Editor's note
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There are plenty of old wives’ tales that claim to predict the sex of an unborn baby. One that many swear by is that the extra testosterone from a male pregnancy makes mums ‘aggressive’, and the oestrogen from a female pregnancy makes mums ‘emotional’. But what does the science say? As you probably guessed, it turns out it’s not so simple.
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Alexandra Hansen
Section Editor, Health and Medicine
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Health + Medicine
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Will a female pregnancy make mum more emotional, and a male one more aggressive?
from www.shutterstock.com.au
Monique Robinson, University of Western Australia
Anecdotes suggest moods are different depending on the sex of the baby - but this is not backed up by science.
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Heavy alcohol consumption over ten years or more can cause significant brain function problems. But what about casual drinking?
Robert Mathews/Unsplash
Nicole Lee, Curtin University; Rob Hester, University of Melbourne
New research shows an association between moderate drinking and long-term brain impairment. But there are a few reasons to be cautious about these findings.
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FactCheck
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Social Services Minister Christian Porter, speaking on Q&A.
Q&A
Nicole Lee, Curtin University
Social Services Minister Christian Porter told Q&A that 'rates of drug use amongst unemployed are 2.5 times higher than amongst employed people'. Is that correct?
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Multimedia
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Lukas Coch/AAP
Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
It's clear that reaching an outcome on energy policy which brings the certainty business needs to invest will be a hard slog for Malcolm Turnbull.
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Ice cores are a window into the past hundreds of thousands of years.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Ludovic Brucker
Ben Henley, University of Melbourne; Nerilie Abram, Australian National University
The current rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is unprecedented in the past 800,000 years. As our video explains, ice cores track human changes to the atmosphere that are far beyond natural.
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Environment + Energy
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A cyclist rides along the Hume Highway. New research confirms that drivers cause most collisions between cars and bicycles.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
Soufiane Boufous, UNSW
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the bicycle, we look at new research that confirms cars cause the majority of bike collisions. It's time to follow much of Europe and shift liability to drivers.
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A meerkat at the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra. The Zoo has recently announced an expansion that will double its size.
AAP Image/Stefan Postles
Alienor Chauvenet, The University of Queensland
Zoos' role in conservation is divisive, but in Australia they could be critical in securing and even recovering threatened species.
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Business + Economy
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Modern working conditions are forcing unions to alter the way they are structured.
Search Results Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation
Michael Walker, University of Technology Sydney
There are some different strategies unions are now considering to help these organisations survive in a changing economy.
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Lachlan Murdoch is attempting to restructure Ten Network.
AAP
Peter Wells, University of Technology Sydney
For Ten to be a viable business it needs to make hard decisions to cut costs and reach more viewers.
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Politics + Society
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$70 million is tiny sum in the scheme of the federal government’s expenditure to manage asylum seekers who arrive by sea.
AAP/Eoin Blackwell
Alex Reilly, University of Adelaide
The case provided a platform to lay bare the ugly reality of conditions in detention, and the role of the Commonwealth and its contractors in producing and sustaining those conditions over many years.
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Latvian Jelena Ostapenko won this year’s French Open at the age of just 20.
Reuters/Benoit Tessier
Stephanie Kovalchik, Victoria University
The unpredictability of women's tennis in 2017 should make us strongly question the performance of the official rankings – and not simply the players’ performance.
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Cities
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When the government decides to evict, public housing tenants’ lives are turned upside down.
Reuters
Alan Morris, University of Technology Sydney
The last 24 public housing tenants holding out against eviction from Millers Point, Dawes Point and the Sirius Building still hope the government may show some compassion.
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How truly innovative are companies like Uber and Airbnb, super-monopolies that capture entire markets by locking vendors and customers into their platforms?
Dan Peled/AAP
Sebastian Olma, Avans University of Applied Sciences
The digital pin-ups' business models actually inhibit serendipity and, indeed, innovation by absorbing entire markets into the sealed-off space of their platforms.
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Education
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Front cover of Tjarrany Roughtail - the book features a collection of Dreaming stories.
Magabala Books
Ambelin Kwaymullina, University of Western Australia
These books introduce children to Indigenous culture and experiences through colourful pictures and powerful storytelling.
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Students with disabilities are regularly segregated from their peers in the playground, classroom and lessons.
from shutterstock.com
Peter Walker, Flinders University
'Cage-like' facilities, segregation, and high numbers of exclusions show the concerning ways schools have responded to challenging behaviours by students with disabilities.
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Arts + Culture
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A parade in St Petersburg last year celebrating Bloomsday, the day on which Ulysses is set.
Shutterstock
SF McLaren, Western Sydney University
Around the world today, fans of James Joyce's Ulysses will celebrate Bloomsday. This experimental novel can be bewildering to read, but for those who persist, it is a 'feast' of a book.
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The fall of the Athenian army in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War in 413 BC as depicted in an 1893 illustration by J.G.Vogt.
Wikimedia Commons
Julia Kindt, University of Sydney
As populism reemerges, Thucydides’s insights into the power of words to influence public sentiments remain acutely up-to-date.
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Science + Technology
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Suited up to simulate the conditions of working outside on Mars. Jonathan Clarke (the author, left) with visiting engineer Michael Curtis-Rouse, from UK Space Agency (right).
Jonathan Clarke personal collection
Jonathan Clarke, UNSW
One of the best ways to find out the challenges of living on Mars is to simulate living on another planet here on Earth. So what's it like to spend several months living the Martian life?
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The government wants additional powers to access encrypted messages.
Luis/Flickr
Robert Merkel, Monash University
The Australian government wants to access encrypted messages, but don't call it a "backdoor".
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Featured jobs
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Murdoch University — Perth, Western Australia
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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RMIT University — Melbourne, Victoria
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Featured events
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Yellow Building 1, Level 2 Charles Darwin University Ellengowan Drive, Brinkin, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0810, Australia — Charles Darwin University
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14-28 Ultimo Rd, Ultimo, New South Wales, 2007, Australia — University of Technology Sydney
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The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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