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Editor's note
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There are about 3,500 km between Perth and Melbourne - and coincidentally 3,500 million years in the history of life on Earth. As John Long found when he rode across the continent on his motorbike, the journey makes a good opportunity to ponder evolution.
All this and more in the latest long reads from The Conversation.
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James Whitmore
Deputy Editor: Arts + Culture
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A journey through life
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Evolution and the art of motorcycle development, now that’s an interesting connection.
Shutterstock/The Conversation
John Long, Flinders University
Travel from Perth to Melbourne and every kilometre you go represents 100 million years of life on Earth. So let's take a ride, on a motorcycle of course.
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Friday essays
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Julianne Schultz, Griffith University
We need a new national narrative, for reasons of diplomacy, trade and social cohesion and to grapple with many global challenges. The humanities and social sciences will be vital in shaping it.
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Paul Allatson, University of Technology Sydney; Andrea Connor, Western Sydney University
The ibis has become an Australian cultural phenomenon. The birds' tenacity and fearlessness as environmental refugees mean they attract love and hate alike.
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Claire Smith, Flinders University; Gary Jackson, Flinders University; Geoffrey Gray, The University of Queensland; Vincent Copley, Flinders University
In the 1940s, the last initiated Ngadjuri man, Barney Waria, gave a series of interviews to anthropologist Ronald Berndt. Almost 80 years later, Waria's grandson wants to share this material with his family.
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Ken Gelder, University of Melbourne; Rachael Weaver, University of Melbourne
In the mid 19th century, kangaroo hunting was a sport. Colonial hunting clubs were established across Australia and everyone from Charles Darwin to Anthony Trollope tried their hand at shooting roos.
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Who we are
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It’s just a tiny part of the Y chromosome that kickstarts the development of testes.
Kelly Searle/Unsplash
Jenny Graves, La Trobe University
There are many cultural and social factors involved in making a baby into a man or a woman. But biologically speaking, sex starts when you're just a tiny group of cells in your mother's uterus.
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A view from Manus
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Alex Reilly, University of Adelaide
Boochani bears witness to the deterioration of the human spirit on Manus Island, where he's been detained with hundreds of other asylum seekers for the last five years.
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Omid Tofighian, University of Sydney
Behrouz Boochani wrote his memoir of incarceration on Manus Island one text message at a time. Translating this work of 'horrific surrealism' from Farsi to English was a profoundly philosophical experience.
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Everyday blokes
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Wes Mountain/The Conversation
Frank Bongiorno, Australian National University
Australian prime ministers have long been interested in the names they go by, and how others should address them. But will the "ordinary Joe" approach pay off for ScoMo and Bill?
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Making sense
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Daniella Doron, Monash University
6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. What happened then, and how we can keep to the promise – “never again”?
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Amy Maguire, University of Newcastle
When the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, it unleashed one of the most devastating events in history, which still has implications today.
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Classic reads
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Keith Booker, University of Arkansas; Isra Daraiseh
A lack of respect for history, a population conditioned to consume goods at breakneck pace, and pacification of individuals via an entertainment culture: parts of Huxley's novel strikingly resemble our own world.
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Peter Kirkpatrick, University of Sydney
Across her long career, Dobson was celebrated as a poet who could take the reader beyond the immediate image to another insight.
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Featured jobs
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University of Western Australia — Perth, Western Australia
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Charles Sturt University — West Bathurst, New South Wales
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Deakin University — Newtown, Victoria
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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Featured events
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University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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Institute Building, City Road, University of Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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Multiple Bars, Sydney, New South Wales, 2000, Australia — University of Sydney
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19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton campus, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia — Monash University
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