Jessica Lewis has loved frogs since childhood. Now, as a Macquarie University alumna and research assistant to Dr Anthony Waddle, she is transforming that lifelong fascination into conservation research focused on protecting one of Australia’s most threatened amphibians.

When Jessica Lewis, then a Master’s student at Macquarie University, volunteered to help save one of Australia’s most endangered frogs, she imagined her first day would involve, well, frogs.

Instead, it involved 500 bricks and a Toyota Camry.

Loaded into the back of Associate Professor Anthony Waddle's car, the bricks were supposed to be transported to Sydney Olympic Park, where they would become part of Waddle's research into frog saunas designed to protect the critically endangered green and golden bell frog. There was, however, one problem: the Camry wasn't designed to carry half a tonne of bricks.

It wasn't exactly the glamorous introduction to wildlife conservation Lewis might have imagined. But she came back the next day, despite the unloading it took to get the car moving – continuing to leap into every opportunity Waddle offered her.

Looking back, Waddle jokes he wasn't entirely convinced she would return, but it didn't take long for him to realise Lewis’s enthusiasm for frogs rivalled his own – a fascination that had taken root long before she ever stepped onto a field site.

"I was obsessed with reptiles," Lewis reflects.

"I got my first lizard when I was four, and every spring my mum and I would rescue tadpoles from little ponds we knew would dry up. We would raise them until they became frogs and then release them again.

"Later, I worked for a reptile breeder, which reignited that passion and made me realise I wanted to study zoology.

"I then came to Macquarie to complete a Master of Conservation Biology, and that's how my journey into frog conservation began."

Jessica Lewi has always had a deep love for animals. Photo: Elaine Obran

But it wouldn’t be until Lewis reached out to researchers across the university who might need volunteers that she crossed paths with Waddle. And while the species at the centre of the project was small, the work they had to take on was anything but.

With the green and golden bell frog facing dramatic population declines due to habitat loss, introduced predators and chytrid fungus – a deadly disease that attacks amphibian skin and has devastated frog populations worldwide – the pair found themselves at the forefront of efforts to help save the species.

"The chytrid fungus doesn't affect all frogs the same, but in the green and golden bell frog, it has caused major population declines, and it attacks the skin," explains Lewis.

"The project we did back in 2024 when I first started volunteering with him was a pilot study. We brought frogs in from Sydney Olympic Park, treated them and released them, to show that it worked and didn't negatively affect the frogs – which it didn’t."

The success of that first trial laid the foundations for a much larger conservation effort.

Today, Lewis is helping monitor one of the team's largest breeding and release programs.

"We did this huge release program where we brought in a bunch of adult frogs from Sydney Olympic Park, bred them here at the university and raised all the babies.

"And then since then we've been doing post-release monitoring, where we capture them, swab and test their chytrid infection levels. It’s too early to speak on the data just yet, but the results so far are looking really good."

Inside the laboratory, the tiny, expressive faces behind this ambitious conservation effort bring home the significance of the work.

Rows of clear containers line the benches, each holding flashes of emerald green and gold. Some frogs are scarcely larger than a coin, their entire bodies fitting comfortably into the cup of Lewis's hand.

She carefully holds them, containing their back legs so they can’t jump away. The moment reflects the delicacy and determination it has taken to get the frogs to this point – with Lewis preparing food, cleaning enclosures and recording data, despite moments when she has asked herself, “How am I going to be able to do this?”

Today, Lewis is helping monitor one of the team's largest breeding and release programs. Image: Yorick Lambreghts

But it’s this work that has shaped her time at Macquarie University – learning from the research as much as she learns from the frogs themselves.

"One thing I've learned from these frogs is their resilience and adaptability.

"People will build beautiful ponds and habitats, and a frog, like the green and golden bell frog, chooses to live in the brick pit, which is an old, rundown industrial site turned conservation land.

"And they are not just surviving; they are thriving."

It’s a lesson Lewis has carried into her own journey.

Born in Canada, Lewis travelled across continents before moving to Australia, building a career in conservation while navigating the challenging conditions caring for the frogs requires.

It’s advice she now encourages other students to follow.

"Reach out to the animal research teams at the university and stick with the opportunities if they open up,” says Lewis.

"Not every day, especially working with animals, is glamorous – to be honest, most of my days are spent cleaning up poo.

"But I have found that by jumping on every opportunity Anthony’s offered me, I now have connections across Australia in conservation."

Of course, saying yes is only one part of what it takes to carve out a career in such a demanding industry.

Much like her first day volunteering, Lewis’s learning and knowledge has been shaped by the people who have helped her carry the weight of being a student.

For Lewis, that person was Associate Professor Anthony Waddle – a working relationship as symbiotic as the frogs they are helping to save.

"I have been extremely fortunate to find that in Anthony,” reflects Lewis.

“He's been an incredible mentor and supervisor, and someone who has given me the tools and stepping stones to get into the field.

“I’m like one of his biggest cheerleaders, but I also feel like he returns that to me and has really given me the confidence to enter this field.

"Sometimes, I ask myself, can I do this? But he believes in me, and that makes me feel like I can too."

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“The reputation mostly comes from sharks and snakes”: Meet the wildlife researcher myth-busting Australia’s reputation as a deadly destination.

Australia is famously home to some of the world’s most dangerous animals, from land creatures like venomous snakes, crocodiles, and spiders, to marine life like sharks and jellyfish.

Dr Chris Jolly, a research fellow at Macquarie University’s School of Natural Sciences, has spent his career studying how wildlife interacts with humans and the environments we share with them.

He’s well known for his field work in places like Kakadu, where he helped test whether endangered northern quolls could be trained to survive the spread of poisonous, introduced cane toads.

Dr Chris  Jolly pictured with a coastal taipan caught during an ecological survey in the Kimberley. Photo: Max Jackson.

While Australia is viewed globally as a mecca of dangerous animals, on average there are only about 32 animal-related fatalities per year, while 1.5 million people are killed worldwide by animals every year.

A focus of his research is debunking the myths around deadly wildlife, while explaining our interactions with animals and their connection to fatalities in Australia.

He says widespread media coverage of deaths, involving predatory animals like snakes, sharks and crocodiles, has generated a belief that Australia is one of the world’s most dangerous places to live.

“The reputation mostly comes from sharks and snakes," Dr Jolly says. “But actually 71 per cent of animal-related fatalities involve land mammals – including animals that we interact with on a daily basis like horses, dogs and even insects like honeybees.”

The National Coronial Information System (NCIS) 2020 fact sheet summarised a study done between 2001 to 2017. During that period, 541 animal-related deaths were reported, and a quarter of deaths involve vehicle incidents.

An average of three people die in Australia from shark attacks each year, based on data from the Australian Shark Incident Database. Photo: Getty.

“Bovines, cattle and other animals like buffalo, kill people most often through car strikes,” Dr Jolly says.

Horses and dogs are the other two big contributors to animal-related fatalities, followed by kangaroos, snakes, and bees, with sharks and crocodiles combined contributing only 48 deaths in those 16 years.

“People falling from horses is an incredibly dangerous animal-related event,” he says.

To further emphasise this point, while snakebites are serious, people rarely die from them because of access to anti-venom and medical care.

“Australia has many highly venomous snakes but we don’t have many snake fatalities - and those rare and unfortunate fatalities often involved in incidents with brown snakes,” Dr Jolly says.

Cattle kill more Australians each year than the venomous animals we are famed for, most often in road accidents. Photo: Getty.

A brown snake bite can trigger a rapid change of blood pressure, that can result in a person falling unconscious and risk hitting their head.

He says those who are unable to get medical support are in danger from a range of complications related to their venom consuming the blood’s ability to clot.

“They can essentially bleed to death internally. Which is often why people die from brown snake envenomation, but in Australia, venom-related fatalities are extremely uncommon,” he adds.

His research also examines how man-made environments may increase our interaction with wildlife.

“It’s less so animals moving into human-dominated areas, but us expanding into animal habitats and reducing the critical resources available to them. Animals aren’t necessarily adaptinging to climate change, but climate change is a selective pressure, and it alters animal behaviour and distribution,” he argues.

With rising temperatures, Aussies are increasingly heading to the beach to swim and cool down. As water activities increase, so does the chance for encountering a shark or a crocodile.

“The trend for shark attacks is going up through time, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect a change in sharks, but rather because of our very active beach culture.” Dr Jolly explains. “The probability of a fatal shark encounter increases with the number of humans in their habitat, not necessarily the number of sharks. Same with crocodiles and snakes."

Chris  Jolly pictured radio-tracking cane toads in central Northern Territory. Photo: Terri Shane.

Dr Jolly says that while climate change could contribute to the amount of interactions we have with animals, more importantly it is human populations expanding into animal habitats, which increases the probability of dangerous human–animal interactions.

“Extreme weather events could push animals into areas where humans are… but the effect of climate change on our interactions with dangerous wildlife such as crocodiles, sharks and snakes, via changes in their distribution, is likely to be more subtle and progressive.”

He says flying foxes are a better example of the type of animals interacting more with humans.

“Flying foxes are increasingly roosting in cities and towns and people are concerned because they think they are loud, they smell, and they can carry Hendra virus. But they are moving into these areas because the resources that would have once been available to them outside cities and towns are not anymore,” he says.

Australians have access to a great variety of medical treatments, but education is the most important factor in staying protected.

“We are incredibly lucky to have access to world class medical treatment for snakebites, and we have an educated public when it comes to snakebite first-aid. The most effective strategy for being safe around wildlife is education. Understanding the risks, the times of days and places that are risky for certain species and taking preventative measures to reduce the chance of encounter,” he cautions.

Although for decades Australia has had the reputation of being one of the world’s most dangerous places for its wildlife, animal-related human deaths in our wild environments are extremely low.

“It is our behaviour that results in animal-related human deaths. The risks are driven by people,” he says.

“The reality in Australia is that animals are not as dangerous and threatening to human life as the media would have you believe.”

Dr Jolly says an important part of his role as an academic is helping the public to understand how our emotions and fears around animals like snakes, sharks and crocodiles, can actually blind us to the everyday dangers in homes, roads, and workplaces.

But the risks posed by animals to humans are relatively small. Dr Jolly's research is increasingly looking at how native animals evolve to persist in our rapidly changing world. That includes everything from exotic species like cane toads, introduced by humans into sensitive environments, through to wide-scale climatic events like bushfires that can disrupt entire ecosystems.

His most recent publication in Trends in Ecology and Evolution reviews how humans have reshaped the physical, behavioural and social traits of wild animals and the effect this has had on the interactions between predators and their prey.

Dr Chris Jolly is a Macquarie Research Fellow in the School of Natural Sciences.

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Professor Dali Kaafar, Executive Director of Macquarie University’s Cyber Security Hub: “We’re about to find out whether privacy can survive surveillance becoming fashionable.”

George Orwell imagined Big Brother as an omnipresent dictator with a heavy black moustache and piercing eyes that “follow you about when you move.” His image is accompanied by the slogan, "BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU", a warning enforced by the two-way telescreens found in every home, workplace and public square.

George Orwell imagined a dark future created by surveillance technology. Photo: Getty.

The dystopian author described 1984 as satire of the “perversions to which a centralised economy is liable.”

“Something resembling it could arrive,” Orwell said in 1949, and now academics argue it has.

Meta's new AI glasses have restyled Kylie Jenner as an ever-present ‘Big Sister’.

Earlier this month, Facebook’s parent company released its signature line of Kylie ‘Starfire’ smart glasses that feature an AI assistant with her own voice. They retail in Australia for $649.

The social media mogul was just 9-years-old when she began filming Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Speaking on Jake Shane’s Therapuss podcast in January, Jenner described the constant surveillance of reality TV cameras as a “harrowing experience” that made it “hard” to leave the house.

The Meta x Kylie Jenner Starfire AI glasses include an AI assistant voiced by Kylie. Photo: Kylie Jenner/Instagram.

Professor Dali Kaafar, Executive Director of the Cybersecurity Hub at Macquarie University, says Australian privacy laws aren’t ready for such an intrusion.

“There is a great irony in Kylie, who has spoken openly about the psychological toll of being watched her whole life, becoming the face of a product that wants to normalise covert surveillance,” he says.

“Surveillance is being sold to us as a lifestyle rather than as a technology, and my long-standing view is that the biggest privacy shifts do not arrive through legislation, but through cultural normalisation. Normalisation runs through aspirational culture, and once a technology lands there it becomes very difficult to reverse, or even resist," he warns.

"But I believe in Australia being one of the very few societies that can and should restrict the use of these glasses, except in genuine use cases such as disability.”

Industry insiders speculate the Meta and Kylie Jenner collaboration to be worth US$30million. Photo: Kylie Jenner/Instagram.

Meta’s slick marketing roll out is the same play that worked with early social media: make it aesthetic first and convince the public to argue about the rules later.

Prof. Kaafar thinks Australia should put a blanket ban on the invasive AI facial recognition tech.

"In recent privacy lawsuits involving Bunnings and Kmart, the privacy regulator found they'd collected customers' biometric data through facial recognition without proper consent," he says.

Bunnings challenged the outcome and was granted permission to use the technology for security purposes.

"That tells you the law here is unsettled and struggling to keep pace," Prof. Kafaar says, "and that was just about cameras fixed inside a handful of stores. Now, we're talking about putting that same capability in the hands of millions of people."

Google Glasses, released in 2013, were broadly rejected by the public. Photo: Getty.

Smart glasses are not a new technology. Google Glasses, released in 2013, have the same core capability. But wearers were labelled ‘glassholes’, many venues banned them outright, and the controversial product died on arrival.

A decade later, Meta is heavily promoting its new product (with a Super Bowl ad starring Spike Lee, a brick-and-mortar store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, and a donation of 100,000 pairs to blind veterans on US President Trump’s birthday). It appears to be paying off, with seven million sold last year.

“The technology itself has barely changed. What’s changed is the branding,” says Prof. Kaafar, who believes that Meta has done nothing to answer privacy concerns about its product.

“The issue of consent is not really about the wearer of the glasses. It is about everyone else in the frame,” he says.

“The recording indicator light is a weak safeguard at best. It can be trivially disabled (there are plentiful tutorials online), and even when it is lit, no one walking past is meaningfully consenting to being filmed and potentially processed through Meta's biometric pipeline.”

He points to the online evidence: hundreds of “manfluencer” clips shot by young men on Meta’s glasses: point‑of‑view interactions with women at gyms, beaches and train stations, framed as ‘pick up’ content.

In many cases, the creators also monetise the covert interactions with women into content that amasses millions of views. The unmoderated comments on each video are flooded with sexual and derogatory remarks aimed at the unsuspecting women involved.

One woman in London told the BBC a man secretly  filmed her with smart glasses, posted the video where it was viewed 40,000 times, and later requested payment to take it down. The ABC reported a Sydney woman’s “soul destroying” account of being “harassed” by an American content creator who shared a covert video to his 1.3 million Instagram followers.

Meta has leveraged high-profile partnerships with Ray-Ban, Kylie Jenner, Jennie from BLACKPINK, Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Pratt to market its AI glasses. Photo: Kylie Jenner/Instagram.

Australian TikToker Blue‑Eyed Kayla Jade has urged her 3million followers not to buy into the hype. “As someone who has been filmed without her consent, I know that Kylie Jenner’s collab with Meta glasses is going to cause more harm than good to women,” she shared. “I don’t think this campaign is about getting women to buy Meta glasses; I think it’s about making everyone else feel comfortable around the creepy men already wearing them.”

On that point, Prof. Kaafar says Meta’s advertising of smart glasses “undersells the problem.”

“These devices are not just wearable cameras,” he stresses. “They are a continuous, first-person feed that serves as an input pipeline for AI data collection and model training.”

He likens the glasses to “wearing a stalker on your face,” and is concerned we have “a very short collective memory,” about Meta’s business practises. The company has already paid more than US$7 billion in settlements and fines for privacy violations.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said people who don't wear AI glasses will suffer “pretty significant cognitive disadvantage”. Photo: Getty.

Two Harvard students showed that by pairing Meta's glasses with off-the-shelf facial-recognition software, they could identify strangers;  finding names, addresses and personal phone numbers, within seconds. In a leaked internal memo, Meta said political tumult in the United States would distract critics from their facial recognition feature’s release.

Then in March, Swedish journalists revealed that third-party contractors in Kenya had reviewed intimate footage, private messages and banking details captured through Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. More than 1,000 low-paid Kenyan data-labelling workers lost their jobs shortly after the investigation became public.

Meta now faces a class action over alleged false advertising and consumer deception. “Designed for privacy, controlled by you,” might be the slogan on the box, but Meta argues the fine-print T&C’s give implicit consent to share and store users’ data any time they use look-and-ask AI functions.

“The Australian regulatory context is genuinely not built for this,” Prof. Kaafar stresses.

Australian privacy laws, in their current form, are no match for facial recognition technology. Photo: Getty. 

Currently in Australia, each state and territory has its own surveillance devices laws that dictate people’s rights. Under the Surveillance Devices Act in NSW, recording a conversation without all parties’ consent can carry a penalty of up to five years imprisonment. While other states have a Human Rights Act that includes a right to privacy.

While it is legal to film people in public, the covert nature of Meta’s glasses, and repeated targeting of women by wearers has raised legal and ethical questions about who this technology benefits.

“The Privacy Act review has been protracted. We now have a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, which is a step forward, but it's a high-threshold, after-the-fact civil remedy—not a control on the devices themselves," Prof. Kaafar says. "The OAIC is under-resourced for something that could reach the mainstream very quickly. If people begin wearing these devices to the shops in the way they now wear Air Pods, the person on the other side of the interaction has almost no legal protection.”

That’s why he “totally supports” placing a moratorium on their sale. “I don’t think many Australians want being unrecorded in public to become an afforded luxury,” Prof. Kaafar adds.

“More often than not, society asks the wrong questions of new technology. Can we? The real question is, should we?”

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Experts say the NSW state government must move beyond piecemeal policies and adopt a more ambitious blueprint for reducing gambling harm.

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New Macquarie University research shows the way someone’s eyes move when they look at medical images mirrors their underlying cognitive processes.

We commonly say an art curator casts “an expert eye” over a painting, or an auditor over a set of accounts.

But what is it that, for example, allows an experienced birdwatcher to identify an uncommon species rapidly, at a distance, and against a chaotic background in the wild?

And what separates the gaze of a qualified brain surgeon from that of a first-year medical student? How is that kind of visual expertise acquired?

These questions are all highly relevant to the design and training of future artificial intelligence (AI) applications capable of analysing and interpreting complex medical images. Researchers in Macquarie University’s Computational NeuroSurgery (CNS) Lab, led by Professor Antonio Di Ieva, have long argued the answers aren’t just a matter of additional knowledge but also involve measurable, structural differences in how the eyes of an expert move and scan the relevant field for information.

Now they’ve been able to put hard data behind that idea with the publication of three new studies in which they harness the mathematical power of fractals to chart the development of visual expertise from novice to neurosurgeon.

Their work started with high-resolution tracking to record the eye movements of medical students, surgical trainees and qualified neurosurgeons as they viewed images ranging from simple X-rays to CT and MRI scans. Then they combined fractal mathematics and machine learning – a form of AI – to make sense of the overall pattern of those movements, translating the structure and complexity of visual scanning into geometric and numerical expressions.

