big Things, however.

Australians are not the only ones fascinated by Big Things, and when a new one is unveiled — or an existing one goes “missing”, as the Big Mango did in 2014 — it is often covered by the press and then shared online.

These giant landmarks are also highly “Instagrammable”: a 2015 survey revealed that six of Australia’s 20 most Instagrammed tourist attractions were Big Things.

This sort of coverage doesn’t necessarily guarantee the long-term revival of a town’s economy.

But it can help to remind people of the town’s existence, and it gives locals a memorable image on which to build.

Amy Clarke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. From the Big Bogan to Larry the Lobster, why do towns build Big Things? – https://theconversation.com/from-the-big-bogan-to-larry-the-lobster-why-do-towns-build-big-things-241129

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By H. Peter Soyer, Professor of Dermatology, The University of Queensland

Australia has one of the highest skin cancer rates globally, with nearly 19,000 Australians diagnosed with invasive melanoma – the most lethal type of skin cancer – each year.

While advanced melanoma can be fatal, it is highly treatable when detected early.

But Australian clinical practice guidelines and health authorities do not recommend screening for melanoma in the general population.

Given our reputation as the skin cancer capital of the world, why isn’t there a national screening program? Australia currently screens for breast, cervical and bowel cancer and will begin lung cancer screening in 2025.

It turns out the question of whether to screen everyone for melanoma and other skin cancers is complex. Here’s why.

The current approach

On top of the 19,000 invasive melanoma diagnoses each year, around 28,000 people are diagnosed with in-situ melanoma.

In-situ melanoma refers to a very early stage melanoma where the cancerous cells are confined to the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis).

Instead of a blanket screening program, Australia promotes skin protection, skin awareness and regular skin checks (at least annually) for those at high risk.

About one in three Australian adults have had a clinical skin check within the past year.

Why not just do skin checks for everyone?

The goal of screening is to find disease early, before symptoms appear, which helps save lives and reduce morbidity.

But there are a couple of reasons a national screening program is not yet in place.

We need to ask:

1. Does it save lives?

Many researchers would argue this is the goal of universal screening. But while universal skin cancer screening would likely lead to more melanoma diagnoses, this might not necessarily save lives. It could result in indolent (slow-growing) cancers being diagnosed that might have never caused harm. This is known as “overdiagnosis”.

Screening will pick up some cancers people could have safely lived with, if they didn’t know about them. The difficulty is in recognising which cancers are slow-growing and can be safely left alone.

Receiving a diagnosis causes stress and is more likely to lead to additional medical procedures (such as surgeries), which carry their own risks.

2. Is it value for money?

Implementing a nationwide screening program involves significant investment and resources. Its value to the health system would need to be calculated, to ensure this is the best use of resources.

Read more:
Yes, you still need to use sunscreen, despite what you’ve heard on TikTok

Narrower targets for better results

Instead of screening everyone, targeting high-risk groups has shown better results. This focuses efforts where they’re needed most. Risk factors for skin cancer include fair skin, red hair, a history of sunburns, many moles and/or a family history.

Research has shown the public would be mostly accepting of a risk-tailored approach to screening for melanoma.

There are moves underway to establish a national targeted skin cancer screening program in Australia, with the government recently pledging $10.3 million to help tackle “the most common cancer in our sunburnt country, skin cancer” by focusing on those at greater risk.

Currently, Australian clinical practice guidelines recommend doctors properly evaluate all patients for their future risk of melanoma.

Looking with new technological eyes

Technological advances are improving the accuracy of skin cancer diagnosis and risk assessment.

For example, researchers are investigating 3D total body skin imaging to monitor changes to spots and moles over time.

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms can analyse images of skin lesions, and support doctors’ decision making.

Genetic testing can now identify risk markers for more personalised screening.

And telehealth has made remote consultations possible, increasing access to specialists, particularly in rural areas.

Check yourself – 4 things to look for

Skin cancer can affect all skin types, so it’s a good idea to become familiar with your own skin. The Skin Cancer College Australasia has introduced a guide called SCAN your skin, which tells people to look for skin spots or areas that are:

1. sore (scaly, itchy, bleeding, tender) and don’t heal within six weeks

2. changing in size, shape, colour or texture

3. abnormal for you and look different or feel different, or stand out when compared to your other spots and moles

4. new and have appeared on your skin recently. Any new moles or spots should be checked, especially if you are over 40.

