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Editor's note
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As Australia’s newsrooms hollow out, we’re losing specialist journalists with the expertise to help us understand health and science. But at the same time, we’re bombarded with simplistic stories about new studies and trends we’re told will be game-changers for our health. So how do you know when a health story is worth clicking on?
We’re all drawn to content that impacts on our lives and, at The Conversation, we want to bring you information to help you make informed decisions about your health, whether it’s getting a better night’s sleep, avoiding weight gain, or dealing with your kids’ tantrums.
This is why we trawl through the world’s best journals and pluck out the most compelling new research. We commission Australia’s best minds to explain what the evidence says in a simple and compelling way.
We also bring you stories about seemingly intractable health problems, and the best thinking on how to address them. We’ll keep bringing you coverage about important issues like suicide in Indigenous communities, neglect in aged care, and the threat of antimicrobial resistance in the Pacific.
This year, The Conversation’s health desk has brought you 519 articles, from 703 Australian academics and they’ve been read 43 million times. If you value what we do, please make a donation so we can keep providing free and accurate health information to those who need it most.
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Fron Jackson-Webb
Deputy Editor/Senior Health + Medicine Editor
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Top story
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A history of dispossession and transgenerational trauma underlie the day-to-day struggles of Indigenous people.
from shutterstock.com
Tim Carey, Flinders University
A diagnosis of mental illness is only one in a number of risk factors for suicide. And for Indigenous Australians, a history of dispossession and disempowerment plays a much bigger role.
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Environment + Energy
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Madeleine De Gabriele, The Conversation; Wes Mountain, The Conversation
It takes a eucalyptus tree more than a hundred years to develop hollows suitable to shelter Aussie animals, and just moments to cut it down.
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Samuel Alexander, University of Melbourne; Brendan Gleeson, University of Melbourne
The average consumerist suburban lifestyle is unsustainable. But what if affluent suburbanites and battlers alike ditch the rat race and embrace economic 'degrowth'? Here's how it might unfold.
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Politics + Society
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Denis Muller, University of Melbourne
An ACCC interim report is one of the most consequential documents for media policy in decades, while a government report finds both public broadcasters are acting in the public interest.
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Yee-Fui Ng, Monash University
The proposed integrity commission is an improvement on the patchwork of mechanisms in place now, but does not go nearly far enough to prevent and investigate corruption.
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Health + Medicine
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David Beirman, University of Technology Sydney
Just 82% of young Australians have insurance when they travel overseas. But even if you have insurance, you might not be covered for everything.
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Bronwyn Hemsley, University of Technology Sydney; Amy Freeman-Sanderson, University of Technology Sydney; Rebecca Nund, The University of Queensland
We don't often give our eating habits much thought but the 8% of the population with swallowing disability need to plan carefully to ensure their food is the right texture and eaten at the right pace.
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Education
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Vaughan Cruickshank, University of Tasmania; Casey Peter Mainsbridge, University of Tasmania; Kira Patterson, University of Tasmania
All Australians aged 13-17 are encouraged to do 60 minutes of physical activity a day.
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Anna Olijnyk, University of Adelaide
Victorian schools could potentially be without federal funding after 31 December if the state government refuses to sign up to the Gonski 2.0 funding reforms.
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Science + Technology
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Merlin Crossley, UNSW
Genome editing technology has, and will always have, limits. Limits that are related not to the technology itself but to the intrinsic complexity of the human genome.
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Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland
The comet 46P/Wirtanen is just 1.2km in size but it should be visible in the night sky this Saturday as it makes a close approach to Earth this year. And don't forget the Geminids meteor shower.
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Business + Economy
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Warren Hogan, University of Technology Sydney
History suggests the government will spend most of the extra $10 billion per year that the MYEFO will reveal on Monday. The only problem is, those riches won't last.
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Peter McDonald, University of Melbourne
Cutting migration to Australia's biggest cities would do nothing to ease congestion in those cities and could make it worse.
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Cities
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Timothy Moore, Monash University
Grey nomads travel Australia because they have the desire and the means to do so. Could future generations end up following in their footsteps because they can no longer work and stay in one place?
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Brendan Wintle, University of Melbourne; Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University
Expanding cities and farmland have created many small, often isolated patches of vegetation. Long seen as having limited ecological value, a new study shows these are vital for endangered species.
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Arts + Culture
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Ian Lilley, The University of Queensland; Celmara Pocock, University of Southern Queensland
Of 19 World Heritage sites across the country, only two, Kakadu and Uluru-Kata Tjuta, recognise the values of "living" Aboriginal culture. None of Australia's three sites inscribed purely for cultural values recognises Aboriginal people.
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Aileen Marwung Walsh, Australian National University
Aileen Marwung Walsh's grandparents were sent to the Moore River Native Settlement, of Rabbit Proof Fence infamy, half a century ago. In 2018, 100 years after the settlement's founding, she returned.
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FactCheck
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Stephen Whelan, University of Sydney
Queensland Minister for Housing and Public Works Mick de Brenni made the claim while announcing a $2 billion housing investment scheme. But is the claim correct?
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Featured jobs
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La Trobe University — Melbourne, Victoria
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Griffith University — Bundall, Queensland
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University of Western Australia — Perth, Western Australia
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RMIT University — Melbourne, Victoria
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