Heatmaps comparing eye gaze fixation between naïve and expert groups when looking at an MRI image showing a brain lesion. (Images supplied by Macquarie University CNS Lab)

“Fractal analysis is a mathematical way of measuring how complex and organised a pattern is,” explains Dr Ghasem Azemi, Research Associate in the CNS Lab. “It goes beyond simply recording where or how long people look and helps reveal the extent to which their gaze is random or follows organised, repeating patterns.”

In a study published in the journal Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, CNS Lab researchers recorded the eye movements of 13 Doctor of Medicine (MD) students from Macquarie Medical School as they viewed a range of medical images and followed them for three consecutive sessions (semesters) of their training.

When combined into a single measure, the Fractal Eye-Gaze Expertise Index (FEI), the analysis showed a clear, statistically significant trend.

“As students progressed through the MD program, their gaze became less erratic and more structured, closer to the efficient scanning patterns of experts,” says Dr Azemi. “This pattern suggests a shift from reliance on low-level image features to more targeted, diagnostic-driven visual processing. Fractal analysis allowed us to quantify that growing expertise.”

A second study, published in the Journal of Eye Movement Research, helped broaden the lens further. PhD student Poonam Kumari and the CNS lab team tracked the eye movements of 69 participants – a mix of naïve observers, neurosurgery registrars (trainee specialists) and qualified neurosurgeons – as they viewed normal and abnormal brain MRI scans.

Analysis showed experts were more efficient, spent longer looking at diseased regions, and sampled the structural complexity of the images differently depending on the type of pathology. An AI model combining duration of gaze at a specific point with 3D fractal dimension was able distinguish between naïve, trainee and expert viewers with better than 93 per cent accuracy.

Professor Antonio Di Ieva, who established the CNS Lab in 2018, says the research program – initially funded by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship – began as a question about transferring expert cognition into computer vision systems, but has now produced an objective, scalable framework for measuring visual expertise as it develops.

Professor Antonio Di Ieva. 

“I was struck by a phrase I encountered some time ago: Machines are learning, but what are we teaching them?” says Professor Di Ieva. “This led me to the idea that we could use experts' eye movements as a proxy for higher-order cognitive function and train a novel AI model on this gaze data.

“Measures using fractal geometry show us that expertise changes not just what you look at, but the very structure of how you look – from medical students right through to consultant neurosurgeons, visual expertise leaves a measurable fractal signature.

“We think our findings have important implications for how medical trainees are assessed, how radiology and neurosurgery curricula are designed, and how AI systems might eventually be trained to interpret medical images the way an expert does.”

Professor Antonio Di Ieva is Professor of Neurosurgery in the Macquarie Medical School, Macquarie University, and a consultant neurosurgeon at Macquarie University Hospital

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From the NSW Institute and Western Sydney Wanderers to Macquarie University's 2025 Athlete of the Year, Amy Chessari is taking the next step in her football journey after signing with Sydney FC.

While a typical four-year-old might be learning to write their name, inventing imaginary friends and counting to 10, Amy Chessari was being introduced to the sport that would eventually shape her life.

At the time, she had no idea how far football would take her. In fact, she admits that despite her Italian background and her family's passion for the game, it was not something she was immediately drawn to.

But slowly, almost imperceptibly, football became part of her life. And as Chessari's love for the game grew, so too did her talent.

“When I started, there wasn’t any pressure, outside of just trying to do my best,” reflects Chessari.

“It was just something I loved to do. Then eventually, I climbed up the ranks, made some rep and teams when I was in my early teens, and then moved to the New South Wales Institute, and then the Wanderers.”

What began as a childhood introduction to football gradually became a pathway through the ranks of Australian sport.

Fast-forward to today, and Chessari is taking another major step in her football journey, having signed with Sydney FC. The move comes after a breakthrough 2025, which saw Chessari named Macquarie University's Athlete of the Year.

The honour placed her alongside some of the country's most accomplished athletes – a moment she admits she never expected.

Chessari is taking another major step in her football journey, having signed with Sydney FC. Image: Robbie Szafranek, Digital Content Manager at Sydney FC 

“I was nominated, but there were so many other incredible athletes, and I was just happy to be there,” says Chessari.

“I actually was Athlete of the Year with Olivia Wunsch, and she's amazing. She's competed in the Commonwealth Games and won gold in the Olympics for Australia, so just to share the stage with her was incredible. And so, when I found out that I was named Macquarie University's Athlete of the Year this year, it was such a shock, but really an honour.”

The award reflects the discipline it has taken Chessari to reach this point, a quality that extends well beyond the football field.

When she is not playing, Chessari is studying a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in economics and international business at Macquarie University. Like many female athletes, she is learning to navigate the demands of university alongside an elite sporting career, bringing the same determination to her studies as she does to football.

“Like a lot of female athletes, I have to juggle a lot of things.

“When I was coming through, I made my early debut in Year 12 when I was doing my HSC. I was trying to get into uni, and I was also working at the time, so it was tricky balancing all those things. I think that's a challenge for most girls at the moment.”

But the demands of sport, study and work are only part of the equation. For Chessari, finding the motivation to keep moving forward has also meant seeing other women do it first.

When she is not playing, Chessari is studying a Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in economics and international business at Macquarie University. Image: Amy Shidiak

Through much of her childhood, women's sport was not as visible as it is today. But as the profile of the A-League Women's and other women's competitions has grown, women's soccer is quickly becoming as attainable as men's football.

Chessari knows the power of that visibility first-hand. One player, in particular, showed her that being one of the smaller players on the field did not mean she needed to match that size in ambition.

“I really loved Katrina Gorry and how she played, and she was always the - I'm obviously one of the smaller players, and she was one of the smallest as well, so it was just nice to see just her grit and just how she's climbed the ranks over the years, and it was just really an inspiration.”

There is a familiar sentiment in sport: you cannot be what you cannot see.

And as she begins the next chapter of her career with Sydney FC, Chessari hopes she can become part of the new generation of Australian soccer stars.

“I definitely want to play for the Matildas. I think if you ask a lot of young girls, that would be the end goal. But I definitely wanted to also have an educational background and be confident in my studies in economics as well and business.”

Amy Chessari hopes she can become part of the new generation of Australian soccer stars. Image: Robbie Szafranek, Digital Content Manager at Sydney FC 

And by showing young women that both paths are possible, Chessari wants to encourage girls to take that first step.

“I think now's definitely the time to get into it. I think women's football is growing. I think since the FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia, you just saw how much investment there is, how many fans are so excited for it.”

“Macquarie's helped me balance my sport commitments, and I'm incredibly lucky for that – but the only way to know is to just get started.”

While the path ahead may look very different from the one she first stepped onto, Chessari's advice to her four-year-old self finds its way back to a simple message: a love of playing the game.

“I would say keep going,” reflects Chessari.

“Don't be afraid of the ball, and just play because you love it, and I think that's the kind of advice I've always followed. If I didn't love what I was doing, I would have stopped a long time ago.”

Top image: Robbie Szafranek, Digital Content Manager at Sydney FC

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As we age, low back pain becomes more common. Between the ages 20 and 59, persistent low back pain (lasting more than three months) affects nearly one in five. While you may be tempted to reach for heat packs, medication or a massage, new evidence suggests that the common advice to go for a swim is much more effective.

Until recently, there was no research to back up this advice. Our new trial shows for the first time that swimming can improve low back pain.

Participants in the swimming group reported improved function, less pain and more confidence to manage future back pain. Photo: Getty.

What we did

We recruited 76 adults aged 26 to 74 who experienced persistent and bothersome low back pain for more than three months. They needed to be able to swim 25 meters independently, but didn’t swim regularly.

The participants were randomly allocated to receive either a swimming and education program (the intervention group) or education only (the control group).

The intervention involved an eight-week individualised swimming program, supported by four telehealth sessions with a physiotherapist, and free access to a local indoor or outdoor swimming pool.

The amount of swimming was tailored to each participant’s ability and fitness level, with the goal of completing three 30–45 minute swimming sessions per week by the end of the program. Participants were encouraged to continue swimming after the program completed.

The education, provided by a physiotherapist, aimed to help them better understand their pain, reduce the fear associated with movement and exercise, and increase confidence to manage their back pain.

While many people with back pain believe they should avoid activity to protect their back, a large body of evidence shows remaining active is better.

Participants in the education-only (control) group had one to two sessions with a physiotherapist to cover the same key messages about back pain, but otherwise continued their usual treatment and activity.

What did we find?

Participants in the swimming group reported improved function, less pain and more confidence to manage future back pain.

Their disability reduced by more than 50% at the end of the eight-week program. This could mean that a person improved their ability to do daily activities such as standing from a chair, walking or sleeping.

The swimming group’s improvements were 30% greater than those who received education only (control) group.

Participants told us swimming appealed to them because it was low-impact, it reduced weight-bearing and strain, and it enabled them to exercise more confidently and with less pain. They also reported additional health benefits, including better mood.

Swimming can be used as a way for people with back pain to start exercising and break the cycle of pain and limited activity.

People with chronic low back pain can now consider swimming as an evidence-based exercise option. Photo: Getty.

What happened after the program ended?

At the end of the eight-week program, some people kept swimming, others swapped to another form of exercise and some stopped exercising.

Although most participants reported enjoyed swimming, some found accessing a pool and the time required a barrier to keep going in the longer term.

Twelve months after starting the program, there were still benefits for the swimming group for disability, function and confidence. But the difference between groups became smaller over time.

What were the limitations?

Our study’s sample size was relatively small, so these findings need to be confirmed in future, larger studies.

Further trials are also needed to test whether the results still hold for people with more severe or disabling back pain.

Finally, the volunteers in our study knew we were investigating swimming and had positive expectations of swimming before starting. This is a limitation that could affect the findings.

How does swimming compare to other exercises for back pain?

A range of different exercises – including Pilates, functional exercises (a type of strength training that helps you perform daily activities) and structured walking – have been shown to be beneficial for treating disability and preventing low back pain recurrences.

While we didn’t compare swimming to another type of exercise, the benefits we identified were as large or larger than previously reported for other exercises.

People with chronic low back pain can now consider swimming as an evidence-based exercise option and be more confident in choosing it as part of their long-term management.

But if you find it a hassle to get to a pool, or don’t like swimming, it may help get your back pain under control before moving to a type of exercise you prefer or can more easily access.

Mark Hancock is a Professor of Physiotherapy at Macquarie University. Deborah Wareham is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Spinal Pain Research Centre of Macquarie University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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The ancient Greeks would have enjoyed current controversies about the “historical accuracy” of Christopher Nolan’s new adaptation of The Odyssey.

The Greeks loved arguing about the “truth” of Homer’s stories. They weren’t precious about their myths. Greek storytellers could – and did – criticise them. They competed to make people see old stories in new ways .

For the ancient Greeks, their deep past – the time of gods and monsters – was a paradox. On the one hand, it was full of fantastic happenings. On the other, those events mainly took place in familiar locations around the Mediterranean and featured heroes who were the ancestors of people living in the present.

We have been mapping the real-world locations tied to Greek myths. The Greeks didn’t locate their deep past in far-off fantasy lands. Instead, these stories happened in places all around them. So what about the journey of Odysseus?

Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey is now in theatres. Photo: Universal Pictures.

Traversing the Beyond

Homer’s epic The Odyssey, probably composed around 800 BCE, follows Odysseus’ journey home from Troy to Ithaca. Much of the voyage takes place in “The Beyond”: a storyworld with its own logic, full of eerie, strange and monstrous creatures.

Although Homer placed this part of the story in a fantasy world, it didn’t have to stay there. As the Greeks spread throughout the Mediterranean, they started wondering: could Odysseus have travelled here?

Although the myth of the Trojan war freely invents some aspects of the topography, the Greeks agreed Troy was located on the Dardanelles, in modern-day northwestern Turkey. They identified various landmarks there with events in the epics. When Heinrich Schliemann excavated a Bronze-Age citadel in the region, he claimed this was Homer’s Troy.

Homer calls Odysseus’ island homeland off the western coast of mainland Greece Ithaca. An island in the right area still goes by that name today, although Homer’s description does not exactly match it.

Odysseus gets as far as Cape Malea (modern Maleas), off southern mainland Greece, before he is hit by a storm. That storm drives him into “the Beyond”.

Homer’s description of what happens next can’t be plotted on a map. Nothing is familiar; directions like north and south are meaningless.

Recreating the journey

Homer’s epics reflect the geo-politics of his time. Around 800 BCE, hundreds of city-states across the Greek mainland were jostling for prestige. The idea local heroes had once gotten together to conquer Troy was very attractive.

From the 5th century BCE we find ancient geographers debating where exactly Odysseus voyaged. Their texts – some only surviving in fragments – are the best evidence we have for how ancient communities laid claim to the fabulous places described by Homer.

Some ancient geographers were sceptical that the Beyond was in the Mediterranean and pointed instead to the Atlantic.

Eratosthenes commented cynically:

you’ll find where Odysseus wandered when you find the cobbler who sewed up the bag of winds [that Aiolos gave to Odysseus].

In other words: you won’t.

But the attraction of identifying Homer’s fantastic locations with real places was too strong.

There were competing claims. In Homer’s account, Odysseus encounters lotus-eaters drugged by the “honey sweet” fruit of the lotus flower. Ancient geographers located their home in several regions of north Africa. Meninx, a large island off modern Tunisia, was a popular candidate: Strabo cites as proof its altar of Odysseus and trees with sweet fruit called lotus.

Artemidoros placed the lotus-eaters further west. He argued they were nomads in what is now Morocco who survived in waterless deserts by chewing a juicy root.

From the early 7th century BCE, the ancient Greeks had begun to migrate to Sicily and southern Italy. When these migrants claimed their new homelands were the places Homer described, they gave their new homes very old – and prestigious – pasts.When Greeks founded modern Naples, they called it “Parthenope”, for one of the Sirens said to be buried on a nearby headland.

Ancient artists painted the Sirens as part-woman, part-chicken. Today the islands are known as Li Galli (The Chickens).

Circe, the goddess who transformed Odysseus’ men into animals by giving them a potion, was said to have lived on a headland south of Rome, still called Monte Circeo today.

Homer says Odysseus buried one of his crew on Circe’s island after he fell off a roof. Ancient Greeks identified this tomb on Monte Circeo. Moly, the drug Odysseus used to counter her magic, was still picked nearby.

Some said Odysseus entered the underworld via an oracle of the dead at Cumae: the surrounding area is highly volcanic, which fit with stories about vaporous rivers in the underworld.

Scylla and Charybdis, a multi-headed monster and a whirlpool, were placed in the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the tip of Calabria, which had exceptionally dangerous tides.

And people pointed out large rocks off the coast of Sicily the Cyclops had hurled at Odysseus’ ship as it escaped as proof it happened there.

These kinds of claims show the Greeks making fantastic landscapes seem familiar, while highlighting the strangeness of the real world with its psychotropic plants, volcanoes and ancient relics.

Innovative interpretations of the Odyssey are nothing new. The Greeks would have enjoyed our continued grappling with the “truth” of this story.

Greta Hawes is an Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in Ancient History at Macquarie University.

R. Scott Smith is a Professor of Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies, University of New Hampshire.

This article was originally published to The Conversation.

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Zendaya has  sparked an online debate about fashion and ethics after donning 3000-year-old Iranian artefacts as earrings on the red carpet.

Zendaya has found herself in the middle of an unlikely fashion furore during the full-scale Hollywood spectacle of The Odyssey press tour.

Zendaya paired a custom white Jacquemus halter gown with a pair of earrings made from 3000-year-old Iranian gold discs. Photo: Getty.

Roach described the historic look as “method dressing” and the striking jewellery became one of the biggest talking points of the event.

The gold earrings, which reportedly date back to the first millennium BCE, feature ancient Iranian sun motifs and were controversially remounted with new diamonds and 18-karat gold by jeweller Glenn Spiro.

“It’s believed the items Zendaya wore came from quite a problematic hoard that was discovered in Ziwiye in Iran in the late 1940s,” says Professor Edwell.

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Today, prime minister Anthony Albanese laid out how his government plans to manage artificial intelligence (AI) and ensure the rapidly advancing technology works in Australia’s interest.

In a major speech at the University of Sydney, Albanese declared that AI “is a bigger challenge and a bigger opportunity than social media”, and that Australia must move now to determine its “social licence” and capture the opportunities it presents.

Key to the government’s plans is the immediate establishment of an Office of AI within the prime minister’s own department and the creation of new national standards for AI.

This news comes as a group of leading economists and AI researchers urge policymakers and tech companies around the world to prepare now for how the technology could reshape the global economy on a much bigger and faster scale than the Industrial Revolution did.

On  July 15 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the immediate establishment of an Australian Office of AI. Photo: Getty.

A new office and new standards

Albanese said the new Office of AI will coordinate AI policy across government, rather than leaving individual departments to develop their own approaches. This will be similar to how the government developed coordinated approaches for other significant technologies such as civil aviation and genetics.

The office will also help coordinate the design of new national standards for AI.

These standards, which Albanese said will be legislated early next year, will build on the government’s previously announced expectations for data centres. They will, for example, create a new legal obligation for large data centre operators to underwrite their own power supply, not increase household power prices, and minimise water usage.

Other countries are also grappling with how best to handle this issue. Indeed, hours before Albanese’s speech, New York enforced a one-year moratorium on the building of new data centres.

There are growing calls for Australia to do the same.

But Albanese suggested his government would not be heeding these calls. As he said:

No government can turn back the clock or press pause on all of this. Nor would we want to. That would only mean cutting ourselves off from the opportunities that are there to be seized.

Read more: Should Australia pause building new data centres? We asked 5 experts

Photo: Getty.

Protection for artists and creative industries

Albanese also reiterated his government’s commitment to the “strongest possible protection” for artists, musicians and journalists, who should retain ownership and control of their works in the AI age.

Last year the Labor government rejected a copyright exemption that would allow AI companies to use protected content for free when developing AI models.

In contrast to other jurisdictions (such as the United States, European Union and Japan), Australian AI developers will still have to pay for creators’ content.

This approach is fair. But the government has since been grappling with how to ensure this policy does not disadvantage Australian AI developers and the payments reach actual creators.

In his speech today, Albanese promised laws to address this. But he did not provide any clarity on what they might look like.

Where does Australia sit internationally?

By establishing the AI Office and developing national standards for AI, Australia is trying to position itself as an international leader in AI policy.

But Albanese’s claim that Australia “will be the first country in the world to bring [AI] issues into a single, national framework” is overstated.

For example, the European Union adopted the AI Act back in 2024. This established strict regulation especially for high-risk AI. It also established the EU AI Office to coordinate the implementation of the AI Act and protect people against the risks of the technology.

This year, however, the EU Commission introduced amendments to weaken some of the requirements in the AI Act and postponed certain implementation deadlines.

This “watering down” of the AI Act is intended to boost AI innovation in the EU. It comes after AI developers have been complaining that strict EU regulation slows down AI development.

Other countries seem to also favour a pro-innovation approach, instead of strong regulation. South Korea, for example, has introduced an AI Basic Act for high impact AI systems, but its rules are much less strict than in the EU.

Japan has opted for voluntary guidance for the AI sector.