If something seems different, make an appointment with your doctor.

You can self-assess your melanoma risk online via the Melanoma Institute Australia or QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.

H. Peter Soyer is a shareholder of MoleMap NZ Limited and e-derm consult GmbH and undertakes regular teledermatological reporting for both companies. He is a Medical Consultant for Canfield Scientific Inc. He receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and The Medical Research Future Fund.

Anne Cust receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Monika Janda receives project and fellowship funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and The Medical Research Future Fund. She serves on the scientific advisory committee for Melanoma and Skin Cancer Advocacy Group.

Caitlin Horsham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. We don’t all need regular skin cancer screening – but you can know your risk and check yourself – https://theconversation.com/we-dont-all-need-regular-skin-cancer-screening-but-you-can-know-your-risk-and-check-yourself-239378

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wen-Qiang He, Research Fellow in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney

Extreme heat is increasingly common in Australia and around the world and besides making us uncomfortable, it can harm our health. For example, exposure to extreme heat can exacerbate existing medical conditions, or cause problems such as heat stroke.

Due to a combination of physiology and behaviour, children are potentially more vulnerable to severe heat-related illness such as heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

But these are not the only heat-related health issues children might experience on a very hot day. In a new study, we looked at emergency department (ED) visits and unplanned hospital admissions among children in New South Wales on heatwave days.

We found a significant increase in children attending hospital compared to milder days – with a range of health issues.

Why are children more vulnerable in the heat?

Sweating is the main way we lose heat from our bodies and cool down.

Children have a greater skin surface area to body mass ratio, which can be an advantage for sweating – they can lose more heat through evaporation for a given body mass. But this also means children can lose fluids and electrolytes faster through sweating, theoretically making them more susceptible to dehydration.

Meanwhile, younger children, particularly babies, can’t sweat as much as older children and adults. This means they can’t cool down as effectively.

Children in general also tend to engage in more outdoor physical activity, which might see them more exposed to very hot temperatures.

Further, children may be less in-tune to the signals their body is giving them that they’re overheating, such as excessive sweating or red skin. So they might not stop and cool down when they need to. Young children especially may not recognise the early signs of heat stress or be able to express discomfort.

Our study

We wanted to examine children’s exposure to extreme heat stress and the associated risks to their health.

We measured extreme heat as “heatwave days”, at least two consecutive days with a daily maximum temperature above the 95th percentile for the relevant area on a universal thermal climate index. This ranged from 27°C to 45°C depending on the area.

We assessed health outcomes by looking at ED visits and unplanned hospital admissions among children aged 0–18 years from NSW between 2000 and 2020. This totalled around 8.2 million ED visits and 1.4 million hospital admissions.

We found hospital admissions for heat-related illness were 104% more likely on heatwave days compared to non-heatwave days, and ED visits were 78% more likely.
Heat-related illness includes a spectrum of disorders from minor conditions such as dehydration to life-threatening conditions such as heat stroke.

But heat-related illness wasn’t the only condition that increased on heatwave days. There was also an increase in childhood infections, particularly infectious enteritis possibly related to food poisoning (up 6% for ED visits and 17% for hospital admissions), ear infections (up 30% for ED visits and 3% for hospital admissions), and skin and soft tissue infections (up 6% for ED visits and 4% for hospital admissions).

We know many infectious diseases are highly seasonal. Some, like the flu, peak in winter. But heat and humidity increase the risk of certain infections caused by bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens.

For example, warmer weather and higher humidity can increase the survival of bacteria, such as Salmonella, on foods, which increases the risk of food poisoning.

Hot weather can also increase the risk of ear infections. Children may be at greater risk during hot weather because they often swim or play at the beach or pool. Water can stay in the ear after swimming and a moist environment in the ear canal can cause growth of pathogens leading to ear infections.

Which children are most vulnerable?

During heatwaves, we found infants aged under one were at increased risk of ED visits and hospital admission for any reason compared to older children. This is not surprising, because babies can’t regulate their body temperature effectively and are reliant on their caregivers to keep them cool.

