Copulating cuttlefish and catnaps

Editor's note

We’re not in the business of dishing out travel tips, but if you’re heading to South Australia in the next fortnight, we’ve got news for you. Between May and August each year, giant Australian cuttlefish gather and mate over a narrow stretch of rocky coastline in South Australia and at their peak you see literally one cuttlefish per square metre. Bronwyn Gillanders wrote this piece on my now favourite cephalopod (sorry octopuses) and it’s worth reading for the pictures alone.

And if you missed it this week, our health team published two fascinating pieces on catching up on sleep. In this article, we asked five experts whether you can catch up on sleep (three said yes, two said no). We also tackled the tricky question of whether, as some headlines suggested, sleeping too much can lead to early death.

Molly Glassey

Newsletter editor

Top story

Hello little ones! Juvenile giant Australian cuttlefish developing under rocks in the waters of South Australia. Fred Bavendam

Why we’re watching the giant Australian cuttlefish

Bronwyn GIllanders, University of Adelaide

In May-August each year, giant Australian cuttlefish gather and mate over a narrow stretch of rocky coastline in South Australia. At their peak you see literally one cuttlefish per square metre.

Business + Economy

Your colleagues are not dinosaurs – it’s workplace routines that make innovation difficult

Mary Tate, Queensland University of Technology

Everyday routines help individuals and organisations work efficiently, but can also be one of the biggest obstacles to innovation. Here's a five-point plan for implementing innovations.
How women led the rise of professional work in the Australian economy

Hannah Forsyth, Australian Catholic University

As Australia started to professionalise the change was led by industries dominated by women.

Politics + Society

The ‘Space Kingdom’ Asgardia has its own flag and anthem, but a state it is not

Imogen Saunders, Australian National University

The real question is not so much about how to classify Asgardia – a satellite purporting to be a state – but the idea of human settlements in space in the future.
‘Too fat to get drafted’: the worrying body-image pressures in the AFL

Jack Hynes, Victoria University; Cameron Smee, Victoria University; Jeffrey Bishara, Victoria University

Until the league stops pressuring players over their weight, token measures to address mental health concerns will have a limited impact.

Environment + Energy

‘Natural disasters’ and people on the margins – the hidden story

Jason von Meding, University of Newcastle

Wildfires in the US have drawn thousands of firefighters. Meanwhile, Indonesia is struggling to rebuild in the wake of earthquakes. What's the difference? Poverty and access to resources.
The renewable energy train is unstoppable. The NEG needs to get on board

Ken Baldwin, Australian National University

Renewable energy investment is gathering steam throughout the world. Australia's National Energy Guarantee policy should be made agile enough to jump on board, because this runaway train won't stop.

Arts + Culture

Aretha Franklin and her community opened their doors and their hearts to me

Andrew Legg, University of Tasmania

Franklin, who has died aged 76 in Detroit, was a church girl first and foremost. She was the master of the gospel form.
Friday essay: where is the Great Australian Opera?

Michael Halliwell, University of Sydney

Australian operas have been written about many pressing topics - from the Stolen Generations to the Lindy Chamberlain case - but few have been staged a second time. What is going wrong?

Health + Medicine

Why Australian prisoners are smoking nicotine-infused tea leaves

Cheneal Puljevic, The University of Queensland; Jason Ferris, The University of Queensland; Ross Coomber, University of Liverpool; Stuart Kinner, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

The only quitting tool most Australian prisoners have access to is nicotine lozenges. These are being mixed with tea leaves to create a smokable product known as "teabacco".
We asked five experts: is it possible to catch up on sleep?

Alexandra Hansen, The Conversation

If we don't get enough sleep, can we catch up later? Experts are divided.

Science + Technology

The Meg! When the (giant prehistoric) shark bites, the science bites back

Michael Milford, Queensland University of Technology; Peter Stratton, The University of Queensland

The Meg has all the typical monster movie cliches including some terrifically bad dialogue. But what about the science?
Aboriginal traditions describe the complex motions of planets, the ‘wandering stars’ of the sky

Duane W. Hamacher, Monash University

The planets we can see in the sky were known to the ancient Greeks as 'wandering stars'. But they appeared much earlier in the stories and traditions of Australia's Indigenous people.

Cities

The world’s ‘most liveable city’ title isn’t a measure of the things most of us actually care about

Julianna Rozek, RMIT University; Billie Giles-Corti, RMIT University; Lucy Gunn, RMIT University

The world's "most liveable city" ranking is based on an index designed for companies sending their employees overseas. It's not relevant to the average person.
How far have we come since the ’80s vision of the ‘non-sexist city’?

Justine Lloyd, Macquarie University

In the 1970s, a young urban planning professor, Dolores Hayden, believed that city design was the key to unlocking patriarchal structures that trapped women in the home. How much has the city changed?

Education
Size isn’t everything when it comes to the proposed UniSA-University of Adelaide merger Gwilym Croucher, University of Melbourne While creating a bigger university is an important incentive for this proposed merger, good leadership and a shared vision are needed to make it a success.