So Australia’s decision not to introduce hard regulation (such as mandatory AI guardrails) but rather rely on softer standards and national-level coordination appears to align with international trends.

Albanese’s claim that Australia “will be the first country in the world to bring [AI] issues into a single, national framework” is overstated. Photo: Getty.

A starting point

The new standards and office announced today are a good starting point for managing AI. So too is Albanese’s promise to protect creative industries whose content has been used by AI companies to train their large language models without consent.

However, we don’t yet know how, or how well, the government will do this.

Much more work and leadership from the government is needed – especially in relation to mitigating the wide array risks of AI, from misinformation and deceptive deep-fakes, anti-democratic propaganda, health AI apps causing health safety issues, and public security challenges.

And while the government hopes its new AI standards will allay community fears about data centres, the news out of New York is likely to only fuel the push in Australia to hit “pause” on them.

Rita Matulionyte is an Associate Professor in Law at Macquarie University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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Sleep debt is the cumulative difference between the amount of sleep your body actually needs and the amount of sleep it actually gets.

Maybe you’re a new parent or someone who lies awake at night. If so, you may have started to worry you’re not getting enough sleep.

Sleep wearables don’t help. They can show your “sleep debt”, a running total of how far you’ve fallen behind.

But the word “debt” assumes your sleep works like a bank account. It assumes lost hours stack up, carry over, and you must eventually repay them in full.

But sleep doesn’t really work this way. And chasing “enough sleep” may not be helping.

The word "debt” assumes your sleep works like a bank account. Photo: Getty.

What is a sleep debt?

Two systems control your sleep. One is your body clock, which helps keep wakefulness and sleep aligned with the day and night. The other is the one that matters here: sleep pressure.

Sleep pressure builds the longer you stay awake and eases while you sleep. At its highest, it’s hard to resist. Someone pulling an all-nighter might find themselves nodding off unintentionally.

This biological process is what “sleep debt” is trying to describe. If you sleep less than your body needs, pressure for sleep builds. Given the opportunity to recover after lost sleep, you sleep longer. In this broad sense, the debt metaphor works.

But this metaphor has some assumptions that don’t fit with our biology.

If you have a financial debt, the maths is exact: you owe a precise sum, which stays there until you pay it down. Sleep pressure does none of those things. Our sleep systems are more dynamic and adaptable.

What happens next?

To study the effects of short sleep, researchers bring volunteers into a lab and restrict how much they can sleep, such as four or six hours a night, sometimes for a week or two. Watching what happens under these conditions tells us how our body handles the shortfall.

The first thing it does is reorganise. When sleep is cut short, the body protects its deepest sleep (the stage that does most of the restorative work) and sacrifices lighter sleep.

People also fall asleep faster and spend less time awake in bed. In other words, given less time, the body spends that time more carefully and efficiently.

When people are freed from sleep restriction conditions, we watch what the body does to recover. “Recovery sleep” is characterised by a few nights of longer, deeper sleep. After this point, the debt appears to be cleared. But you do not sleep “back” the same number of hours you lost.

What this means in everyday life is that after a run of short nights, you tend to sleep a little longer and deeper for a night or two, then your sleep settles back to its usual length.

What about the sluggishness that follows after a few nights of short sleep?

These same sleep experiments also measure sleep-sensitive outcomes such as cognitive performance.

These outcomes follow their own recovery timelines and often take a little longer to return to baseline. You may have had all the recovery sleep you are going to get, but you still need a few more nights of normal sleep before your cognitive performance catches up.

How much sleep you need is not fixed. Photo: Getty.

Could knowing my sleep debt make things worse?

Receiving feedback about the previous night’s sleep seems to affect your mood, energy levels and alertness the next day.

One study showed giving participants negative feedback about their sleep – for example “your sleep quality was poor” – made them feel more tired and negative the next day.

Another small experiment showed people’s cognitive performance was influenced by how long participants believed they had slept.

No study has directly examined what happens if we tell people how much sleep debt they have. But, based on what we know, it is possible that knowing it can make you more worried about your sleep, and have worse sleep as a result.

False precision and moving targets

There is a deeper problem with the whole idea of calculating a sleep debt.

To calculate a debt, you need to know exactly what you owe in the first place, that is, a precise idea of how much your body needs. Trackers try their best to model how much sleep you need, but it is a slippery number.

How much sleep someone needs varies widely from person to person. Some healthy adults feel fine on around six hours, others need closer to nine.

How much sleep you need is not fixed. You need more sleep when unwell or start training hard at the gym. Sleep shifts with the seasons, with people generally sleeping more in winter.

Sleep trackers also estimate how much sleep you had overnight. They are increasingly accurate, but this is still an estimate, not the truth. So, trackers measure one guess (how much we slept) against another (how much we need).

The bottom line

Sleep debt is a handy metaphor to help us understand sleep regulation. Sleep pressure builds the longer you’re awake, and a short night can leave you needing a longer one to follow.

However, the way our bodies manage short sleep is not an ever-accumulating tally you must repay in full. To calculate a debt you’d also need to be certain how much you need and how much you got, which are both hard to know.

The good news is that we are built to withstand and recover from the times life gets in the way of a good night’s sleep. There’s no need to carry a ledger or chase a sleep debt to zero.

Amelia Scott is an Honorary Affiliate and Clinical Psychologist at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, and Macquarie University Research Fellow, Macquarie University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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A Senior Research Fellow from the Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy fact checks Pauline Hanson's new Medicare photo ID policy and finds the $3billion savings don't add up.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says Medicare is being “rorted” by up to A$3 billion a year, and that “a lot of this could be prevented” by requiring photo ID on Medicare cards.

But where did this $3 billion figure come from? And would putting photos on Medicare cards really help claw back billions a year in taxpayer dollars?

In Hanson’s own words, “Please explain”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Photo: Getty.

What is One Nation proposing?

One Nation suggests putting a photo on every Medicare card would make it harder for people to fraudulently use another person’s card to access subsidised medical care.

The party’s website also mentions its concern about other examples of Medicare fraud. These include medicines funded by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme being obtained and then sold on, and doctors billing Medicare for appointments that never happened.

Medicare is taxpayer-funded, and every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar not spent on patient care. But the cure One Nation proposes runs into a problem from the start.

The party’s own examples of fraud describe quite different things. A patient using someone else’s card is an identity problem. A doctor billing for an appointment that never happened is a provider-compliance problem. While a photo on your card may catch the first, it does nothing about the second.

This distinction matters, because the $3 billion a year figure One Nation leans on is not an estimate of Medicare card fraud, or even an estimate of deliberate fraud.

It bundles fraud with a much broader category of “non-compliance”, which covers a range of things including incorrect claims from unintentional billing errors to deliberate deception.

Medicare is taxpayer-funded, and every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar not spent on patient care. But the cure One Nation proposes runs into a problem from the start. Photo: Getty.

Where did the $3b figure come from?

The figure comes from the 2023 Independent Review of Medicare Integrity and Compliance, known as the Philip Review.

The government commissioned this review after a period of intense debate about non-compliant Medicare billing. This was sparked by PhD research that concluded non-compliant billing was driven mainly by the complexity of the Medicare system, rather than deliberate fraud by doctors, who were left trying to comply with rules they could not understand.

The Philip review noted the available data are too weak to measure Medicare fraud and non-compliance with precision. Even so, the review stated it is “entirely feasible” that $1.5–$3 billion is lost each year to a combination of Medicare fraud and non-compliance.

That covers a wide spectrum of behaviour. For example, it can mean a doctor mistakenly claiming the wrong Medicare item, billing unnecessary or repeated services, deliberately billing more expensive services, or claiming for a service that was never provided.

The review does not single out individuals misusing Medicare cards. Most examples given relate to provider billing behaviours, intentional or unintentional.

It also does not conclude $3 billion a year is being deliberately “rorted”.

What’s wrong with the photo ID solution?

A photo on a Medicare card helps confirm the person holding the card is the one named on it. It is not a solution for the range of non-compliance issues the Philip review identifies.

These range from criminal fraud at the extreme end to honest billing errors at the other. It talks about the complexity of the claiming system, a lack of clarity on compliance rules, limited decision support to help providers bill correctly and a lack of continuous monitoring.

This is because Medicare is a third-party payer system. A patient receives care, a provider bills, and the Commonwealth pays. Almost everything that goes wrong happens between the provider and the payer. Patients also have little visibility over what is billed in their name.

Photo ID cannot help providers work out which item numbers to claim, whether a service was necessary, or help spot odd claiming patterns across thousands of providers.

Photo ID is unlikely to deter Medicare fraud on the scale we saw in a $7.5 million Melbourne case in 2024. This involved stolen identities of Medicare providers and bogus bank accounts.

Photo IDs are also costly. Reissuing photo cards to 27.5 million Medicare customers would require a large, certain expense set against an uncertain marginal benefit. Back in 2019, rolling out photo ID on Medicare cards was costed at half a billion dollars.

What are some solutions?

The Philip review made several recommendations to address Medicare non-compliance. Many are not catchy enough to fit on a campaign poster, including:

• improving governance: including establishing a Medicare integrity oversight committee, bringing together agency stakeholders and independent experts to improve risk reporting and monitoring
• simplifying and redesigning billing rules and support systems: including reducing the number of ways to claim, providing guidance at the point of claim, and improving post-payment investigations
• strengthening provider education: increasing education for practitioners, providers and administrative staff on Medicare claiming requirements, and giving continuous feedback so mistakes are caught early
• modernising technology and data systems: introducing continuous claims monitoring, pre-payment checks and stronger data links to identify unusual or non-compliant claiming and to allow analysis of patterns across the whole population.

In response to the review, the Australian government funded and set up a taskforce to advise on improving Medicare integrity.

Since 2023, the taskforce has changed the law to strengthen compliance and auditing, introduced claiming controls to stop incorrect billing, built data models to find fraud and non-compliance faster, and published a plain-English handbook to help providers with billing.

Two bills passed parliament in 2025 to tighten up the system further.

All these actions target the claiming and compliance issues the Philip review identified, on the provider and system side.

None of these actions puts a photo on a card, because nothing in the evidence suggests this would help.

This article was originally published in The Conversation.

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Is your child addicted to their phone? Clinical psychologist Dr. Danielle Einstein reveals the warning signs to look out for— and four simple strategies to help you swap out screen time for family time.

Phones and devices have become inextricably linked with everyday life. They store our credit cards, provide critical bus updates, and allow us to communicate whenever we need to.

But when our device use starts to affect our mood, replace real-life experiences, or interfere with face-to-face relationships, it’s a sign our habits have crossed the line from healthy to unhealthy.

We cannot expect children or teens to break from the “addictive pull” of phones if the adults around them don’t either. Photo: Getty.

How are teens more affected?

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to excessive device use, as the part of the brain responsible for planning, imagining consequences and working for delayed rewards has not yet fully matured. They also have heightened sensitivities to rewards and social evaluation (in other words, what your peers think of you).

Research shows teenagers are more prone to mood swings, are still evolving their ability to manage uncertainty and are learning how to regulate their emotions.

All of this makes them more susceptible to online triggers that can trap a vulnerable teen in a cycle of conflicting and constantly changing emotions, particularly when information is arriving constantly.

For teens (and adults) it can become a complete world of its own where daily responsibilities are avoided and challenges are only faced with a dependency on phones.

So how do you know when it’s become a problem?

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to excessive device use. Photo: Getty. 

What to look out for

There are some obvious signs excessive device use is becoming a problem for teens (or yourself).

1. They use phones to fill in spare time. If every quiet moment is filled with scrolling, checking notifications or opening apps, it shows a teen’s device is the primary way they respond to spare time, stress or discomfort.

2. They appear distracted when you talk to them. If your teen automatically reaches for their phone midway through conversation, it might be a sign they devalue face-to-face exchanges and have lost the discipline to wait.

3. They put off important tasks. When teens routinely avoid everyday responsibilities such as work, homework, school, household chores or tasks that involve mixing with new people.

4. They seem tired all the time. Teens may block negative thoughts by scrolling in bed, socialising online late in the night, or even getting into bed after the school day.

How does it get to this stage?

The devices we rely on have the potential to develop what I call the “addictive pull” due to the features and services available on them. The “pull” begins when notifications, such as likes, messages, loot box wins and emails, arrive on devices unpredictably. Some are positive while others are neutral. And some also relieve worries. This creates a powerful dopamine-driven loop.

Over time, the device itself becomes a conditioned stimulus. This means even something as simple as seeing your phone case, or watching your device’s screen light up, is enough to trigger an urge to check it. It’s almost as if we are magnetically pulled to the device in the hope of a reward (such as more messages or likes), or to soothe a preoccupying worry.

This can also create an anxiety loop which means even without a notification, a person checks their device, rechecks it and experiences brief moments of relief via a message or app. When the loop occurs on repeat, it winds up worry and creates emotional dependence on others or apps.

The “addictive pull” can be hard to resist. Over time these unnoticed habits can become associated with the space where devices are often used (such as the bedroom, the apartment, the bus). The “pull” to re-engage with a device is a result of predictable conditioning and reinforcement processes rather than a lack of willpower. The bedroom – a place of rest, privacy and study – can be particularly problematic for teens and adults.

The bedroom – a place of rest, privacy and study – can be particularly problematic for teens and adults. Photo: Getty.

Leading by example

We cannot expect children or teens to break from the “addictive pull” if the adults around them don’t either.

As a parent, these are some ways you can lead by example to be more intentional when using devices.

1. Recognise the subtle tension that builds when you have a worry and want to reach for your device immediately.

2. When you walk into your home, place your phone or smartwatch out of the way and in a bag.

3. Do not have your phone or tablet in arm’s reach when it is designated family time.

4. Work with each family member to put apps being used without restraint onto one device per person. For instance, a parent or older teen might have TikTok on a tablet and not on their phone (so they can use their phone without distraction). They should then try to use that tablet in only one room of the house, outside of the bedroom.

Remember, an honest picture of everyone’s screen time habits sit on the device’s screen time records. We may get a minor fright when looking at it, but rather than resigning ourselves to this new way of life – and ignoring the insidious impact on attention, mood and wellbeing – we can commit to one another to make small changes.

This was originally published in The Conversation.

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Trump's red card scandal at the FIFA World Cup incensed the world.  Macquarie University Senior Lecturer of Modern European History and Sports History, Keith Rathbone, asks  if the US President has stolen the tournament's shine.

The World Cup has entered its quarter-finals, and so far the tournament has had it all: a strong team ousted early (Germany), debate over whether an ageing superstar (Lionel Messi) still “has it”, and an underdog in the form of a tiny nation (Cabo Verde) making it through to the knockout stages.

But by far the biggest off-field talking point has centred around the United States vs Bosnia and Herzegovina game. After the match, US President Donald Trump personally intervened to ask FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review the red card shown to US striker Folarin Balogun that brought with it a one-match ban.

Shockingly, FIFA sided with the US and reinstated Balogun two days before the US’s next match.

While much of the debate around the incident has centred on Trump, there are also questions to be asked about Infantino’s actions, FIFA’s politics, and whether the World Cup still has its gleam.

U.S. President Donald Trump receives the FIFA Peace Prize from Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Official Draw. Photo: Jia Haocheng/Getty Images.

An independent decision?

FIFA’s judgement has raised questions about Infantino’s close relationship with Trump. FIFA has mechanisms – labyrinthine and hidden inside its own Disciplinary Code – to settle disputes between players, federations and teams. FIFA officials insisted the Disciplinary Committee acted independently, and denied Trump’s phonecall had any impact.

Even Infantino took the extraordinary step of issuing his own denial.

Yes, I regularly discuss matters related to the FIFA World Cup with the President of the United States, and on this matter, I did receive a call from President Donald Trump, just as I receive calls from heads of state, government officials, football stakeholders and business executives from around the world on many different issues. During our conversation, I explained that there was an ongoing legal process involving FIFA’s independent judicial bodies and that the case would be decided in due course by the competent bodies. That is how FIFA’s system works, and it is a principle that I will always uphold.

I read the decisions of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee when they are issued. Sometimes I am surprised by them. Sometimes I agree with them, and sometimes I disagree. “What I always do, however, is respect those decisions and the autonomy of the bodies that make them. Whether we personally like a decision or not is irrelevant. Respect for independent institutions and the rule of law is what protects the integrity of our competitions and the credibility of FIFA at all times.

Friends in high places

Trump clearly felt conformable reaching out to Infantino because the two leaders have a strong relationship.

In December 2025, Infantino awarded Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, a decision that seems to have been a unilateral one by the FIFA president.

In the six months since, the Trump administration has launched a war on Iran that has killed thousands of innocent civilians.

The love seems to go both ways: after the Balogun red card decision, Trump lauded Infantino, saying:

He’s a smart, tough man, and his stock has gone through the roof because the job he has done has been great.

Infantino has made a habit of buddying up to authoritarian leaders. He has played favourites with them in the past and even ignored when their policies interfered with significant football matters.

In the run up to the 2026 World Cup, Infantino remained remarkably quiet about US travel bans that have affected fans and players alike. The US has banned travel from a quarter of the qualifying countries, many fans (and at least one referee) have been turned back at airports.

Infantino was forced to accept American restrictions to the travel of the Iranian National Team. Following the outbreak of the Iran war, the team was forced to relocate their homebase to Tijuana in Mexico. The players were only able to travel to the US for games the day before the kickoff and were subjected to sustained examinations by immigration officials.

After Iran’s opening draw against New Zealand, Infantino visited their locker room. Iran’s coach offered a withering critique of the competition’s fairness.The Athletic labelled Infantino as being reduced to the role of the “court jester”, unable to challenge Trump’s power.

He has form kowtowing to bullies. In 2014, the Russian armed forces seized the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. Infantino was the General Secretary of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and while he banned Crimean clubs from competing in Russian competitions, he also oversaw the formation of a local league that separated those clubs from Ukraine too.

In 2018, he was FIFA’s president when Russia hosted the World Cup, an event he called “the best […] ever”. The following year, for his service to Russia, Putin awarded Infantino with Russian Order of Friendship. Infantino has also been on the record supporting the reintroduction of Russian athletes into FIFA competition despite the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

He was similarly supportive of Qatari officials in 2022. When the Qataris faced criticism for their labour practices, a brutal system of forced work that resulted in roughly 6,500 deaths in the years leading up to the World Cup, Infantino defended the hosts.

Folarin Balogun #20 of the United States is challenged by Tarik Muharemovic #4 of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 match between USA and Bosnia. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images.

An anti-corruption campaign?

Infantino’s closeness to authoritarian leaders such as Putin and Trump might surprise some football watchers, because Infantino only became FIFA’s president as part of a reform process. In May 2015, US federal prosecutors indicted 14 football bureaucrats with crimes including wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The scandal implicated the then president, Sepp Blatter, who was forced to resign in December 2015.

Infantino was a member of the 2016 reform committee, and was supported by European and North American federations as an anti-corruption candidate. His narrow victory over Jordanian Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa was lauded as a victory for real change in the footballing body.

Ten years into his presidency, however, Infantino has become increasingly authoritarian and less transparent. He has ended the reform processes that brought FIFA’s poor governance to light. He has fired officials involved in the ethics investigations.

