In recent days, the “right to disconnect” has entered Australia’s legislative agenda. It refers to employees’ rights to refuse unreasonable after-hours contact from their employer. In a work landscape where employees are constantly available after hours thanks to smartphones and portable devices, and employers are competing in global markets and operating on tight deadlines, concerns about […] … learn more→

The phenomenon of citizen science is not new, but it has grown over the last decade. Moreover, you yourself may have contributed by observing birds from your balcony or garden during the 2020 confinement, or by using your smartphone to identify a plant or an insect during a walk in the forest. In doing so, you shared your observations […] … learn more→

Throughout history, through its discoveries and innovations, science has been the engine of human progress. However, many people, especially young people , are unaware of much of the knowledge she brought . As teachers and researchers, we take up the challenge of bringing new generations closer to science. It is also about combating inequalities between men and women in […] … learn more→

Every minute, millions of social media posts, photos and videos flood the internet. On average, Facebook users share 694,000 stories, X (formerly Twitter) users post 360,000 posts, Snapchat users send 2.7 million snaps and YouTube users upload more than 500 hours of video. This vast ocean of online material needs to be constantly monitored for harmful […] … learn more→

The first human has received a Neuralink brain chip implant, according to co-founder Elon Musk. The neurotechnology company has started its first human trial since receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023. The trial’s focus is on an implant that could potentially allow people with severe physical disabilities to control digital devices using their thoughts. […] … learn more→

How would you react if ChatGPT revealed your phone number and home address? Among the data on the web that the language model behind ChatGPT trains on, some information is personal and is not intended to be revealed. However, this risk is very real, as a team of researchers demonstrated by pushing ChatGPT to reveal a large […] … learn more→

One of the best-known facts in biology is that, in sexual species like ours, to generate a new living being, a female and a male gamete are necessary. That is, an egg and a sperm. The theory is simple: during fertilization, the sperm penetrates the egg or oocyte and activates it. The oocyte is the one that […] … learn more→

Cyber-skulduggery is becoming the bane of modern life. Australia’s prime minister has called it a “scourge”, and he is correct. In 2022–23, nearly 94,000 cyber crimes were reported in Australia, up 23% on the previous year. In the latest high-profile attack, around 15,000 customers of alcohol retailer Dan Murphy, Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez, Event Cinemas, and […] … learn more→

Concern about generative artificial intelligence technologies seems to be growing almost as fast as the spread of the technologies themselves. These worries are driven by unease about the possible spread of disinformation at a scale never seen before, and fears of loss of employment, loss of control over creative works and, more futuristically, AI becoming so powerful […] … learn more→

How would you feel if your child were being tutored by a robot? Social robots – robots that can talk and mimic and respond to human emotion – have been introduced into classrooms around the world. Researchers have used them to read stories to preschool students in Singapore, help 12-year-olds in Iran learn English, improve handwriting among young children in Switzerland and teach […] … learn more→