Our study also found children from the most disadvantaged areas were more vulnerable to heat-related illness on heatwave days. Although we don’t know exactly why, we hypothesised families from poorer areas might have limited access to air-conditioning and could be more likely to live in hotter neighbourhoods.

Keeping kids cool: tips for parents

The highest levels of heat exposure on hot days for young children is usually when they’re taken outside in prams and strollers. To protect their children from direct sunlight, parents often instinctively cover their stroller with a cloth such as a muslin.

However, a recent study from our group showed this actually increases temperatures inside a stroller to as much as 3–4˚C higher than outside.

But if the cloth is wet with water, and a small fan is used to circulate the air close to the child, stroller temperatures can be 4–5˚C lower than outside. Wetting the cloth every 15–20 minutes (for example, with a spray bottle) maintains the cooling effect.

When young children are not in a stroller, and for older children, there are a few things to consider to keep them cool and safe.

Remember temperatures reported on weather forecasts are measured in the shade, and temperatures in the sun can be up to 15˚C higher. So sticking to the shade as much as possible is important.

Exercise generates heat inside the body, so activities should be shortened, or rescheduled to cooler times of the day.

Sunscreen and hats are important when outdoors, but neither are especially effective for keeping cool. Spraying water on the child’s skin – not just the face but arms, legs and even the torso if possible – can help. Wetting their hats is another idea.

Proper hydration on hot days is also essential. Regular water breaks, including offering water before, during and after activity, is important. Offering foods with high water content such as watermelon and orange can help with hydration too.

James Smallcombe receives funding from NHMRC

Natasha Nassar receives funding from NHMRC

Ollie Jay receives funding from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Wellcome Trust (UK).

Wen-Qiang He does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Children can be more vulnerable in the heat. Here’s how to protect them this summer – https://theconversation.com/children-can-be-more-vulnerable-in-the-heat-heres-how-to-protect-them-this-summer-240892

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacquie Rand, Emeritus Professor of Companion Animal Health, The University of Queensland

Learning a pet has diabetes can be a shock. Sadly, about 20% of diabetic cats and dogs are euthanised within a year of diagnosis due to the impacts on the pets’ health and their owners’ lifestyle and finances.

However, the disease can be managed. And for cats, but not dogs, effective early treatment even gives them a good chance of remission.

Diabetes in cats and dogs is fairly common – though not as common as in humans.
It affects about 1.5% of dogs and 0.5–1% of cats.

So what exactly is diabetes? What are the warning signs? And how do you manage the disease?

What is diabetes?

Glucose is the body’s primary energy source. Insulin, a hormone produced in the pancreas, regulates levels of this blood-borne sugar, its uptake into cells and its storage in the liver and muscles.

In animals with diabetes, the body does not secrete enough insulin. The result is high glucose levels (hyperglycemia) and associated clinical signs.

Some breeds and unspayed female dogs are more at risk, as are middle-aged, older and obese animals.

Diabetes mellitis (its full scientific name) is generally classified into four main types:

1. Type 1 diabetes

This form results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic cells, because the immune system attacks them by mistake.

Type 1 is common in dogs but rare in cats. Its onset in dogs, usually in middle age, is often insidious.

2. Type 2 diabetes

This form is characterised by insulin resistance and dysfunction in cells that produce insulin. It accounts for most cases in cats but is rare in dogs.

The major risk factors are obesity and increasing age. Other factors include genetics, physical inactivity and being kept indoors and the use of glucocorticoid steroids.

In the earlier stages, when the cat is still producing some insulin of its own, type 2 diabetes can be managed using drugs that reduce blood glucose. The drugs are formally known as “sodium-glucose transporter 2” or (SGLT2) inhibitors.

For more advanced cases, insulin injections are essential. Long-acting insulin in cats typically controls blood glucose levels better than the intermediate-acting insulins typically used in dogs.

Weight loss is also important for overweight or obese animals. The maximum safe rate of weight loss is 1-2% of body weight a week in cats, so achieving an ideal weight can take 6–12 months. Adding steamed zucchini to each meal can help with weight loss.