Infantino’s tit-for-tat style allows for close rapport with autocrats and has had benefits for FIFA. In 2026, US investigators ended their probe into financial fraud in global football, saying it “no longer fits the Trump administration’s priorities”.

FIFA’s financial resources have been buoyed by support from US television dollars and Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Infantino has a close relationship with Saudi Arabian ruler Mohammed bin Salman. Eager to repay favours, Infantino oversaw the process to award the hosting right for the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia despite the regime’s poor human rights records. The other possible bidder – Australia – was blindsided by backdoor manoeuvring between FIFA, Saudi Arabia, and the Asian Football Confederation.

Pressure to resign?

Blatter, the man Infantino replaced, was sharply critical of Infantino and Trump’s conduct. On X, he wrote:

Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls. They are overturned by rules, evidence, and independent bodies.

With the fiction of FIFA’s neutrality now visible, the pressure is mounting for the executive committee to replace Infantino. Calls for him to resign are coming from football insiders in Europe: Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling labelled it an “absolute disgrace” and called for Infantino to resign.

German manager Jürgen Klopp also called for his resignation, as did British journalist and former England captain Gary Lineker.

UEFA officials have reportedly been discussing possible alternatives to Infantino. North American football leaders seem to prefer the Canadian Victor Montagliani, who might have some support beyond the Americas given Canada’s handling of the 2026 World Cup.

Likely more troubling for Infantino are demands for an investigation by 72 European lawmakers in the European parliament. His predecessor was also seen off by an external legal probe.

Even so, despite some in the press seeing his position as “untenable”, the twice re-elected FIFA President will likely be able to see off threats to his rule, unless the European Union (and potentially also North American) officials can put financial pressure on FIFA.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino attends the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round of 32 match between Netherlands and Morocco. Photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images.

Infantino is well-liked by sports officials in the global south, who have benefited from the money he brings into the game. The most important federations for voting purposes – the African and Asian confederations – seem likely to back him for an unprecedented fourth term.

What goes unsaid is that FIFA cannot be and has never been politically neutral. Tensions remain between the global north and south inside of the organisation.

Yet the bigger problem is the concentration of power inside FIFA, and how it exercises it on the outside. The organisation’s connections to government are essential to hosting an increasingly complicated global tournament. Infantino’s global game runs on money and power. As they become increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer individuals, the possibility for challenging his leadership diminish.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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First year Macquarie University student Lauren Blunden has taken home the Young Archies prize for her self-portrait of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

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It’s easy for us to tell if someone is enjoying their meal or not. They lick their lips if they like it, grimace if they don’t.

Our new research, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows we might be able to read insects’ facial expressions in a similar way.

This offers potential insights into their inner lives – and builds on a wave of new work that is daring to suggest insects might have a form of consciousness.

An idea dating back to Darwin

Humans read each other’s expressions and body language all the time. By doing so, we can typically get a pretty accurate read on what another person is feeling.

Naturalist Charles Darwin was one of the first to discuss how facial expressions in other animals might also give us a read of their emotions.

Most dog owners would agree that dogs can communicate clearly through body language and expression when they are joyful, afraid or in pain. In mammals, at least, basic features of facial expressions associated with liking and wanting seem to be deeply conserved through evolution.

Psychologist and neuroscientist Kent Berridge and his colleagues pointed out just how eerily similar the facial expressions of newborn baby humans and baby rats are when they receive a surprising sweet treat versus a bitter one. In both species the former triggered lip licking, whereas the latter triggered a mouth gape of revulsion.

Based on a combination of careful neurobiological and behavioural studies, Berridge has convincingly argued that we can use facial expressions to read what a rat likes and dislikes, and he has used this as a measure to understand the neurobiology of liking in rats.

What about other animals with radically different brains, bodies and faces? What about, say, insects?

Getting a read on an insect’s inner life

Insects have a hard exoskeleton. Their faces are impassive masks, but bumblebees do have highly mobile mouth parts. They can extend their long glossa (the equivalent of a tongue) to reach deep into flowers to sip nectar.

In experiments performed at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China, colleagues and I studied how bumblebees moved their glossa and other mouth parts when sampling different tastes.

To a single bumblebee we offered a tiny droplet of sugar water from a pipette. The bee vigorously extended her glossa to drink the droplet, but even after she finished drinking and the pipette was taken away she kept extending and retracting her glossa into thin air – almost as if smacking her lips.

By stark contrast, when we offered the bee a droplet of dilute salty water she sampled it with her glossa, then backed away shaking her head and wiping her glossa as if in disgust.

Testing alternative explanations

Could these responses be simply innate reactions of the glossa to the different chemistry of sugar and salt?

To test this we changed the bee’s physiological state. We heated the bee to 40°C for a short time. While this didn’t harm the bee, it was equivalent to the bee being active on a hot day and caused her to become dehydrated.

Now when we offered the bee dilute salty water, rather than shaking her head and wiping her mouth, she drank thirstily and showed those glossa extensions.

This showed the glossa movements were not automatic responses to sugar and salt. Rather they had more to do with the bees’ physiological state. A dehydrated bee needs dilute salty water, and now when offered it she showed the glossa extension responses she would otherwise show to sweet sugar.

It’s somewhat like those oral rehydration electrolyte drinks. Most of the time they are bearable – just. But if you have just completed a long run and are dehydrated, they taste so much better.

In other experiments we directly manipulated the bees’ neurochemistry.

We found that if we treated bees with different neurochemicals we could change the glossa response to sugar. Bees treated with the neuromodulators octopamine and dopamine were more reactive to sugar, but did not show those post-drinking glossa protrusions to a sucrose drop.

However, bees treated with an endocannabinoid (a different neuromodulatory system that in mammals is related to mood, appetite and physiological regulation) showed enhanced post-drinking glossa protrusions, but were not more reactive to sugar.

This told us two things. First, the glossa protrusion is independent from a sugar reaction. Second, very specific changes in bee neurochemistry can enhance the glossa protrusion response.

A subjective inner state

Together these experiments showed that the glossa responses were subjective to the bee, related to her physiological state, and not simple reactions to chemicals.

This evidence suggests the bee’s responses to what it likes and dislikes are similar to those of humans and other mammals. At the very least, we can say that the bee’s responses gave us a read of her subjective inner physiological state.

Does our study tell us conclusively that a bee feels emotions like liking and disliking? No. But it does add to the body of work showing that insects have some sort of inner life and are more than mere reflex machines.

Now that we can read bees’ faces to get a read on their subjective state, we can do a lot more work to probe what the inner life of an insect is like.

This article was originally published in The Conversation.

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A broken ankle threatened to stall Jasmine Williams' research career before it began. Instead, it set her on the path to discovering how the world's deadliest infectious disease outsmarts antibiotics.

Jasmine Williams had just started mapping out her postgraduate research career in molecular biology at Macquarie University when fate tripped her up.

“Two weeks into my research Masters, I broke my ankle playing soccer,” says Jasmine, who’s a keen competitive player in Super League, leading the team’s defence as a centre back.

“The project I had planned to work on involved lots of standing at a lab bench, and that just wasn’t going to be feasible while I wore a ‘moonboot’ for five months.”

PhD candidate Jasmine Williams in the molecular biology lab at Macquarie.

Fortunately for Jasmine, another opportunity presented itself at just the right time in the laboratory of Professor Amy Cain, whose research focus is understanding the genetic mechanisms that underlie the worldwide problem of antibiotic resistance.

“The data from some incredible lab work on tuberculosis (TB) in partnership with Mahidol University in Thailand had just arrived, and I was offered the chance to work on the analysis for that project instead,” says Jasmine.

Fast forward three years and the findings from that lab work and Jasmine’s data analysis have just been published in the journal Microbial Genomics. The research represents a significant advance in understanding mechanisms of antibiotic resistance to the world’s deadliest disease.

For many people in wealthy Western countries, the mention of TB may evoke historic images of sanatoria and tragic Victorian literary figures. But for millions elsewhere in the world, it remains an urgent and very current reality: TB affects a quarter of the world’s population and is responsible for around 1.2 million deaths each year, making it the leading global cause of death from a single infectious agent.

Treating TB is unusually demanding. Standard treatment involves patients diligently taking a combination of antibiotics for a minimum of six months to eliminate the slow-growing Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Interruptions to antibiotic treatment and factors like limited access to healthcare can rapidly lead to resistant strains of bacteria emerging and becoming dominant, posing an enormous global public health threat.

Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, where resistant TB was bred in the lab.

The Cain Lab at Macquarie has pioneered the use of “directed evolution”, in which disease-causing bacteria are allowed to evolve under carefully controlled conditions so genetic mechanisms underlying how antibiotic resistance develops and spreads can be studied in detail.

“By the time resistant strains are detected in the clinic, tuberculosis can have acquired multiple mutations for antibiotic resistance,” Jasmine explains. “But by growing bacteria in the lab under conditions that encourage the evolution of resistant strains, we can monitor and detect each of these mutations as they appear, allowing us to understand how each mutation helps tuberculosis gain resistance.”

The technique had never been applied to TB before.

“Directed evolution is easier with bacteria that grow very quickly, but M. tuberculosis grows much more slowly, so the process documented in our study took over a year for just one strain,” she says.

Co-researchers from Siriraj Hospital at Mahidol University in Bangkok effectively bred TB “superbugs” in a secure lab, exposing the bacteria to gradually increasing doses of the antibiotics rifampicin and linezolid – critically important first-line and last-line treatments respectively. At each step, only the bacteria that had evolved resistance survived to the next stage of the experiment.

“We sequenced the genome of the whole population of the bacteria at each step of their evolution so we could see which genetic mutations appeared when,” Jasmine says. “Some of those we found were already known from clinically resistant TB strains, but we also identified mutations in six genes not previously linked to rifampicin or linezolid resistance.”

“Surprisingly, on further investigation we found these antibiotic resistance genes aren’t only linked to TB, but they also confer antibiotic resistance in another critical antibiotic-resistant species – Escherichia coli – which is associated with an estimated 950,000 annual deaths worldwide.”

Jasmine and fellow researchers at Macquarie and in Thailand hope the outcomes of their study will help in the design of new treatment strategies to minimise the risk of antibiotic resistance and guide development of much-needed new drugs and drug combinations to treat TB.

Jasmine Williams is a PhD candidate in the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University.

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At first glance a data centre looks like a bland, boring warehouse. But these buildings, stacked with thousands of servers, are the beating heart of the internet and the booming artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

As data centres have grown in size and number in Australia, they have also become the subject of fierce public debate. State and federal governments, as well as the tech industry, are pushing for new data centres to be rapidly built in addition to the roughly 160 that already exist around the country.

But many local communities, from Perth to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, are pushing back. Their opposition stems from the vast amounts of water and energy data centres consume, the noise pollution they generate throughout day and night, the large tracts of land they occupy, the upward pressure they could place on inflation and power prices, and the lack of transparency and community involvement in the development process.

Against this backdrop, the Greens have called for a moratorium on the building and approval of new data centres in Australia. Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens Senator for South Australia and chair of the ongoing federal parliamentary inquiry into AI and data centres, said a moratorium was needed “until we get the regulations right”.

So should Australia pause building new data centres? We asked five experts. Three out of five said yes.

State and federal governments, as well as the tech industry, are pushing for new data centres to be rapidly built in addition to the roughly 160 that already exist around Australia. Photo: Getty.

Tamika Worrell

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Critical Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University

Yes.

Data centres impact Country through their extensive consumption of water, energy and minerals, as well as their vast physical footprint.

But as well as posing a risk to the environment, the current speed of data centre development poses serious risks to Indigenous rights to land and resource governance. This reflects broader global struggles for Indigenous sovereignty over land and ecosystems in settler-colonial nations.

One of the issues with most technology development is that accountability usually flows upwards. Systems are accountable to investors, companies or governments.

What is often missing is accountability to the communities whose lives are shaped by these technologies – especially Indigenous communities. Responsibility cannot stop at the point of deployment. If institutions build and use these systems, they also have to take responsibility for the social and cultural impacts that follow.

For Indigenous peoples, this means not being treated as users or data sources at the end of the process. It means being part of decision making from the beginning. It means Indigenous communities having a say in how systems are designed, what data is used, and how those systems are governed.

Browwyn Cumbo

Lecturer, Transdisciplinary School, University of Technology

Yes.

Communities across Australia are raising legitimate concerns about the pace and scale of data centre expansion. We have not yet seen any systematic response from governments to these concerns, or approaches to support greater community inclusion in industry expansion.

Done well, a moratorium would provide time to develop strategic policies and planning processes that reflect the wide range of community concerns. This would support the creation of a more equitable and trusted data centre industry nationally.

But a moratorium on new data centre developments could have unintended consequences for the region.

Singapore implemented a moratorium from 2019 to 2022 to develop stronger policies around energy and water use, and has since introduced clear strategies for attracting green data centres integrated with renewable infrastructure. But instead of "greening" the industry, many developers simply shifted to other regional locations – exporting the problem to less regulated markets.

This is a global industry, and it isn't going anywhere. A moratorium would help Australia better mitigate the social and environmental harms of data centres at home. But governments also need to do more to ensure the industry becomes more sustainable for everyone, regionally and globally.

Data centres impact Country through their extensive consumption of water, energy and minerals, as well as their vast physical footprint.

Ehsan Noroozinejad

Senior Researcher and Sustainable Future Lead, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University

No.

AI is becoming core infrastructure for future economies, and Australia is already behind many developed countries in building the digital capacity needed for research, industry, government services and global competitiveness.

A temporary stop may sound safe, but it risks widening that gap. The real issue is not whether we build data centres, but how we build and operate them.

New projects should be approved only where they can show clear public benefit: clean energy supply, responsible water use, transparent environmental reporting (as the United Nations recently called for), local jobs, skills development and fair contribution to grid and infrastructure costs.

Australia should not accept a “build anywhere, consume anything” model. But nor should it pause essential digital infrastructure. The better approach is a strict public-interest test: fast-track the good projects, reject the poor ones, and make sustainability a condition of growth.

An aerial view of a 33 megawatt data centre with closed-loop cooling system, amid warehouses in Vernon, California. A surge in demand for AI infrastructure is fuelling a boom in data centres across the country and around the globe. Photo: Getty.

Michael Vardon

Associate Professor of Environmental Accounting, Australian National University

Yes.

A moratorium is a temporary pause, not a permanent ban, and right now we need one, because we cannot clearly see what data centres cost or deliver.

They use a lot of energy and, directly or indirectly, a lot of water. Yet they’re invisible in our national energy, water and economic accounts. The economic upside is real but easily overstated: the big productivity dividends are in the industries that use AI, often offshore, not in the centres themselves, which are capital-intensive, require imports of expensive hardware, and employ few people once built.

A brief halt on new approvals in the most stressed catchments and grids would buy time to fix the information problem. The Australian Bureau of Statistics can already collect operators’ energy, water and economic data and keep it confidential. Once we have it, the moratorium lifts.

The aim isn’t to stop the sector, but to make decisions based on measurement rather than guesswork.

Visitors peer through a transparent enclosure to closely inspect the intricate red and blue neon-lit cooling pipelines of a data centre infrastructure model on June 03, 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan. Photo: Getty.

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One of the biggest misconceptions about NAIDOC Week is that it’s simply a celebration.

While it is a time to celebrate, it grew from an Aboriginal political movement. Its origins lie in the 1938 Day of Mourning, when Aboriginal leaders gathered on January 26 to protest 150 years of colonisation and draw national attention to discrimination, dispossession and the denial of basic human and civil rights.

The Day of Mourning was one of Australia’s first major civil rights protests. It challenged the triumphant national story being told about colonisation and instead demanded citizenship and justice for Aboriginal people.

That spirit of resistance and collective action continues to define NAIDOC today. While the week has evolved into a national celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and achievements, its foundations remain firmly rooted in the pursuit of justice, equality and self-determination.

An expanding celebration

Over the decades, what began as a single day of protest grew into one of Australia’s most significant national observances. Aboriginal organisations continued to push for recognition, rights and justice, ensuring the movement did not lose momentum.

In the 1950s, the annual Day of Observance was moved from January to July to distinguish it from Australia Day and encourage broader community participation. Moving the observance away from Australia Day also allowed Aboriginal communities to commemorate the occasion on their own terms, rather than alongside celebrations of colonisation.

By 1975, it had expanded into a week-long event.

In 1991, the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee changed its name to the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC), formally recognising Torres Strait Islander peoples alongside Aboriginal peoples.

While the committee itself gave NAIDOC its name, today the acronym is most commonly associated with NAIDOC Week, which is celebrated in communities across Australia.

Decades of advocacy

One of the most interesting things about NAIDOC is that if you look back over the annual themes, they tell a story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander political priorities over the past decades. They capture what communities were advocating for at particular moments in time.

Early themes focused on self-determination, land rights and treaty, while others challenged Australia to confront its history and recognise the ongoing impacts of colonisation.

More recent themes have celebrated the strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, Elders, languages and young people, while also emphasising truth-telling, caring for Country and Indigenous sovereignty.

Themes such as Voice. Treaty. Truth., Always Was, Always Will Be, and Heal Country were never simple slogans. They have reflected the conversations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were having about the future we wanted to build. The themes provide a remarkable timeline of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aspirations, achievements and the issues that continue to shape our lives today.

Perhaps the greatest achievement, though, is that NAIDOC has managed to hold onto its political beginnings while becoming one of Australia’s most widely recognised national events. Every year schools, workplaces, sporting clubs, governments and communities take part.

That visibility matters because it creates opportunities to learn, celebrate and have conversations that might not otherwise happen.

50 Years of Deadly

This year’s theme, 50 Years of Deadly, is particularly significant because it highlights that Australia has been celebrating NAIDOC as a week-long celebration for half a century. The committee’s website describes it as:

[…] a tribute to the people who built this movement. The Elders who stood firm, the organisers who made space, the artists who turned resistance into expression, and the communities who keep showing up, year after year.

The word “deadly” is important too. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, “deadly” is a term of praise, respect and admiration. It’s used to describe someone or something that is excellent, impressive or worthy of celebration.

This year’s theme recognises what has always been deadly is our people. It honours the generations of people that carried NAIDOC forward.

At the same time, it’s a reminder that the work isn’t finished. The issues that inspired the Day of Mourning in 1938, including justice, equality, self-determination and truth telling, are still very much part of the national conversation.

‘Blak Xmas’

For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, NAIDOC is affectionately known as “Blak Christmas”. It’s a time when families and communities reconnect, often travelling long distances to be together.

Across the country there are marches, community days, award ceremonies, sporting carnivals, cultural performances, music, dancing and opportunities to celebrate culture, honour our Elders and share in the joy of community.

That’s why it’s important not to reduce NAIDOC to a morning tea or a few cupcakes in the office. While those events can play a role in bringing people together, they should be the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it.

NAIDOC is an invitation to engage with the history that gave rise to the week, to listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, and to reflect on the work that still needs to be done.

Its enduring significance lies in the fact that it remains both a celebration of one of the world’s oldest continuing cultures and a reminder of the ongoing pursuit of justice, equity and self-determination.

This article was originally published  on The Conversation.

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In a speech that left the room silent, Ben Bruseker shared his experience of living with Motor Neuron Disease (MND) – the loss of strength, loss of independence and loss of time. But he also shared something unexpected about his disease.

