How writing by hand or by AI changes the way you think

We always thought that when the robots arrived, they’d be cold and calculating like The Terminator... But they’re mostly charming and inaccurate. We also thought they’d do away with the drudgery of our most boring work... But it’s writing songs and sonnets instead. Or is it? At a Sydney Ideas liv…

The future of mental health care lives in your pocket

Your phone knows how many steps you’ve taken today, how long you’ve been outside, how much social interaction you’ve had... It can be scary, but what if it could be the path to a better way of managing mental health? Rates of anxiety and depression continue to rise, but even if we could double the…

What if going to work could improve social cohesion?

Society feels more divided than ever. We seem to be talking about this all the time, but it’s exactly these discussions that are pulling us further apart. Professor Betina Szkudlarek says it’s worse than differences of opinion. Today, people are less likely than ever to even hear out someone who’s…

Would you let robots care for your grandparents?

Would you want a robot to look after you in your later years? What if it treated you like a child? That’s exactly what’s happening to some older people subject to an influx of high-tech solutions to a struggling aged care system in Australia. Our population is ageing and staff are burning out, so …

Beating cervical cancer could improve public health worldwide

Humans are constantly getting better at fighting cancer. Our understanding of the suite of diseases is more robust, our technology is more advanced, and our public health systems are more efficient. But cancer epidemiologist Professor Karen Canfell says Australia will still see more and more incide…

Running out of wheat - the scientist racing to fix it

Our growing population has a huge number of impacts, but the simplest and most pressing is that we have more mouths to feed than ever before. At the same time, though, climate change is threatening farmland worldwide. That means crops like wheat, which account for 20% of daily calories consumed wor…

Could deadly cobras help us end chronic pain?

Professor Greg Neely says pain is a good thing. This might worry you when you find out he’s studying some of the deadliest snakes on the planet, but it’s all about trying to understand pain as a mechanism – and Greg’s long-term goal is to address chronic pain, which afflicts more than one billion …

How much of ageing is actually in our control?

We’re told to eat better, sleep more, train our bodies and our brains — all in the name of ageing well.   But how much of that advice is actually backed by science? How might we all live – and stay – well, for longer, at any stage of life? And how much of ageing is really up to us?  Researcher Gi…

From breakthrough to bedside – How medical discoveries make their way to us.

What if the cure everyone’s waiting for already exists — but patients can’t access it?  With AI transforming medicine, breakthroughs are no longer science fiction. They’re happening now. But innovation alone isn’t enough. So how do discoveries escape the lab to reach patients?   Leading researche…

Australia has more homes than ever – so why the housing crisis?

Australia has more homes per adult than at any point in our history. So why is our housing crisis worse than ever?  Professor Nicole Gurran’s been studying housing for 15 years, and she says the solutions to Australia's housing crisis are obvious – it’s the execution that’s failing, and most Austr…