3. Other specific types

Some diabetes types are caused by other medical conditions such as chronic pancreatitis, which is common in diabetic dogs, or acromegaly in cats, where too much growth hormone results in marked insulin resistance.

4. Dioestrus and Gestational diabetes

Diabetes can occur in older female dogs after they have been in heat. In dioestrus, secretion of increased growth hormone from mammary glands counteracts insulin. Although very rare in pets, female dogs can get transient diabetes in pregnancy.

What are the signs to look for?

Signs of diabetes usually emerge slowly over weeks to months. If diagnosis is delayed, the pet’s health can decline rapidly over 24–48 hours, leading to death if not immediately treated.

Signs to look out for include increased thirst and urination, increased appetite and weight loss. However, some dogs and up to 50% of cats with diabetes have a reduced appetite.

Diabetic cats’ posture may change to a flat-footed stance and they may lose jumping ability. Diabetic dogs are prone to cataracts.

Diagnosis involves documenting persistently high blood glucose levels along with glucose in the urine. Certain or tests tests can confirm the diagnosis by measuring average blood glucose over the past several weeks.

In cats, early diagnosis before clinical signs appear can be difficult because the stress of visiting the vet often raises blood glucose levels. Multiple measurements and/or urine analysis, preferably at home, may be needed to confirm the diagnosis.

What are the treatment options?

Tailored monitoring and treatment can improve quality of life and reduce euthanasia rates. In cats, early intervention can potentially delay onset of clinical diabetes and reduce the burden of long-term insulin treatment.

Insulin therapy remains the cornerstone of treatment. Options range from short-acting for immediate control to intermediate and long-acting insulin for daily management.

In dogs, types of insulin known as “porcine lente” or “protamine zinc” are commonly used. Consistent feeding schedules and exercise help stabilise blood glucose.

SGLT2 inhibitors have almost no risk of clinical signs from low blood glucose (hypoglycemia) and can be given with food. This may help overcome common treatment barriers such as having to give twice daily injections for cats with diabetes.

However, these treatments are most effective with early diagnosis, as they require the cat to still produce enough insulin to suppress formation of ketones (acids your body makes when it breaks down fat for energy). Especially in the first few weeks of treatment, ketone monitoring is crucial to avoid life-threatening complications.

For cats showing more advanced signs of diabetes, their own insulin secretion is unlikely to be enough for management with oral SGLT2 inhibitors, and insulin injections are needed. Longer-acting insulin is more effective for inducing remission.

Dietary changes are essential. Low-carbohydrate diets improve remission rates for cats when combined with long-acting insulin. However, such diets might not be suitable when using SGLT2 inhibitors.

In newly diagnosed cats without other medical conditions, tight control of blood glucose levels can lead to remission in up to 80% of cases. Sustained weight management is then key to maintaining it without other treatment.

Dogs rarely achieve remission because the destruction of insulin-producing cells in type 1 diabetes is irreversible.

Diabetic cats and dogs can have a good life

Diabetes in dogs and cats is manageable with the right vet care, owner commitment, and adjustments to diet and body weight.

Advances in home glucose monitoring, including continuous monitors, mean vets and pet owners can better track and manage blood glucose.

For most diabetic dogs it’s a lifelong condition. For cats, the prospect of remission, as well as giving owners hope, underscores the need for awareness of early symptoms and early vet care.

Through diligent weight management, diet, glucose monitoring and insulin dose adjustments, pets with diabetes can live healthy, fulfilling lives.

Jacquie Rand receives no current funding from organisations related to diabetes in dogs or cats. She has an honorary position at the University of Queensland and is employed by the not-for-profit Australian Pet Welfare Foundation (APWF), which undertakes research aimed at improving the health and welfare of dogs and cats and benefiting pets and the people who care for them. APWF is largely funded by philanthropic gifts.

– ref. Dogs and cats get diabetes too. Here’s what to look out for and how to manage it – https://theconversation.com/dogs-and-cats-get-diabetes-too-heres-what-to-look-out-for-and-how-to-manage-it-225673

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Hadigheh, Senior Lecturer, Structural Engineering, University of Sydney

In the early days of the modern Olympics and Paralympics, athletes competed using heavy, non-aerodynamic equipment. The record for throwing a javelin, for instance, has almost doubled since 1908, when the sport was introduced. Athletes have got better – but so has their equipment.