This story was edited on 22 July to update the total amount raised.

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With El Niño officially declared for summer 2026, Dr Laura Fernandez and researchers at Macquarie University are testing the use of recycled water to irrigate trees, helping to cool Western Sydney.

It’s January 2020, and Penrith has just been declared the hottest place on Earth.

The streets lie empty beneath a relentless sun. Melted tar glimmers in the heat, and air conditioners strain, while those without access search for any relief they can find. Even after sunset, temperatures remain stubbornly high, offering little respite from the scorching day.

Six years later, extreme heat is no longer an anomaly but a reality - one that Western Sydney remains particularly vulnerable to.

As heatwaves become longer, more frequent and intense, a combination of rapid urban development, reliance on heat-absorbing materials, and a need to continue increasing tree canopy is driving higher temperatures across the region.

Concerningly, it’s only on track to get worse.

As climate change drives more extreme weather, the official declaration of El Niño for the summer of 2026 has heightened concerns about another season of above-average temperatures.

But for researchers at Macquarie University, the question is not simply how to endure hotter summers, but how we can use research to make cities more resilient.

Their solution lies in understanding the relationship between trees and recycled water.

In collaboration with Sydney Water, researchers from Macquarie University and Botanic Gardens of Sydney created a research arboretum at the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, where they have spent the past three years monitoring 600 trees across 15 species to assess whether recycled water can successfully support tree growth in urban environments.

Macquarie University are testing the use of recycled water to irrigate trees, helping to cool Western Sydney. Image: Sophie Daniel (Manager Interpretation and Placemaking, Botanic Gardens of Sydney)

Dr Laura Fernandez is a Research Fellow at Macquarie University who co-leads the project along with Professor Michelle Leishman and Dr Martyna Kotowska.

Dr Fernandez explains that understanding how recycled water can support and maintain urban green space is critical - particularly in cities like Sydney, where heat and population growth are colliding - and every drop of water counts.

"Western Sydney is very hot and dry,” says Dr Fernandez.

"That means recycled water presents a valuable opportunity to irrigate parks, gardens and urban green spaces. The challenge is that there has been very little research into how recycled water affects the soil or plants themselves.”

“In this project, we planted 15 native tree species and watered half with recycled water and half with potable water. We then monitored how the trees responded over time.”

To collect this data, the team used a network of sensors across the site - building a detailed picture of how recycled water is affecting the environment and long-term health of the trees.

"Although we can’t be in the field all the time, we are able to get data every 15 minutes from a smart sensing system which measures things like air temperature and humidity as well as soil water content and salinity. We can then compare the microclimate of the plots planted with trees to the unplanted areas to see the impact of the growing trees.”

But it’s only when you step into the field that the importance of the data is visualised.

Rows of young eucalypts, paperbarks and bottlebrushes stretch across the site, their canopies gradually thickening under the Western Sydney sun. To those wandering through, it’s hard to tell which trees have been irrigated with recycled water – which, is exactly the point.

“The data is showing that, so far, recycled water is not having a negative impact on soil salinity or on tree growth, and the growing urban forest is reducing ambient temperature,” says Dr Fernandez.

The project is also seeking to build a stronger connection between the community and the resources that sustain the city.

In collaboration with Sydney Water and Botanic Gardens of Sydney, researchers have developed educational signage and a Flow Trail at the Australian Botanic Garden, allowing visitors to build greater awareness of the role water and trees play in adapting to a warmer future.

Mike Elgey, Manager of the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan, Distinguished Professor Michelle Leishman, and staff from Sydney Water. Image: Sophie Daniel (Manager of Interpretation and Placemaking at Botanic Gardens of Sydney).

“There are 11 signs around the garden, and two at the Arboretum, with QR codes, to help people understand how important water is, but in particular, water in Western Sydney.”

With El Niño looming and another hot summer on the horizon, the researchers are now turning their attention to the next phase of the project.

Recently extended until 2028, the trial will continue to explore how different species respond, grow and thrive – helping to grow hope for Western Sydney setting a different kind of record: not for how it became the hottest place on Earth, but for how it learned to stay cool.

“As we move into summer, we’re considering what other variables are important to understand the impact the recycled water is having,” says Dr Fernandez.

“We’ve also changed how we’re using the sap flow sensors. Initially, we installed them on one species for a week and then moved them to another species. This summer, however, we’re testing five species simultaneously to compare how they respond to the same temperature conditions.”

“The past summers have been quite wet and mild, so it will be fascinating to see the impact of the more extreme summer conditions that are expected under the coming El Niño period.”

The findings will be shared through industry conferences and scientific publications, as well as with partners such as Sydney Water, to help guide landscape managers, horticulturalists and urban planners in selecting resilient species and optimising irrigation for Western Sydney’s future.

Contact: Laura Fernandez

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Email: laura.fernandez@mq.edu.au

In our modern world, it can feel impossible to focus on any one task. But science tells us there are ways you can reclaim your attention.

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“Making peace with Iran may be just as painful as winning the war,” a recent CNN report noted. As negotiations roll on during a shaky ceasefire, what a deal between the US and Iran might look like and whether it holds is anyone’s guess.

As a scholar of ancient Persia (which eventually became Iran), the difficulties US President Donald Trump is now facing don’t exactly surprise me.

After dozens of wars between the two ancient empires of Rome and Persia, peace deals often failed to solve problems, and sometimes made the situation worse.

Lurching from conflict to conflict

The powerful empires of ancient Persia (ruled by the Parthians from 247 BCE to 224 CE, and then the Sasanians from 224 to 651 CE) rivalled the Roman Empire for centuries. They often went to war and the peace deals they struck were mostly about buying time.

The first major conflict between Rome and Persia was the disastrous invasion led by the Roman general Crassus in 53 BCE. Crassus himself died and thousands of Roman soldiers were killed in the plains near Carrhae in southern Turkey.

Ongoing conflict emboldened the Parthians and in 20 BCE, the Romans were forced to recognise the Euphrates River as a boundary as part of a peace agreement. For Rome, this represented a concession because up to this point its territorial expansion couldn’t be stopped.

Conflict between Rome and Parthia would break out again in the middle of the first century CE. This time, it was over the kingdom of Armenia, which sat strategically between the two empires in modern Armenia and eastern Turkey.

Following the war, the Roman emperor Nero and the Parthian King, Vologases I, struck the Treaty of Rhandeia in 63 CE. Under this deal, the king of Armenia was to be nominated by the Parthians but actually crowned by the emperor in Rome. The treaty settled the immediate dispute but over time became unwieldy.

Later, when the Parthians simply brushed the treaty aside, the Roman emperor Trajan punished them with a major invasion in 114 CE. Despite some impressive initial successes, including the capture of the Parthian capital, the invasion failed. All of Trajan’s gains were lost by the time of his death in 117 CE.

Following the replacement of the Parthians by the Sasanians as rulers of Persia in 224 CE, conflict with Rome escalated even further. Control of Armenia was often the focus and formed a key element of peace agreements.

After the Roman emperor Gordian III’s death in an invasion of the Sasanian Empire in 244 CE, a fresh agreement was struck between the two powers. The Sasanians imposed financial penalties and a clause banning Roman involvement in Armenia.

But within a few years Rome ignored the treaty. This led to a series of devastating Sasanian invasions of Roman territory and the capture of the Roman emperor Valerian in 260 CE.

In the late 290s, Rome would extract some revenge with a significant victory over the Sasanian king, Narseh. The Treaty of Nisibis that followed in 299 CE contained a number of clauses, which extended Roman power further east. It also gave control of Armenia to Rome.

But this treaty sowed the seeds of considerable enmity. When the Sasanian king Shapur II invaded Roman territory in the 350s, his main aim was to repudiate the treaty made 60 years earlier. This was reinforced when the Roman emperor Julian invaded the Sasanian Empire and suffered a heavy defeat (including his own death) in 363 CE.

While the level of conflict between Rome and ancient Iran was lower in the fifth century CE, it was even more pronounced in the sixth and seventh centuries. Rome and Iran were almost constantly at war during this period.

There were numerous treaties and attempts to strike peace but none lasted. Perhaps the most futile was the so-called Eternal Peace of 532, which lasted less than eight years.

Easier to make war than peace

As history shows, peace deals may be trumpeted at the time they are signed but can end up sowing the seeds of discord and future conflict.

Rome and Persia’s fight over Armenia was eventually settled in an agreement to partition the kingdom between Rome and Iran in the 380s. But it took more than 400 years to achieve, despite dozens of attempts.

An ongoing ebb and flow of conflict, invasions, threats and stalemates punctuated the entire time frame before.

Does a lasting peace arrangement between the US and Iran face similar prospects? Only time will tell. Hopefully this time, it won’t take centuries to get there.

Top image: An Anti-war demonstrator holds up a sign with a symbol of peace as they gather near the White House. Image: Alex Wong/Getty Images

This article was originally published to The Conversation.

Contact: Peter Edwell

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Email: peter.edwell@mq.edu.au

After every shark bite, the culling debate returns. But scientists say new technologies are offering safer ways for people and sharks to share the ocean.

The recent shark bite incident at Coogee Beach has reignited debate about how Australia manages sharks along its coastline. While calls for shark culling often follow these events, the science increasingly points towards smarter ways to reduce risk without harming the marine ecosystems we all value.

As ocean lovers, surfers and scientists who spend much of our lives in and around the water, shark bite incidents hit close to home. We understand the community’s heightened fear. Rather than revisiting the debate around shark culling, we want to highlight where the science is heading and why new research is pointing towards more effective ways of reducing risk while protecting the health of our oceans.

Ocean conditions are changing where sharks are found on the Australian coastline.

What the science says about shark bite occurrence

There is currently no scientific evidence that shark bite incidents are being driven by increasing shark numbers.

Research suggests the breeding population of white sharks along Australia's east coast has remained relatively stable in recent years. In fact, recent genetic studies estimate there are only around 500 breeding white sharks in Australian waters, highlighting how vulnerable this species could be to population decline if lethal control measures were widely adopted.

Instead, environmental factors such as water temperature and prey availability appear to play a major role in determining where sharks are found. As ocean conditions change, sharks may spend more time in areas used by swimmers, surfers and divers, increasing the likelihood of encounters.

In other words, changing shark distribution, rather than increasing shark numbers, may help explain why shark interactions are becoming more common.

Why lethal measures aren't the answer

Australia has relied on shark nets and other lethal control measures for decades, yet shark bite incidents still occur at beaches where these programs operate.

Importantly, shark nets are not barriers that prevent sharks from reaching beaches. Instead, they entangle a wide range of marine life, including dolphins, turtles, rays, whales and non-target shark species.

There is also little scientific evidence that reducing shark numbers provides a lasting solution to shark bite risk. Many of the species involved in serious incidents are highly mobile, meaning sharks removed from one area can simply be replaced by others moving through the region.

At the same time, sharks play a critical role in maintaining healthy marine ecosystems. They grow slowly, mature late and produce relatively few offspring, making them particularly vulnerable to population decline.

Healthy oceans need healthy shark populations. Losing them would have consequences far beyond shoreline safety.

The technologies that actually work

A suite of new technologies has emerged in recent years that can genuinely improve ocean safety.

One of the most visible examples is drone surveillance. Around 80 beaches across Australia now use drone patrols to monitor for sharks and provide real-time information to beachgoers and lifeguards. Studies have shown drones can reliably detect sharks under a range of conditions.

The main limitation is coverage. Drones cannot monitor every beach simultaneously and require trained operators. However, expanding drone surveillance and improving automated shark detection systems represents an important and achievable step towards safer beaches.

Personal shark deterrents offer another tool that allows ocean users to take risk reduction into their own hands. However, effectiveness varies considerably between products.

When choosing a deterrent, look for devices that have been independently tested and evaluated in peer-reviewed scientific journals rather than relying solely on marketing claims.

It is also important to remember that different shark species respond differently to deterrents. A product that works well on one species may be less effective on another. Ideally, deterrents should be tested against white, tiger and bull sharks, the three species associated with most serious shark bites in Australia.

The Western Australian Government's shark deterrent rebate scheme provides a useful guide to productssupported by scientific evidence. Among the available options, electronic deterrents that emit strong electric pulses are among the most rigorously tested and have been shown to reduce interactions across multiple shark species.

Other emerging technologies include bite-resistant wetsuit materials designed to provide additional protection should a bite occur.

A new approach: changing what sharks see

An example of a surfboard with LED lighting. Picture: Supplied

Our research explores the use of LED lighting to reduce white shark bites on surfers.

The idea starts with a simple question: what does a surfer look like to a white shark?

White sharks are visual hunters that often attack from below. Viewed from beneath, a surfer on a board can resemble natural prey such as a seal. By fitting high-intensity LEDs to the underside of a surfboard in carefully designed patterns, we can alter that silhouette and remove a key visual trigger.

In controlled field trials, white sharks stopped attacking seal-shaped decoys fitted with the lighting system. These findings, published in peer-reviewed journals, demonstrate how a better understanding of shark behaviour and sensory biology can be used to develop non-lethal technologies that reduce bite risk.

We are now working to bring this technology to market through Kraken Systems, a Macquarie University spin-off and social enterprise co-founded with world-renowned surfboard shaper Nev Hyman. Supported by the Taronga Hatch accelerator and the Macquarie University Incubator, the project aims to translate scientific research into a practical solution that improves surfer safety without harming marine life.

Importantly, a portion of all profits will be returned directly to shark research, helping fund the next generation of ocean-safety innovations.

What you can do right now

Technology works best when combined with smart behaviour in the water. Evidence-based ways to reduce risk include:

• Swim between the flags at patrolled beaches.
• Never swim alone.
• Avoid the water around dawn and dusk when shark activity is generally higher.
• Stay away from areas used by recreational or commercial fishers.
• Avoid river mouths, estuaries and murky water, particularly after heavy rainfall.
• Leave the water if large schools of fish are present.
• Check the SharkSmart app for recent sightings of white, tiger and bull sharks in your area.

Living safely alongside sharks

A greater understanding of how and why shark encounters occur is driving better technology and more effective prevention strategies.

Early warning systems, personal deterrents and continued research into shark behaviour all have a role to play. Shark bites will never be eliminated entirely, but science is giving us increasingly effective tools to reduce risk while protecting the marine ecosystems that make Australia's coastline unique.

The challenge is not choosing between people and sharks. It is using evidence to develop solutions that keep both safe.

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There’s more than one way a spider can spin its web. Some construct large vertical orb webs, while others build horizontal sheet webs or tangled cobwebs that ensnare crawling insects.

Photo: Ajay Narendra, Pranav Joshi, Daniele Liprandi, Gregory J Anderson, Jonas Wolff, CC BY

There’s also more than one way a spider can catch its dinner. Net-casting spiders throw small silk nets over unsuspecting prey, while slingshot spiders use their conical webs like catapults, launching both themselves and the web toward nearby prey.

In the tropical rainforests of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, we discovered a spider with a new hunting strategy: a small nocturnal animal of the genus Propostira which we call the ballista spider.

As we describe in a paper published today in Current Biology, it constructs a unique spring-loaded snare triggered only by a single kind of prey: the highly territorial and aggressive green tree ant (Oecophylla smaragdina).

How the ballista spider catches ants

During the day, this spider rests within a silken retreat on the underside of leaves. As the night unfolds, the spider slowly descends on a silk line until it finds a suitable structure on which to lay an anchor point.

Photo: Ajay Narendra, Pranav Joshi, Daniele Liprandi, Gregory J Anderson, Jonas Wolff, CC BY

Next it returns to the core web, leaving a “tension line” behind it, and repeats the process with incredible precision to build a fan-shaped web of silk tension lines. This gradually leads to the formation of a small conical scaffold which the spider then wraps in a thinner kind of silk before retreating to the core web.

The thinner silk seems to attract ants and provoke an attack response, possibly by means of pheromones. After the thinner silk is laid, worker green tree ants appear in moments. The ants react aggressively, biting the cone.

The bite detaches the cone from the surface, and the ant is pulled up and propelled into the core web in a fraction of a second. The ant is hauled off at accelerations of up to 1,367 metres per second squared – that’s roughly 140 times the acceleration due to gravity, or 15 times the most extreme g-forces experienced by jet pilots.

The spider waits for the ant to be fully entangled in its web. When it’s safe to approach, the spider wraps the ant in silk until it is ready to eat.

A superior system

The ballista spider’s snare exhibits superior energy performance compared with other silk-based catapult systems.

Gram for gram, the webs store more energy and exert more power than any known biological catapult. A kilogram of the web would store 78.17 kilojoules of kinetic energy and very briefly exert 11.73 megawatts of power.

The exceptionally high power of the ballista spider’s snare has likely evolved to rapidly yank ants away from the vicinity of their nests and trail, where fellow ants might come to their defence.

Extreme specialisation

There are two more unusual things about the ballista spider.

First is its extreme specialisation to a single prey species. This suggests the spiders may add specific pheromones to the thin wrapping silk on their snares to attract green tree ants.

Second is that the snare is triggered by the prey itself, rather than the more common situation in which the predator senses the prey and triggers the snare.

The ballista spider demonstrates how extreme prey specialisation can drive the evolution of exceptional biomechanical performance.

By cartoonist and illustrator Ivy Shih.  

This article was originally published to The Conversation.

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From Roman emperors to mythological beasts, thousands of ancient coins at Macquarie University’s ACANS are stepping out of the vault and into the digital world – reshaping how history is seen, studied and shared – and helping us understand how modern leaders like Donald Trump are using modern currency to define and shape his own legacy.

There is something instinctive that happens when we hold a coin in our hands.

First comes the movement, the way it balances between thumb and forefinger, turning over almost absent-mindedly as we examine its surface. Then comes the heat, as the round metal settles into the fold of our palm and slowly absorbs our warmth. In that moment, a small object becomes symbolic of a much larger history carried across generations, empires and continents.

It is a sensation that we experience less often. In an increasingly cashless society and digitised world, the physical presence of coins is slowly fading from everyday life.

The physical presence of coins is slowly fading from everyday life. Photo: Elaine Obran

At Macquarie University’s Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies (ACANS), however, that connection is exactly what the institution exists to preserve, home to one of Australia’s most significant collections of ancient coins.

Inside its vault and across its long worktables is a space designed for careful handling, study and collaboration - where each object is treated not simply as an artefact, but as a fragment of a much larger story.

More recently, the preservation of these stories has taken on a new form. ACANS has begun the meticulous process of digitising its entire collection, creating detailed records that will allow the coins to be studied, shared and explored far beyond the walls of the vault itself.

Associate Professor Peter Edwell, recently appointed as Director of ACANS, is overseeing the project. It was the brainchild of the centre’s now retired former director, Ken Sheedy. Edwell hopes the digitised collection will make it easier to explore individual coins and themes in detail.

Associate Professor and recently appointed Director of ACANS, Peter Edwell inside the coin vault. Photo: Elaine Obran

“In having around 6,000- 7,000 coins in this collection, we want to be able to access those in in a way that is accessible beyond just visiting the centre in person,” says Edwell.

“But we need that data to be accurate, consistent and also searchable. Which then allows you to go into the collection and search for specific images like a horse, for example, or a particular ruler, like Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

“It also allows us to feed into that broader numismatic community. Even though we are well regarded internationally, it will help us connect more closely with organisations such as the American Numismatic Society.”

