How pumped hydro actually works

Editor's note

With Snowy 2.0, potentially Australia’s largest pumped hydro project, shaping up as an election issue, we think it’s worth demystifying the function and point of pumped hydro. We’ve paired energy expert Roger Dargaville with our own cartoonist Wes Mountain to create an explainer (and five gifs) that answer the questions you might be too embarrassed to ask: does it create more energy than you put in? Is it really renewable? How does it work, exactly?

If you’re one of the millions of Australians taking pills every day then researchers have come up with a cheap and easy way to make sure you’re taking the correct tablets. And this invention could even be extended for use at festivals for those taking recreational drugs and wanting to know what they contain.

And there’s been some debate over the recent conviction of George Pell – most of it centring on the fact a previous jury could not find him guilty. Today Jacqui Horan sheds some light on how the jury system works – and the fact that it does.

Madeleine De Gabriele

Deputy Editor: Energy + Environment

Top story

The pumped hydro expansion in the Snowy Mountains is expected to be the largest renewable energy project in Australia. Lukas Coch/AAP

Five gifs that explain how pumped hydro actually works

Roger Dargaville, Monash University

Everything you need to know about pumped hydro.

Can you be sure which pill is which? It can be difficult to tell if you’ve picked the correct medication. Shutterstock/perfectla

What pill is that? Cheap and easy pill testing could soon be in your own hands

Vassilis Kostakos, University of Melbourne

The technology to identify pills is getting cheaper and smaller. That means it could also be used to test the make-up of illegal pills at festivals and other events.

Juries force lawyers to talk in a language the lay person understands. from shutterstock.com

All about juries: why do we actually need them and can they get it ‘wrong’?

Jacqui Horan, Monash University

A hung jury does not necessarily undermine a verdict in a subsequent trial – it more likely means some of the jurors from the first trial agreed with the final verdict.

Science + Technology

Where did you grow up? How strontium in your teeth can help answer that question

Shaun Adams, Griffith University; Michael Westaway, Griffith University

How do you return Aboriginal remains to their place of origin when you have no record of where they came from? Look to a chemical element that's laid down in teeth as people grow up.
Fingerprint and face scanners aren’t as secure as we think they are

Wencheng Yang, Edith Cowan University; Song Wang, La Trobe University

Current techniques to protect biometric details, such as face recognition or fingerprints, from hacking are effective, but advances in AI are rendering these protections obsolete.

Politics + Society
Marriage equality was momentous, but there is still much to do to progress LGBTI+ rights in Australia Liam Elphick, University of Western Australia Marriage equality was an important step for LGBTI+ rights in Australia, but there are many other areas in which LGBTI+ people in Australia still face discrimination.

Arts + Culture

Hollywood may be able to afford #MeToo, but it’s a stretch for the Australian arts

Luke Hopper, Edith Cowan University; Mark Cariston Seton, University of Sydney

In our competitive and underfunded arts sector, power relationships are ever present. To address power imbalances, major structural change is needed.
La Reprise: startling theatre and a call to the dead to speak

Julian Meyrick, Flinders University

La Reprise is remarkable theatre about the murder of a gay man, Ihsane Jarfi, in Belgium in 2012.
The Heights - at last, a credible Australian working-class soap

Sarah Attfield, University of Technology Sydney

The ABC's new soap opera The Heights is a nuanced representation of the diversity and community of life on a social housing estate.

Education

Australia should start planning for universal tertiary education

Tim Pitman, Curtin University

There are still some tricky equity issues for the incoming government to tackle.
What the next government needs to do to tackle unfairness in school funding

Peter Goss, Grattan Institute

Schools funding doesn't pass the playground test of fairness: state schools get less government funding than governments themselves say the schools need.

Business + Economy

What if we’ve had gender the wrong way around? What if, for workplace parity, we focused on men?

Rachael Bolton, University of Sydney

Boosting workforce participation has been the gender catchcry for at least a decade. Women are paid less than men? Increase female workforce participation! Want to boost the economy? Increase female workforce…
Future budgets are going to have to spend more on welfare, which is fine. It’s spending on us

Peter Whiteford, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Budgets will increasingly acknowledge that welfare is about us, rather than us versus them.
Reality check. Having a woman on your board needn’t make it diverse

Akshaya Kamalnath, Deakin University

There's a problem in thinking more women on boards is a great indicator of significant progress on diversity.

Environment + Energy
Rising seas allow coastal wetlands to store more carbon Kerrylee Rogers, University of Wollongong; Jeffrey Kelleway, Macquarie University; Neil Saintilan, Macquarie University One surprising potential benefit of sea-level rise is it helps coastal wetlands store more carbon.

Cities
Vital conversations: older women have their say about the challenges of life in a city like Melbourne Harriet Radermacher, Monash University What matters to women as they grow older, as the city's population changes and urban development continues apace? You don't know unless you ask them – and they have so much to contribute.

Health + Medicine

Eat your vegetables – studies show plant-based diets are good for immunity

Yasmine Probst, University of Wollongong; Joel Craddock, University of Wollongong

There are many things we can do to support our immune systems. It turns out going vegetarian might be one of them.
We need more than a website to stop Australians paying exorbitant out-of-pocket health costs

Anthony Scott, University of Melbourne; Peter Brooks, University of Melbourne

Seeking and making sense of specialist fees is an unfair burden to place on vulnerable patients. A website might be helpful for some – but health professionals need to be held to higher account.