In fact, sporting equipment (and the materials it is made from) has improved in almost every sport. Fibre-reinforced plastics, in particular, have been revolutionary. These composite materials commonly combine plastics with strong carbon or glass fibre. You can now find them in most sports played at high level.

These strong, bendable and lightweight materials have made it possible for athletes to push the limits of their sports, win medals and bring pride to their nations. But they come with a hidden cost.

Composite materials are notoriously hard to recycle. And the amount of waste from sports is growing fast. Our research offers a way to reduce this waste – and extract valuable carbon fibres.

Composites everywhere

Fibre-reinforced polymers have become ubiquitous because of their unique properties. They offer a combination of low weight, flexibility, strength and durability. The properties can be modified by adjusting fibres, mixing materials and changing how sporting equipment is designed.

If you pick up a modern tennis racket in one hand and an old wooden racket in the other, you will notice the difference. New composite rackets are light and strong, letting players achieve faster swing speeds.

Badminton rackets, too, have left solid wood behind. Today, even shuttlecocks have feathers reinforced with carbon rods.

Running footwear relies on carbon composites to boost springiness, aid propulsion, boost heel stability and reduce foot fatigue.

Cycling has greatly benefited from carbon composites. Modern racing bikes are often made entirely of carbon fibre, including lugs, tubes and connections. These bikes are lightweight, highly durable and with significantly lower air resistance compared to their metal counterparts.

Wherever you look, you see fibre-reinforced plastic composites. The bows in archery, the poles in pole vaulting, the wheelchairs in the Paralympics, the carbon net poles in volleyball, the saddles, horseshoes and helmets in equestrian disciplines, the gun bipods in shooting, the golf club shafts in golf, the boats in sailing, the skateboards in skating, the surfboards in surfing and even the climbing walls in rock climbing – all are now made of composites.

When the games are over

These materials have transformed many sports. But composites are made of several materials combined. That means they are often hard to recycle.

In the United Kingdom, for instance, about 90% of all composite waste goes to landfill. Only 2% is reused for carbon fibre. Producing new composites consumes a lot of energy.

Globally, about 7,000 tonnes of composite sporting equipment reaches its end of life and could be recycled every year. Demand for recycling is increasing. This stream of waste now accounts for almost 9% of the total composite market.

As these composites have become ever more popular, researchers have looked for better ways to recycle them – ideally, in ways which are also profitable. While many methods are not profitable, our earlier cost-benefit research found several methods which show promise.

In our recent research, we put one method to the test: thermochemical recycling.

Consider the challenge of recycling composites. They are often coated with polymers or resins to make their surfaces more durable. But this makes harder to pull these materials apart. Carbon fibres are the most valuable part in these composites.

To find ways of extracting these fibres, we took broken bikes made of carbon fibre composite and experimented with recycling using chemicals and heat.

Through trial and error, we developed highly efficient chemical methods of pre-treating broken bikes and discovered the optimal temperature to melt them: 425°C. At this temperature, we could extract these fibres relatively intact. The recycled fibres retained 94% of their original stiffness and 90% of their original strength.

This means they can be put to different uses, where slightly lower strength and stiffness are acceptable.

Recovered carbon fibres can also be used in 3D printing of other bike components, offering a high weight-to-strength ratio and increased durability, or even in reinforced concrete.

Where to from here?

It is hard to see athletes ever shifting back to the heavy, non-aerodynamic equipment of the past. But if valuable materials can be recovered cost-effectively from sporting equipment at the end of its life, it creates an incentive to do something useful with this growing waste stream.

While our new method uses less energy than existing heat recycling processes and produces relatively environmentally friendly waste by-products, we believe we can improve this process further so it uses still less energy.

Ultimately, we hope this method will be useful to help small and medium recycling businesses process more composite products from sports.

This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellowship scheme

This research was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellowship scheme

– ref. Sport produces mountains of high-tech waste. We are finding new ways to recycle it – https://theconversation.com/sport-produces-mountains-of-high-tech-waste-we-are-finding-new-ways-to-recycle-it-243935