But this process is no easy feat. Each coin must first be photographed, catalogued and accurately identified - a challenging process when dealing with objects that have survived for centuries and travelled thousands of kilometres from their place of origin.

As Edwell explains, parts of the collection reveal just how interconnected the ancient world was. Roman gold coinage has been unearthed in Vietnam, Roman silver in India and Athenian silver coinage in Arabia.


Emily Salhab, the digitisation specialist who is photographing the entire ACANS coin collection. Photo: Elaine Obran 

Alongside Roman imperial portraits and Greek mythological designs, the collection includes some of the most recognisable ancient coins, from Athenian “owl” tetradrachms to Corinthian Pegasus staters, as well as a diverse collection of Roman Republican coinage.

Others, coated in fingerprints as much as they are in history, include the enigmatic lion coins struck in ancient Thrace by an unidentified mint - small silver pieces dating back more than 2,000 years that continue to baffle historians, their origins still widely debated.

"Coins are very important as historical sources," explains Edwell.

“One of the reasons for that is they're contemporary. The rulers have chosen the images and design very carefully and deliberately as part of the way to legitimate their own power, positions and communicate information out to the populations that they're in control of.”

The coins are coated in fingerprints as much as they are in history. Photo: Elaine Obran

For Edwell, these ancient coins also offer a lens in which we can understand the political messaging embedded in modern currency.

“We see similar processes playing out in modern coinage when it comes to messages of legitimacy and power. Take the timeless image of Queen Elizabeth on Australian coinage and attempts by the Trump administration to mint a one-dollar coin and a $250 note containing the president’s image as examples.

“While the coins (and notes) some of still use on a daily basis might not grab our detailed attention every time we use them, the images contained in them become familiar symbols of power, legitimacy and stability over time. Ancient coinage operated in a similar way.”

But beyond access, digitisation also changes the way we see ourselves reflected in these timeless objects.

Associate Professor Peter Edwell, and Emily Salhab. Photo: Elaine Obran

Charlotte Mann, Deputy Director of ACANS, says that by capturing the small details of a coin's surface, the project brings into focus much larger human stories, that can often be overlooked by history.

“Through the incredible photography of Emily Salhab, who is our digitisation specialist, we can also explore the tiny nuances that make these coins and their histories so unique,” says Mann.

“Often, these stories aren’t just those represented in ancient texts - they weren’t Caesar fighting Octavian in the Battle of Actium, they were ordinary people just buying a drink or a pie on their way to school. These stories don't really make it into the history books, but ironically, the stories that make history real to us because we can see ourselves in them.”

The scale and detail of this enormous project mean safeguarding these stories won’t be a coin toss, but a considered curation - held carefully in place until they are once again warmed in the palms of the next generation.

“In 50 or 100 years I hope that people can look back at the digitisation project as something that has allowed us to build on knowledge for generations to come,” adds Edwell.

“That is something that is really exciting and significant.”

To browse the digitised collection, visit: https://collections.mq.edu.au/new/

Contact: Peter Edwell

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Email: peter.edwell@mq.edu.au

Shaun Evans has denied a hand gesture he made during a live broadcast signalled 'white power'. Far-right scholars explain how the upside-down 'OK' hand signal became associated with extremism.

An Australian referee has been cleared by FIFA of wrongdoing amid calls from an anti-discrimination body for him to be stood down from the World Cup.

Soccer fans watching Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao were expecting controversy to come from a decision made on the pitch.

But when video assistant referee Shaun Evans was captured on camera making what appeared to be an upside-down “OK” sign against his thigh, social media feeds erupted.

Australian referee Shaun Evans pictured during the  Germany vs. Curaçao FIFA World Cup match on Monday.

FIFA's  anti-discrimination monitor at the World Cup called for Evans to be removed from the tournament. Fare (Football Against Racism in Europe) deploys trained match observers to monitor stadiums and broadcasts at major tournaments for racist chants, far-right flags, and discriminatory symbols.

"Advice from our experts is that the gesture used clearly resembles an upside down OK hand symbol used as a 'white power' symbol in global far-right circles," the network said.

In a statement to FIFA, Evans adamantly denied intentionally communicating any hate symbol or message.

“The only explanation I can offer is that the movement was an involuntary, subconscious twitch and I was unaware I had done it at the time. Images taken later during the match showed that I repeated this movement many times while holding a pen between my fingers," Evans said.

"The coverage following this incident simply does not reflect who I am. Of course, I understand how the gesture has been interpreted, and I regret this. However, I want to be very clear and categorically say that I did not knowingly or deliberately make the hand symbol suggested.”

Following the statement, FIFA's independent disciplinary committee said it "found no evidence of breaches of the FIFA disciplinary code".

Shaun Evans has been a FIFA-listed referee since 2017, a full-time A-league referee since 2012, and this is his second World Cup. Photo: Getty.

Historic uses of the “OK” sign date back to at least the early 17^th century, with different meanings across cultures, including as a pose during yoga and meditation. In the early 2000s, sitcom Malcolm in the Middle popularised the gesture as a game, where characters flashed the symbol below the waist and punched anyone who looked at it.

But in recent years, another highly provocative meaning of the symbol has emerged. The inverted OK sign has become associated with far-right racism, with appearances in internet memes, social posts and public events.

In 2019, Marine Le Pen was criticised after being spotted making the gesture in a selfie, but responded that she understood it to mean “Everything’s OK”. Brenton Tarrant, the gunman who massacred 51 people in the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings, also displayed it during a televised court appearance.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, an unnamed official had his accreditation revoked after he was accused of making the symbol during the skateboarding final.

“The idea is that when you make the gesture, the three fingers represent a ‘W’, and when you close your thumb and index finger it makes a ‘P’,” Macquarie University extremism Research Fellow, Associate Professor Kurt Sengul explains.

“It’s one of those interesting trolling gestures and slogans that emerged around 2017 on far-right message boards like 4chan, along the same lines as the ‘It’s Okay to be White’ slogan.”

American far-right group the Proud Boys pictured in 2021. Photo: Getty.

The inverted OK symbol was adopted by online alt-right groups “to essentially troll journalists and left-wing figures into an overreaction to a seemingly innocuous gesture,” Associate Professor Sengul says. “People who know what the intent is react and then look a bit silly to those who don’t."

Right-wing groups have adopted gestures and slogans such as this one precisely because they appear innocuous and provide plausible deniability.

Against a background of intensifying online hate speech and culture-war conflict, the New York-based Anti-Defamation League added the OK sign to its hate symbols database in 2019. However, it cautioned that the gesture is highly ambiguous and has other “innocuous and harmless” meanings.

Professor Julian Droogan, Head of the School of International Studies, argues the resurgent far-right playbook is to adopt signs and symbols from popular culture for their own purposes.

“This really relies on a strategy of ambiguity,” Professor Droogan says. “In 2017, the style guide for The Daily Stormer, an American neo-Nazi message board, was leaked. They made it quite clear in that style guide that using ambiguity was an important part of mainstreaming their messages to the broader public.

“Symbols of the far right and white supremacy should be couched to look innocent because they are aware that your average Australian is turned off by neo-Nazism. A swastika is not going to land for the public as well as something that is more ambiguous."

Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant displayed the gesture during a televised court appearance in 2019. Photo: Getty.

In addition to being a political tactic, Professor Droogan points out appropriation is also a cultural process that far-right activists have successfully exploited to engage digital audiences.

“Often these symbols begin as forms of irony or trolling on sites such as Reddit, 4chan, 8kun, the Gab ,” he says. “These sites feed off meme culture and inside jokes and symbols that signal insiders versus outsiders.”

Professor Droogan warns that the rapid take-up and dissemination of memes, gestures and symbols means individuals and organisations, including FIFA, have to be incredibly careful. Simple actions and objects can carry loaded meanings that can spread negative messages rapidly if not properly addressed.

He says elite sporting competitions — where national pride and global attention are part of the mix — are an obvious target for white supremacists and other extremists hoping to draw attention to their causes.

“Symbols are tricky and context is always king,” he warns. “I do think we have to be aware of how even very innocent symbols can be co-opted by these movements.

“We have to always remember that the far right, and I’m not referring to Evans here, do try to find any means to align their messages with the broader public. And so we must be very vigilant in trying to call out these forms of propaganda when we see them.”

For its part, FIFA says it is working to combat racism through stronger rules, tougher sanctions, education and closer monitoring of discrimination at its tournaments. But the controversy proves even ancient gestures can acquire toxic new meanings, powerful enough to disrupt the spectacle of a World Cup.

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A pioneering team of female health professionals led by Dr Fiona Foo and Professor Veronica Preda at Macquarie University is supporting Australian women with a highly collaborative focus on integrative care.

Do us a favour: stop reading this article and search the term “heart attack” in Google Images. What do you see?

Most likely, a sea of anatomical heart models, blocked arteries, and, perhaps more tellingly, countless depictions of men clutching their chests in pain.

There is, of course, nothing inherently malicious about these images. Men are significantly affected by cardiovascular disease. But this simple search reveals a much larger problem that extends far beyond Google Images: women’s heart diseases – and the risk factors that cause them - remains both underrepresented and misunderstood.

At its beating heart lies a dangerous reality – risk-factors like pregnancy, diabetes, thyroid disorders, or kidney conditions like fibromuscular dysplasia – are often overlooked among women. Preventable cardiovascular disease remains a silent killer, accounting for approximately 42,300 deaths in Australia each year, despite decades of public health messaging and major advances in diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Dr Foo says some of the most obvious warnings of heart disease are often missed.

”While chest pain remains the most common symptom of a heart attack in women, they are more likely than men to experience symptoms beyond chest pain, including shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, and jaw or neck pain - signs that can be easily dismissed or missed by sufferers, family members, and even healthcare professionals viewing the disease through a gendered lens,” she said.

Enter: the HER Health Network – with the acronym signalling its unique focus on Heart, Endocrine and Renal care.

An integrated team of cardiac, renal, and metabolic specialists, working alongside dietitians, exercise physiologists, and clinical psychologists, is helping women to tackle drivers of cardiovascular risk like diabetes, obesity, and kidney disease. Dr Fiona Foo, a cardiologist who helped establish the HER Network, says poorly integrated care has profound consequences for women of all ages.

She says her earlier advocacy work with the US-founded Go Red for Women campaign helped her recognise that the complex conditions increasing women’s risk of heart disease, deserve far greater attention.

“In the last few years, we’ve seen an explosion in cardio-kidney-metabolic disease, particularly obesity and metabolic syndrome, and we’re finding that medications used for kidney disease and diabetes can also help the heart,” Dr Foo explains.

The shift toward integrated care was a lightbulb moment for Dr Foo. Based at Macquarie, she reached out to endocrine and kidney specialists, who were seeing the same barriers in women’s healthcare.

The conversation moved quickly to collaboration. Working from the same clinic building, with shared systems and close links to Macquarie University Hospital, the specialists had a rare opportunity to build Australia’s first dedicated women’s cardio-kidney-metabolic team.

Dr Foo says the multidisciplinary approach avoids the pitfalls of what critics call “bikini medicine” - a narrow focus on reproductive and sexual health that often excludes broader, systemic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and even renal disease, which can present differently or be under-recognised in women despite affecting both men and women.

Dr Foo says women’s cardiovascular risk can be shaped by a range of sex-specific and gender-related factors, including:

• pregnancy-related conditions, such as pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension
• menopause, including premature or early menopause.
• metabolic conditions, including PMOS, formerly known as PCOS.
• endometriosis
• autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
• some breast cancer treatments.
• psychological risk factors, including depression and anxiety.
• social determinants of health, including race, ethnicity, education and income.
• environmental stressors, including air pollution.

“All of these things affect women, but there has been a longstanding assumption that heart disease is a man’s disease,” says Dr Foo.

Members of the HER Health Network at the network launch event (left to right): Professor Veronica Preda, Dr Fiona Foo, Dr Mona Razavian, Dr Catherine Smillie, Associate Professor Amanda Wang and Dr Yu Fang Wu.

Professor Veronica Preda is an endocrinologist at Macquarie University Hospital and another key specialist within the HER Network.

She says that one of the network’s greatest strengths lies not only in specialist expertise, but in its ability to create continuity between disciplines that have traditionally worked independently of one another.

“It is a different approach, but it’s also about upskilling,” explains Professor Preda.

“There has been a significant shift in guidelines in this area. For example, in Australia, Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) has implications for cardiometabolic disease across the reproductive lifespan, so the goal is to identify it early and ensure continuity of care from the outset.”

For Preda, that continuity is critical in addressing the fragmented experience many women face when navigating health conditions across multiple specialists.

“If your colleagues are seeing a certain patient, and then their GP is a key anchor point, it can be very piecemeal. The fragmented care is what we are overcoming as well all work collaboratively together through the lifecycle journey with women's health.”

For Dr Foo, however, perhaps one of the biggest challenges remains awareness, not just within medicine, but, as a quick Google search reveals, in the images we collectively associate with a heart attack itself.

“I think females need to realise that heart disease can be more of a problem than issues like breast cancer,” says Dr Foo.

“But if you get checked early many of these risk factors are actually preventable.”

Women’s heart health: what to know and when should I get checked?

Dr Foo says many cardiovascular risks can be reduced if they are identified early.

• Book a Heart Health Check with your GP from around age 45, or earlier if you have diabetes, chronic kidney disease, a strong family history or other risk factors. First Nations people are eligible from age 30.
• Use menopause as a heart health checkpoint, particularly if you have premature or early menopause.
• Know your numbers, including blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, and weight.
• Ask about regular follow-up if you have sex-specific risk factors, including pregnancy-related complications such as pre-eclampsia, gestational hypertension, or gestational diabetes.
• Support the basics of heart health: eat well, stay physically active, avoid nicotine, prioritise sleep and maintain a healthy weight.
• Manage key clinical risk factors, including blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure.
• Look after psychological health, including stress, depression, and anxiety.
• Reduce environmental stressors where possible, including exposure to air pollution.

When should I seek help?

Women should know the warning symptoms of heart disease and seek medical advice if something feels wrong.

• See your GP for assessment if you experience symptoms such as chest pain or discomfort, shortness of breath, dizziness, palpitations, unexplained fatigue, or fainting.
• Call 000 immediately or go to the nearest emergency department if symptoms are sudden or severe, or include chest pain, significant breathing difficulty, or loss of consciousness.
• For women in Sydney seeking specialised support, the HER Clinic provides dedicated, integrated women’s health care. To learn more or book an appointment,  visit: https://www.mqhealth.org.au/services/find-a-service/her-health-network
• The specialists behind the HER Health Network include cardiologists Dr Fiona Foo and Dr Catherine Smillie; endocrinologists Professor Veronica Preda and Dr Yu Fang Wu; and renal physicians Dr Mona Razavian and Associate Professor Amanda Wang.

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From ground burrows to thin plant stems, where native bees nest may determine how well they adapt to a warming climate, new research suggests.

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While most Macquarie University students will spend June preparing for exams, Lachlan Bayliss will instead be preparing to take on some of world football’s biggest names.

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The legendary AFL footballer and coach will be remembered for his untiring efforts to raise awareness and bring together a national effort to beat MND.

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An estimated 80 per cent of the cigarettes smoked in Australia last year were illegal, according to new wastewater data from the Bureau of Statistics. We asked respiratory experts what could be in them.

New evidence dragged from the nation’s sewers by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has revealed decades of sustained health campaigning to reduce smoking rates has been defeated.

Commencing in the 1980s, Australian authorities have successively banned smoking indoors, mandated plain packaging and graphic health warnings, imposed advertising restrictions and strict age limits, and legislated one of the highest tobacco excise rates in the world.

But data released by the ABS last Wednesday found after years of slow declines, nicotine consumption increased by almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025.

The population grew 14 per cent in that time, while tobacco taxes surged by a third – around $22 per packet - thanks to hefty annual excise increases.

The sudden uptick in smoking is despite household spending on legal tobacco falling dramatically over the same period. As the legal industry declined, the ABS analysis points out “estimated prices of illicit tobacco products have remained relatively constant.”

Illicit nicotine products – including cigarettes, vapes, and loose-leaf tobacco – have moved from a tiny sliver of the market to comprising 80 per cent of consumption in Australia in 2025, up from 12 per cent in 2017.

New ABS data suggests 80 per cent of nicotine products in Australia are illegal. Photo: Getty.

Calculating the full extent of this black-market tar hasn’t been easy.

The experimental estimates are based on “nicotine metabolite concentrations” detected in wastewater samples, combined with data showing household spending on legal cigarettes and vapes dropped back to 2016 levels after peaking at the end of 2020.

Under-the-counter cigarettes, imported in vast quantities from Asia and the Middle East, retail for $11 to $25 a pack, while legal brands cost up to $65 on average.

Lighthouse asked Macquarie University respiratory medicine experts Brian Oliver and Matthew Peters what the difference is between ingredients found in a legal packet like Marlboro or Winfield versus illegal imports like Double Happiness and Manchester.

“In the absolute best-case scenario, counterfeit cigarettes are tobacco and nothing else,” says Professor Oliver, Head of the Respiratory Cellular and Molecular Biology Group at the Woolcock Institute. “But to be clear, when you smoke an illegally imported tailor-made, what you’re actually doing is playing Russian Roulette.

“Unlike big tobacco companies — which, despite their history, have strict quality control and can be held accountable — illegal producers have none."

The China National Tobacco Corporation strictly regulates legal tobacco production in China, meaning many illegal imports bought by Australians are “more likely to be grown illegally in areas of industrial wasteland,” Prof. Oliver says. “This may expose smokers to heavy metals such as lead and arsenic.”

Double Happiness cigarettes, made in China, are distinctive as they lack the drab plain packaging mandated by Australian law. Photo:  Jonathan Killick/The Post.

Manchester is a cigarette brand manufactured in the UAE and Europe. In Australia, they are classified as an illicit "white market" product because they do not comply with plain packaging laws. Photo: Mikaela Wilkes.

Exposed to air pollution, toxins from industrial smog and vehicle emissions settle into the soil and ultimately into the tobacco itself. Illicit tobacco is often dried improperly and left in fields or sheds without safeguards. This leads to fungal contamination that can trigger respiratory infections and long-term lung disease.

"The great irony is we're seeing more young people take up cigarettes now because they've been unable to quit vapes," Prof. Oliver says. "They 're heavily addicted to nicotine and don't like the taste of smoking. My patients tell me they think it'll be easier to quit with smokes, which are also cheaper. What we would’ve seen in Australia, if you could only buy legal cigarettes, is people opting out because of the price."

What's more, researchers like Prof. Oliver have no reliable way of determining what's in them.

“We could analyse a packet of illegal cigarettes to find the exact chemical composition, but the problem with any illicit product is, we could not say with any degree of certainty that the next packet, batch, or brand, would be the same," he says.

“If I was going to be a bit nefarious, literally all I’d need to do is collect any old leaf and add nicotine as a raw chemical. There is a very real chance that what you’re smoking isn’t even from a tobacco plant."

He says cigarettes made from the wrong plant species can introduce new and unstudied risks.

Nicotine consumption in Australia has increased by almost 40 per cent between 2017 and 2025. Photo: Getty.

This uncertainty has immeasurable consequences for public health. “Both illegal vape and cigarette products are going to be a nightmare for the epidemiologists,” Prof. Oliver says.

“We know, for instance, that vapes cause a totally different profile of diseases to cigarettes. Children who vape are much more likely to get bone fractures. We could see an upsurge in breast cancer, and that wouldn’t necessarily point to smoking, so this is where it becomes very difficult from a health perspective. There are signals there, but we can’t connect what they’re signalling to.

“My best educated guess is the risks involved with smoking illegal cigarettes are somewhere between two and ten-fold.”

Matthew Peters, Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Macquarie Medical School, says a bigger concern is that Australian smoking rates are rebounding — with a new generation of smokers developing deadly habits.

“Every cigarette and vaping product is toxic,” he warns. “The emergence of illicit tobacco is countering so many of the effective strategies Australia has used to reduce smoking, which include price, plain packaging, and aversive pack warnings.

“Whatever negative views you might hold about Big Tobacco, they have reputational pressures to ensure that the limited number of banned constituents are not on their Australian products.

"There is no control over what’s in illicit tobacco. Absolutely none. We don’t know what’s in it, we don’t know if it’s any worse, but I think legal cigarettes are bad enough.”

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Shark fins on a plane, seahorses in your bag and sea cucumbers in the post – these are just a few examples of illegal marine wildlife trafficking.

This crime can be hard to detect. But in a new study, published in the journal Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability, we show how artificial intelligence (AI) can be harnessed as a complimentary detection tool to help stop marine wildlife trafficking at international airports and mail facilities.

Marine wildlife samples used to create marine detection algorithms. Samples provided by the Australian Museum. Photo: Dr Vanessa Pirotta.  

A global crime

The cross-border trade in live animals, animal parts or products is a global crime, facilitating the flow of billions of illicit dollars each year. It’s known to converge with other criminal activity, including the trafficking in drugs, arms and humans.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime identifies five sources of demand for wildlife trafficking: food, medicine, pets and ornamental plants, specialist collection and adornment.

In some cases, such as pet prestige, people are motivated both by the desire to have a pet and the perceived status it brings to own an exotic animal.

People traffic marine animals too

Wildlife trafficking affects around 4,000 species. Many of the more well-known examples involve land-based animals – ivory from elephant tusks, horns from rhinos and scales from pangolins – the world’s most trafficked mammal.

Closer to home, we also see native Australian reptiles and birds, sometimes shoved in tins, put in socks and packaged up live to be sent overseas.

Marine creatures, unfortunately, are targeted too. This can include live animals such as fish in people’s bags, or dried marine life such as the rise of the seahorse trade and demand for shark fin. We have small pockets of knowledge of this activity. But the reality is we don’t fully understand how widespread it is.

AI to detect marine wildlife trade

Currently, the best means of detecting illegally trafficked wildlife is humans. And then there are our four-legged friends: biosecurity dogs.

Recently, Australia has also been working to develop the use of AI as a potential means of detecting land-based wildlife in illegal wildlife movements – building on existing detection pathways using 3D X-ray machines fitted with algorithms.

For our latest study, we built on these efforts by developing world-first marine wildlife algorithms. We taught computers to look for shark fins, seahorses and sea cucumbers.

We did this by collecting a total of 68 samples of dead marine animals, which we scanned in a 3D X-ray machine to create a library of images. We then used this image library to develop algorithms to enable computers to search for what we taught it to look for - in this case, shark fins, seahorses and sea cucumbers.

Samples were scanned alone and then in more complicated scenarios to reflect how people actually traffic marine life. This means if a bag or mail item is hiding a shark fin, seahorse or sea cucumber, the algorithm will be able to flag this to an operator, prompting them to inspect the item.

Out of a total of 298 scans and a training data set derived from these samples, our algorithm had success rates of 95%, 95% and 85% for shark fins, seahorses and sea cucumbers, respectively.

Humans and biosecurity dogs still needed alongside AI

While technology fitted with computer algorithms may help people inspecting luggage or mail, we still need people to verify what computers see. Sometimes the algorithms get it wrong and may miss items.

Despite this, the broader implications of having AI as a second set of eyes searching for trafficked marine life will aid in identifying key trade routes to potentially stop this activity. The next step is relying on implementation of these algorithms at the front lines.

Like computer algorithms and AI, the more we learn, the better we get at detecting and potentially stopping this harmful crime.

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Macquarie University expert Harry Blatterer explores why the end of a friendship can be so difficult to navigate, and what these often-overlooked losses reveal about the role friends play in our lives.

If you too are a warm-blooded mortal with two legs and a beating heart, there's a good chance you have experienced the end of a friendship.

Not to be confused with a romantic breakup, platonic endings - and the unique heartbreak they bring - are a normal part of life. And yet, they sometimes don’t feel that way.

While romantic breakups can come with a culturally accepted roadmap, dramatic hair transformations, Bridget Jones reinvention arcs and an endless catalogue of songs and films, friendship breakups exist within a grey area. There isn’t necessarily a socially acceptable mourning period for the loss of a friend, and no guidebook, rituals or clear path for how we should forge a way forward.

This, of course, raises an important question: how do we grieve a friendship in a culture that doesn't always see its ending as a significant loss?

Harry Blatterer is associate professor of sociology in the School of Communication, Society and Culture whose research focuses on friendship.

Through his work, Blatterer suggests that understanding why friendships end requires looking at their unique place within Western society.

“The thing about friendship, it's actually a secondary relationship in a sense,” explains Blatterer.

“When people are pressed to decide between their romantic partner, spouse or children, they're always going to usually put them first, and the friend comes second.

“In sociology we would say that friendship isn't institutionalised. There are no legal rights or obligations, but also very thin cultural descriptions of what it is.

“This creates a lot of freedom, but that also means there is nothing at stake; you can just walk. But there is no protocol for when that happens.”

It is within this tension of freedom and fragility that many friendships can end. More often than not, these endings emerge not from dramatic conflict or betrayal, but through the ordinary transitions of life, as the circumstances that once brought people together begin to change.

“Life course transition can be fading away points,” says Blatterer.

“It's partly institutional as we go through primary school and the secondary education system, we have a pre-made group of people that are around us. Once people get into full-time employment, time shrinks, then romantic relationships might happen, and life shrinks again, and then immediately, the secondary status of friendship kicks in.”

Yet despite the ephemeral nature of platonic relationships, Blatterer doesn’t understate the psychological impact these endings can have.

He describes this as a form of "ambiguous loss" - a type of grief marked by uncertainty and the absence of closure, which can leavepeople unsure how to process what has happened.

“In terms of how we deal with that ending, particularly when ghosting can be one of the most prevalent ways, research would refer to that as unclear endings, an ambiguous loss, has deep psychological repercussions,” says Blatterer.

“In order to fix this, you have to get to a point where friendship becomes so important on the societal level that we have therapeutic institutions and normalise the discourse around communicating with our friends when we have problems.

“But then we get back to problem number one:  we cherish our friendships because we don't have to put in that effort in the first place.”

But perhaps the challenge is not resolving this paradox but working to change the silence that surrounds it.

In having conversation that recognise friendship breakups as a genuine form of loss Blatterer says we can then give ourselves permission to grieve them - long after the friendship bracelet has been tucked away in a drawer.

“We need to give ourselves the space to grieve over the loss of a friendship, because we owe it to ourselves to care for ourselves,” reflects Blatterer

“I think we are at a point in time within Western societies where it's much more acceptable for people to express how they feel, even amongst men - for the most part - which suggests that things are changing. But that needs to continue to evolve. We need to be able to express all our feelings freely, and we ought to, especially when it comes to this type of loss.”

Looking ahead, Blatterer’s exploration of friendship and its place in Western society is far from finished. His upcoming book on friendship, “Friendship and Sociality: Encounters between Privacy and Publicness,’ due for release later this year, will examine both the importance of, and the tensions that shape modern relationships, from how friendships evolve across the life course to the competing demands of work, family and romantic love – one friendship, and sometimes one friendship breakup, at a time.

Top image: Getty Images / Handout

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From polished meeting notes to an AI-written eulogy, undisclosed assistance can mislead others about what we really think, feel or can do, raising hard questions about when that deception crosses a moral line.

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Queensland clothing brand Sabo says retail behemoths Kmart and Shein copied its designs. Legal experts say proving ownership of intellectual property in fashion is far more difficult than many consumers realise.

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Macquarie University has been recognised as a Platinum Tier organisation at the 2026 LGBTQ+ Inclusion Awards, in recognition of its sustained efforts fostering diversity, inclusion and belonging.

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Octogenarian Roger Whalan has graduated from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, bringing decades of life experience to his graduation and a story shaped by perseverance.

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New research from Macquarie University has found removing everyday positive mental health behaviours for just two weeks can rapidly trigger symptoms of depression and anxiety in otherwise healthy adults.

New research from Macquarie University has found removing everyday positive mental health behaviours for just two weeks can rapidly trigger symptoms of depression and anxiety in otherwise healthy adults. These symptoms then resolve once those actions are resumed.

The behaviours, known as The Big Five/The Things You Do, include:

* Maintaining realistic thinking

* Engaging in meaningful activities

* Having goals and plans

* Keeping healthy routines, including sleep

* Staying socially connected

What the research did

Researchers conducted a randomised controlled, staged behavioural experiment in healthy adults, measured against a control group:

1. Baseline (2 weeks): participants continued normal daily routines

2. Restriction (2 weeks): everyday behaviours were deliberately reduced

3. Resumption (5 weeks): routines were reintroduced over four weeks

What it found

Mental wellbeing deteriorated rapidly in the experimental group during the restriction phase.

While 97 per cent of people in the intervention group had been in the ‘healthy’ range for symptoms of depression at the start of the trial, only 31 per cent remained in the ‘healthy’ range by the end of the restriction phase, with almost 70 per cent having developed ‘mild’ or ‘moderate’ depression symptoms.

“We've known for some time that certain daily actions are linked to good mental health. What this study shows is the other side of that coin,” said Professor Nick Titov of the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University and Scientific Advisor at online mental health clinic MindSpot.

“We found that when people stop doing these things, their mental health deteriorates. Within two weeks of restricting key daily actions, the majority of participants moved from healthy to experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety.”

Key takeaway

The study helps explain how depression and anxiety can emerge from the loss of ordinary daily behaviours, such as disruptions to sleep, activity, routine and social connection, and not just from major trauma or biology.

“This isn't about big gestures or expensive treatments. It's about the small things we do each day,” said Macquarie University eCentreClinic co-director Professor Blake Dear.

“Our research shows that when life gets hard and we stop the basics – like doing little things that we enjoy, exercising, seeing friends, keeping a routine – that's when we become vulnerable. The good news is that getting back to those basics can make a real difference.”

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Hiring a sustainability executive may look like progress, but new research from Macquarie University suggests real environmental outcomes depend on embedding sustainable practices across an organisation.

A wolf in sheep’s clothing, or a wolf clothed in green? From carbon-neutral labels to promises of sustainability, businesses are increasingly positioning themselves as environmentally responsible.

But when those claims do not match their actions, the practice becomes what is widely known as greenwashing.

First coined in 1986 by environmentalist Jay Westerveld, who observed a hotel encouraging guests to reuse towels while simultaneously engaging in large-scale land clearing - the idea quickly expanded beyond resorts.

Throughout the 1980s and early 2000s, environmental messaging became an increasingly common feature of corporate advertising. Oil and gas companies sold a vision of pristine landscapes, while others wrapped their investments in ‘eco-friendly’ packaging. In 2015, Volkswagen would become one of the companies synonymous with the darker side of this approach, after its Dieselgate scandal exposed the gap between environmental messaging and real-world action.

More recently, companies like BHP have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 - a commitment that has raised eyebrows given the company's ongoing investment in emissions-heavy industries.

As scrutiny of greenwashing grows, new Macquarie University research suggests that corporate deception is moving beyond public relations and into recruitment decisions.

Le Luo, Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance at Macquarie University, explored the growing demand for green-skilled workers, particularly in senior sustainability leadership roles.

Much as Westerveld had decades earlier, Associate Professor Luo questioned whether those commitments were translating beyond corporate messaging into meaningful change.

“What we were seeing was that policies such as the AASB standards and the emission trading scheme, actually require someone within the firms that have the environmental expertise.

“As we observed this increase in the demand for green hiring, we were also interested to know if these companies have better environmental outcomes.

Contrary to what might be assumed, whether a company had a sustainability executive at the top was not the driver for positive outcomes. Instead, the research suggested that environmental expertise had a greater impact when embedded throughout an organisation.

“We found that this positive association is stronger when this environmental expertise is distributed across a wide range of occupations,” says Associate Professor Luo.

“Similarly, we found that if firms only hire from the top, or only concentrate on the management level, this positive association is weakened and is more likely to be symbolic.

“Ultimately, if you want to reduce emissions or improve the outcomes, you always have to have the substantive actions that are also implemented by those lower-level occupation roles. Green hiring without responsibly embedding an approach is just marketing - that's not enough.”

A further challenge is that many companies lack the financial resources to turn the genuine goals behind green hiring into change. Associate Professor Luo says this can place smaller businesses under greater pressure.

“In looking at the carbon-intensive sector and the large and the smaller firms, we do find that the smaller firms do face financial constraints to implement these substantively, which resulted in weaker results.”

That is not to say smaller firms can’t take environmentally friendly steps forward. While large-scale transformation may not happen all at once, building stronger governance systems can provide a foundation for broader change over time.

“They have to think long term rather than short term,” Associate Professor Luo explains.

Ultimately, the question doesn’t just come down to whether companies are talking about sustainability, but whether those commitments are being built into the fabric of an organisation - one hire at a time.

“I think in the future the employees may need to have dual skills, both functional but also green skills - that is where we will see the most effective and preferable outcomes,” says Associate Professor Luo.

“If they want to make real-world impacts and changes, they can’t just hire from the top. They have to invest the expertise in the lower levels, so they can support strategy implementation.”

Are you a business owner? Associate Professor Le Luo’s work is connected to Macquarie University’s Nature Positive Finance and Business Research Centre, which provides research-based insights to help businesses, policymakers and investors manage environmental risk and embed sustainability into decision-making.

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Aboriginal people of my vintage grew up surrounded by Aboriginalia in the form of kitsch everyday objects, often depicting racist stereotypes that showed what Australia thought about us.

From wall hangings to tea-towels, to drink coasters and ashtrays, they were ever present. Later, when they began to be regarded as cringe-worthy, they were relegated to the op-shops frequented by a young Tony Albert.

The Girrimay, Kuku Yilanji, Yidinji artist describes his early fascination with these objects: complex, tangible reminders of racism. By incorporating them into his work, he reframes them within an immutable Blak presence — one that has informed his decades-long practice.

Care and considered

When you first enter Albert’s exhibition, Not a Souvenir, showing at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, you are met with a wall of Aboriginalia reminiscent of the domestic display for which many were originally created.

Accompanying this wall is a glass display, resembling a colonial museum exhibit, that features a further assemblage of items. The sheer volume, variety, and span of time this vast assemblage represents is intentionally arresting. It’s a reminder of how diverse the public’s fascination with Aboriginalia once was.

In an earlier age, these objects reduced Aboriginal people to curios of utility and stereotype. But Albert presents them with care and consideration, treating them like an ancestor entrusting their meaning-making to Aboriginal hands.

The late Wiradjuri writer Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert(1956–2019) recalled how many Aboriginal people had a hand in making these objects. They were often held in our own collections, as memory pieces to be cherished, as a part of our long story.

However, Albert’s love letter to Aboriginal Kitch is interrupted in the next gallery, where the visitor encounters specific-use Aboriginalia in his 2008 work, Ash on Me, and the more recent, ASHamed (2025).

These works shows ashtrays featuring the bodies and faces of Aboriginal people made to have cigarettes stubbed out on their visages. It’s a confronting shift from kitch as pristine object of souvenir, to calling out the casual violence and disregard for Aboriginal bodies.

As Aboriginal people we are often asked to explain what truth-telling looks like. Here, we see it in Albert’s use of devastating whimsy: the history of these items, their use, and Australian complicity creates an opportunity for new truths to be told.

A nuanced dialogue with the past

The exhibition, like Albert’s larger body of work, is no single note. His truth-telling creates a complex dialogue between artist and visitor, often responding to events and existing works popular among the public.

Around the halfway point we see this in Conversations with Preston. This series recalls and responds to early 20th century artist Margaret Preston’s unauthorised appropriation of Aboriginal motifs across her practice.

Rather than dismissing Preston’s work, Albert recognises the beauty and tribute, while also insisting on its devastating impact. He asserts an Aboriginal hand in the re-telling.

From this gentle cadence, guests are thrust into a visceral challenge to coloniality with Albert’s series, You Wreck Me. Many encountered this work on the cover of Bronwyn Carlson and Terri Farrelly’s 2023 book, Monumental Disruptions – with both artwork and book calling for the long overdue toppling of colonial statues.

You Wreck Me shows the artist atop a wrecking ball, bound for a statue of Captain Cook. No subtle metaphor here. This is truth-telling through resistance, insistence and action.

Chance for reflection

This exhibition, curated by Albert’s long-time collaborator Bruce Johnson McLean (Wierdi), juxtaposes an astounding breadth of the artist’s works. Many of the works are seemingly disparate.

In the centre of the souvenir-laden coloniality of The Rocks, McLean reminds the visitor this is not neutral territory. Instead, Tallawoladah is a place where Aboriginal people have thrived for eons, with colonial violence being a more recent incursion.

The incongruence is reinforced through the Brothers series, which depicts Aboriginal boys with targets painted on their torsos, as direct recall of police brutality leading to the deaths of Aboriginal children.

Behind these stark representations are the windows of the gallery that face Circular Quay, replete with an enormous docked cruise ship and tourists milling around.

Visitors who are invested in truth-telling may be confronted. Tourists may second-guess their purchase of a souvenir boomerang: is it authentic? – should they own it? Non-Indigenous Australian visitors may recall a part of their own colonial past. And First Nations visitors may bear witness to the way Albert’s work can hold truths while presenting a complex reality.

The exhibition concludes with an opportunity for visitors who own uncomfortable Aboriginalia to donate it to Albert to be repurposed.

As Albert explains:

It’s about taking these objects and turning them into something that celebrates our survival and our vibrancy as the world’s oldest living culture.

In refusing to allow these items to be absent in his retelling of how we continue to thrive, Albert engages in a resistance that brings visitors along, making us co-conspirators in his anti-colonial vision.

Tony Albert: Not a Souvenir is showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from May 21 to October 19.

This article was originally published in The Conversation.

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From cost-of-living pressures to growing voter frustration, Macquarie University expert Kurt Sengul explores the conditions creating new opportunities for One Nation and populist politics in Australia.

After nearly three decades in Australian politics, Pauline Hanson and One Nation are once again gaining momentum, with recent polling suggesting the party could win as many as 59 seats if an election were held today, pointing to growing support beyond the party’s conservative working-class heartland and into frustrated suburban and regional communities.

While One Nation’s full policy platform is not yet clear, its proposal for new taxes on gas projects to fund a sovereign wealth fund has both major parties paying attention.

Positioned by the party as a replacement for the existing Petroleum Resource Rent Tax on new gas projects, the new policy cuts taxes on gas exploration by 30 per cent, but grants the government options for a 30 per cent claim of future gas projects.

Dr Kurt Sengul, a Research Fellow in the School of Communication, Society and Culture at Macquarie University, has been studying One Nation’s successful growth – built from a complex web of nationalism, populism and political opportunism.

He says the bold new energy policy shouldn’t be interpreted as a shift away from One Nation's established politics, but a clever attempt to reposition itself within Australia's changing political landscape.

“The interesting thing about One Nation is that these ideas aren't necessarily new, but the important thing with One Nation at the moment is that it feels that way because their existing policies were when they were a fringe, minor party,” Sengul explains.

“They are also now a serious political player, which gives this perception that One Nation is developing policies in response to Australia’s big challenges - that positions them as a legitimate policy alternative, which is pretty significant.”

The gas tax proposal also highlights the influence on Parliament that a party like One Nation can wield within what Sengul describes as a political "sweet spot".

Rather than fitting neatly within traditional left-right ideologies, One Nation appears increasingly willing to combine right-leaning positions on issues such as nationalism, migration and cultural identity with a more interventionist economic approach - a balancing act that can create political advantages.

“One Nation can frame this policy as standing up to multinational gas giants trying to reap the benefits of Australia's gas reserves, but at the same time, the industry doesn't seem too unhappy with this,” explains Dr Sengul.

“There has been some reporting that they wouldn't have to pay anything for at least 10 years, and there would be a 30 per cent rebate.

“It is clever and quite similar to what we see from right-wing populists in general.

“We've seen this with the Trump administration, which is also pursuing policies that take equity stakes in companies. They can appear somewhat left wing, but at the same time, are very right wing on the environment.”

Internationally, populist movements have been slowly building for many years. But Dr Sengul says the speed of One Nation's recent momentum has surprised him and many in Australian political circles.

“I don't think anybody expected this,” says Dr Sengul. “There was really no indication that One Nation was going to explode. I think the reasons for that are varied.”

He says the collapse of the Liberal Party, alongside the convergence of several broader political and social pressures unfolding across Australia simultaneously, are factors driving voters towards populist parties and once unthinkable policies– like government’s co-owning gas fields.

“We do have this ongoing and sustained intersection of several crises. Whether that's high inflation, housing affordability, or national security issues, a right-wing populist party like One Nation, has a lot to work with.

But attracting attention and translating that attention into political success are often two very different things. For One Nation, questions around long-term stability continue to loom ominously alongside the party's recent popularity.

“This is still a party that has an incredibly checkered history of disorganisation and implosion, infighting, and dysfunction,” says Dr Sengul.

“Those issues won't resolve themselves.”

Yet despite these concerns, One Nation seems to have developed a talent for political comebacks, breathing new life into a phrase Hanson herself is all too familiar with: "Please explain.”

“They appear far more resilient to scandals, controversy and dysfunction than they used to be - that perhaps speaks to their potential success,” reflects Dr Sengul.

“There are still many unknowns and reasons to think they could self-destruct, but something definitely feels different about the party.”

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Psychologists have sounded the alarm over “once in a generation” training reforms the government says will plug the gaps in Australia’s crippled mental health workforce.

By 2038, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing projects demand for psychological services will outstrip supply by a staggering 96.6 per cent.

The shortfall was 57.3 per cent in 2025, according to the department’s Psychology Supply and Demand Study report released in April. The abysmal statistics prompted the training overhaul which many psychologists now fear will turn into a box-ticking exercise.

“The mental health workforce shortage tends to get framed as a pipeline issue, like we just need to train more people. But that’s only part of the story,” says Dr Leanne Hall, Director of Macquarie University’s Master of Clinical Psychology.

To become a registered general psychologist, students currently complete a three-year undergraduate degree, an accredited fourth honours year, either a one-or-two-year master's program, and a paid one-year internship. They are then required to complete a period of supervised registrar training after approximately six years of full-time study.

The government has directed the Psychology Board of Australia to replace this with a single integrated five‑year program from 2026.

The new training, which is under public consultation until June 10,  will embed practical placements earlier, remove the national psychology exam for domestic graduates, and introduce a potential exit point after three years into a new “psychology assistant” role.

“On paper and in principle, the reforms look good,” Dr Hall says. “The current pathway is very complex. It’s confusing for students, for the public, and for services.”

But she is urging the government to put money where its mouth is.

“I do think there’s a distinct lack of detail in the plans we’ve seen so far. It’s unclear exactly how practical placements are going to be embedded earlier in the training process without any additional funding allocated to the services who provide that supervision.”

Practical placements present a significant bottleneck to workforce training, she says. Most mental health services are under acute pressure, which limits their ability to take on and support registrars.

“If we truly want to address Australia’s mental health crisis, we cannot place that burden on the shoulders of our graduates alone,” Dr Hall says.

“At present, there are limited employment opportunities for graduate psychologists within publicly funded services, where the need is greatest. As a result, many graduates move directly into private practice, leaving significant gaps elsewhere in the system.

“In short, this is not simply a supply problem, it’s a system problem.”

Australian Psychological Society President Dr Kelly Gough describes underinvestment in the profession as “chronic”.

“The number of psychologists is growing, but average working hours are declining. Capacity isn’t increasing at the same rate, even as demand grows,” he said in response to the supply and demand report.

Gough said that increasing workforce numbers alone will not resolve the issue. “This is not just about how many psychologists we train. It’s about whether psychologists can sustainably work where they are needed most.”

The economic and social costs of not funding these services are already plain.

Two in five Australians aged 16–24 experienced a mental disorder in the last 12 months, according to the most recent National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing.

“The Australian mental health system is funded for through-put,” Dr Hall explains.

“It’s designed for psychologists to see a maximum number of clients. Get them in, get them out. When someone presents with complex mental health needs, you can’t see them for 10 Medicare sessions and assume they’ll fine. That’s not how mental health works."

The government continues to invest in early intervention services such as the free Medicare Mental Health Check‑In, headspace centres, and Family Mental Health Support Services, which Dr Hall likens to an 'ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.'

“Better Access (Medicare) was not designed to support people with complex or high‑acuity presentations, yet in practice, there is often nowhere else for these clients to go," she says.

Public mental health services tend to have narrow eligibility criteria and long waiting lists. Without access to these services, the alternative is private care. But seeing a psychologist without a Medicare referral is often prohibitively expensive.

"This is where significant equity issues emerge, with access to care increasingly determined by a person’s financial capacity rather than their level of need," Dr Hall says.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics.

So where do the people who can’t afford private therapy go?

“People are left cycling between short‑term supports, usually emergency departments, or systems that were never designed to provide ongoing mental health care... including the justice system.”

She is calling for coordinated state‑based investment at both the lower and higher ends of the public psychology sector.

“If you want more clinical psychologists and psychiatrists to be supporting patients with complex mental health, then you need to create funding structures and community-led care models that can actually support that."

“Most of my students would prefer to work in the public sector,” Dr Hall adds. “They got into psychology because they want to help people, and not just the ones who can afford it.

“The need for them is there. The numbers of psychology students are there, so the public roles must be there. If not, we’ll have more graduates becoming private therapists and end up right back where we started. For me, it’s the elephant in the room.”

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A humpback whale stranded for weeks in Germany became a global livestream spectacle – then a rescue moved him to sea, where he died days later. Timmy’s story is a sobering lesson in putting animal welfare ahead of the urge to play saviour.

This story was first published in The Conversation.

Since March, the world has watched live as a humpback whale lay stranded on a sandbank in German waters, far from the North Sea.

The stranded humpback whale was found in poor health, tangled in fishing gear with telltale cuts from a ship strike on its back. He was given the name Timmy.

Early attempts to rescue Timmy failed. As the weeks dragged on, public interest in his plight increased. The question was what to do. German politicians, animal welfare groups and concerned citizens debated euthanasia or rescue.

Despite experts pointing out Timmy was not well enough to be rescued, two millionaires reportedly chipped in €1.5m (A$2.4 million) to have him moved onto a barge filled with water, pulled by tugboat to the sea off the coast of Denmark and released on May 2. Just days ago, Timmy was found dead.

This story illustrates a clear principle – when it comes to an animal enduring suffering, we need to put their welfare first.

How did Timmy get stranded?

When a humpback whale becomes stranded, it’s usually a sign of poor health rather than poor navigation. Either way, the moment a whale becomes caught on a beach, the survival clock starts ticking.

For Timmy, the clock started in March when he was first found stranded off Germany’s Baltic coast. An excavator and dredger was used to free Timmy at least twice. The whale later became stranded again, many times.

During Timmy’s weeks-long strandings, people could watch on a 24-hour livestream. His plight is believed to be a unique case globally, as a large whale stranding multiple times in different places under constant observation. The German Oceanographic Museum described the situation as “uncharted territory”.

There were many concerns raised about Timmy’s welfare while stranded and during the rescue attempt. He was caught in low-salinity water, likely causing skin deterioration. His body weight likely crushed his internal organs – whales live in water and have likely never felt their own weight in air before. The whale was also vulnerable to sunburn.

Vocalisations – low-frequency sounds made by the whale – were heard while he was in the barge and being manoeuvred back into the sea. Unfortunately, we do not understand what these meant.

Given he was a mammal like you and me, it is possible Timmy was in pain. Large toothless whales such as humpback whales are known to have nerves like ours.

Was the rescue for humans – or for Timmy?

From an animal-welfare and ethics point of view, efforts to rescue Timmy were a bad idea. The whale was in very poor health. As a wildlife scientist, my view is that euthanasia was the kindest option.

Moving Timmy onto a barge would have likely caused him further pain and suffering. It’s no surprise he died not long after the rescue effort, given his already poor condition.

In fact, the rescue effort shocked marine scientists. Stranding experts from the International Whaling Committee described rescue efforts as “inadvisable” on grounds of animal welfare and human safety.

So why did it go ahead? Authorities allowed this to happen, perhaps feeling the weight of public opinion. Many people wanted to see Timmy released. As a whale expert, I can understand why people wanted to see this whale free. But it was never going to be simple.

Lessons not learned from Free Willy

For me, Timmy’s story reminded me of the film Free Willy, which was based on the true story of an orca named Keiko kept in captivity. In reality, Keiko was not suitable for release.

In the film, Free Willy is freed after caring humans mount a daring rescue and the orca swims happily away. But in real life, Keiko was freed at a cost of about A$28 million, failed to adapt to life in the wild, and died the following year.

Imagine if we used those funds for broader marine conservation, rather than two individual animals?

Like everyone, I cared about Timmy – we all did. But the reality is that humans placed Timmy and Free Willy in their respective positions, be it entanglement in fishing gear (Timmy) or capture from the wild (Free Willy). Both were our responsibility.

When it comes to an animal enduring suffering, let’s make sure it is welfare – not our human desire to play saviour – that is the first priority.

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AI tools are turning family photos into instant storybooks and opening publishing to anyone, but experts say the technology comes with serious trade-offs.

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Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, runs the most subscribed-to YouTube channel in the world. He is also a prominent philanthropist. But despite improving the lives of many, his methods are controversial.

This story was originally published in The Conversation.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, runs the most subscribed-to YouTube channel in the world (with 484 million subscribers and has an estimated net worth of US$2.6 billion).

He is also a prominent philanthropist. Beyond his involvement in fundraising initiatives such as #TeamTrees, which claims to have planted more than 24 million trees worldwide, Donaldson runs a dedicated Beast Philanthropy YouTube channel.

He claims 100% of profits from this channel’s ad revenue, merch sales and sponsorships go towards helping others. This has included paying for 1,000 cataract surgeries, constructing a medical clinic for children rescued from slavery, and building 100 wells to provide clean water in Africa.

These impressive philanthropic endeavours have dramatically improved the lives of their recipients. How could any of this be controversial?

The murky ethics of ‘stunt philanthropy’

Many of Donaldson’s videos involve subjecting people to what might be seen as degrading or exploitative situations, in exchange for money.

In Donaldson’s “Ages 1 – 100 Decide Who Wins $250,000” video, contestants (including young children) are put in an intense competitive structure and forced to eliminate one another. We see a grown man help to intentionally eliminate an 11-year-old girl, which leads to her sobbing on camera.

In another video, he tells a random group of shoppers they will win US$250,000 if they are the last to leave the store. Under pressure to stay, they are kept from their families and forced to endure poor living conditions, with some experiencing emotional breakdowns.

These videos have been labelled by various critics as “poverty porn”, as they could be seen as exploiting the desperation of vulnerable people to generate clicks and ad revenue.

The Beast Games reality series, which airs on Prime Video, is also built around challenges designed to provoke contestants into backstabbing one another, experiencing emotional distress, and revealing depressing stories about how badly they need the money.

Allegations against Donaldson also extend to behind the scenes, particularly in regards to the culture of work in his companies.

In 2024, several contestants who took part in Beast Games filed a lawsuit against Donaldson’s MrB2024 and other companies involved in the production. They allege they were subject to “chronic mistreatment”, including the infliction of emotional distress, inadequate food and rest breaks, delays in receiving medication, exposure to dangerous conditions, and a failure to prevent sexual harassment.

More recently, a former Beast Industries employee sued two of Donaldson’s production companies after suffering alleged sexual harassment and gender bias at work.

You can’t morally offset exploitation of people

When it comes to assessing the ethics of Donaldson’s work, one option is to take a simple “consequentialist” perspective. Act consequentialism is the view that the right action is the one which leads to the most amount of good.

If a few people suffer exploitative conditions so many more people can enjoy life-saving surgery, then the moral calculus is likely to come out in favour of this situation. Of course, there are longstanding philosophical worries with such a view.

The 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant argued it is wrong to use others as tools to achieve our own ends, even if our ends are morally admirable. Treating some people as mere means right now can’t be morally justified by promising to help others later on.

According to Kant, one’s motives for helping others are also important, and the moral worth of an action is determined by these motives. So helping others out of a sense of duty has a moral worth that doing the same act out of self-interest does not.

Is Donaldson’s philanthropy motivated by duty and care for others, or by clicks, esteem and ad-revenue? Or perhaps both?

We can’t know the answer. Although, Kant himself did believe all humans are likely to be morally corrupt at the very root of their character.

Consent and power

Irrespective of Donaldson’s motives, a broader point remains: his philanthropic videos are an integral part of his overall brand. The philanthropy helps to make the other, more exploitative videos (and the significant revenues they generate) more “morally palatable”.

After all, Donaldson could simply give his money away. He doesn’t need to make people compete, scheme and suffer for it.

One might counter that the participants have consented to being involved. But when you offer people in economically vulnerable situations potentially life-changing amounts of money to endure degrading conditions, the “voluntariness” becomes contestable.

This is not what ethicists consider “informed consent”. The offer can be so large that it clouds judgement. And for people without genuine alternatives, saying “no” may not be a realistic option.

The fact that Donaldson sometimes subjects himself to similar treatment, such as when he buried himself alive for seven days, deepens rather than lessens the worry, given the power asymmetries at play. He owns the production company, controls the conditions, and profits from the content in ways other participants do not.

The underlying structural concerns

When political problems, such as poverty, or a lack of access to healthcare or clean water, are reduced to entertainment, they undergo a form of what scholars call “depoliticisation”. Political failures that demand collective action, institutional reform and democratic deliberation instead become fodder for entertainment.

If we think we can help solve these problems just by watching viral videos, then we can avoid facing the structural issues that underpin them.

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Behind glass cabinets and beneath carefully preserved wings, Macquarie University’s Biology Discovery Centre invites visitors into the fragile interconnectedness of life and death.

“Is it true that we are really all made of the stars?”

This is the question posed to Macquarie University's Biology Discovery Centre curator Libby Eyre, by a five-year-old child during a public tour of the collection.

Filled with native and critically endangered Australian animals, corals, shells, skulls, skeletons, and even a dinosaur casting, the Discovery Centre offers a rare opportunity to stand face to face with the natural world - where curiosity and mortality coexist.

While maintaining such a collection is no simple task, for Eyre, the museum's significance reaches far beyond preservation alone.

“It is a lot of work, but I also really love it,” says Eyre.

“It can also be challenging having museums, because, with the fast pace of life, social media, and opinions, people have become more cynical.

“But I think the place is there to remove people from their screens and to see objects that they can get up close to. You can look at the Wallabies, and you can see the Cassowary's feathers and remnants of wings.

“From there, you can think about our place in our responsibility in protecting the environment.”

The Discovery Centre offers a rare opportunity to stand face to face with the natural world. Image: Elaine Obran

Inside the museum, the instinct to scroll through notifications feels strangely misplaced, perhaps even sacrilegious.

Instead, visitors move slowly between cabinets of insects and sleeping marsupials frozen in time beneath glass.

The silence is occasionally interrupted by hushed reactions, quiet gasps, whispered “oh my gods,” as people encounter the collection up close. In these moments, the museum becomes less about spectacle and more about reflection: an invitation to consider humanity’s relationship with the ecosystems surrounding us.

For Eyre, it’s one that is becoming increasingly fragile.

“Throughout the ages, humans have been isolating themselves from animals, thinking we’re something else, but we're not. We are part of this whole system. We're part of that diversity of life, and we need that diversity of life.

“If you move online, if you forget the whole organism and its part in that ecosystem, then you're missing out on that big picture. We are very small, and life is very fragile.”

That awareness is also what makes the work emotionally confronting at times. Among the museum’s displays are species whose futures have become uncertain, or in some cases extinct even within Eyre’s own lifetime.

“I find it sad,” says Eyre.

“Humans don't have very long lifespans, but we do a lot during them. You can look at an animal like a koala that's here, they're now endangered, the same as the Tasmanian devil, which is critically endangered.

Species on display at the Discovery Centre include Koalas, which are now critically endangered. Image: Elaine Obran

“But even though it's sad to see so many dead, beautiful beings in one place, it’s important to make the most of it with research as well and to educate people.

This feeling of purpose continues to drive Eyre - not only in caring for the space, but in opening it to more visitors, something she hopes will continue to grow momentum into the future.

“This is an important part of the Macquarie University institution,” reflects Eyre.

“It’s part of its history, and part of its culture. It can be a hidden space that often people discover on their last day, so I would love more people to book a tour or just simply wander through.”

Visitors can move slowly between cabinets of insects and sleeping marsupials frozen in time beneath glass. Image: Elaine Obran

Whether visited between lectures or during a quiet moment in the day, the museum offers us a chance to sit with questions that can’t be answered by a screen alone.

“The space also asks us to find the beauty. Even though they're not alive anymore, they still preserve that form, function, and diversity,” says. Eyre.

“Once you start to question, you then want to find answers.”

And perhaps that is what lingers most after leaving the Discovery Centre, a childlike sense of wonder and curiosity, that can be carried forward the next time someone looks up at the night sky and asks, “are we really made from the stars?”

The Centre is open to everyone, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm at the 6 Science Road (formerly E8B) room 110. For more information, inquiries, or to plan your visit, contact: elizabeth.eyre@mq.edu.au or visit https://www.mq.edu.au/

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Macquarie University engineers are helping one of the world’s most powerful telescopes view the universe more clearly, after reaching a major milestone that will see an upgrade to the Gemini North telescope.

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