Australia could have the world's first quantum computer in three years

If the Prime Minister is looking for breakthrough and disruptive technologies in which Australia has a usable edge, he should look at quantum computing.

• Updated Sep 22, 2015

• Opinion
• Opinion

Many worlds to go yet in search for life out there

The question of whether there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is, for most people, right up there with whether there is intelligent life on Sydney's north shore.

• Updated Aug 4, 2015

• Opinion

Forget sharks, the real death risk is horses

Being attacked by a shark is terrifying but for those concerned about risk, horses and cows account for a lot more deaths.

• Updated Jul 22, 2015

• Opinion
• Opinion

Climate change model environmental damage claims are just smoke

Models that estimate the present-day cost of damage from climate change rely on the judgement of their users, and are of little use in setting policy.

• Updated Jul 7, 2015

Alan Bond, businessman, sports hero, corporate raider, bankrupt

For those who lived through the 1980s, the names of many of the corporate cowboys of the time – Robert Holmes à Court, Laurie Connell, Christopher Skase and Kevin Parry to name a few – are etched on their memories, but the one that everyone recognises is that of Alan Bond.

• Updated Jun 5, 2015

Game theory, John Nash and a table of brunettes

Game theory is a branch of mathematics that tries to predict how players in a game are likely to act, with surprising applications in business and even social and political strategies. The theory is a systematic, formal way of analysing and solving the various choices and dilemmas companies and individuals often face in life.

• Updated May 25, 2015

Sensible public projects? Tell them they’re dreaming

Mark Lawson | I rarely watch what might be called contemporary dramas. Unless there is a zombie, vampire or superhero to hand I cannot summon interest in it. But one glorious exception to my general disdain for anything contemporary is the Australian satirical series Utopia.

• Updated Oct 15, 2014

Arguments for limiting emissions amount to hot air

Hands up those who think that an enforceable, workable international agreement to limit emissions is still possible? If your hand is up you must be a die-hard climate activist.

• Sep 19, 2014

Right-wing warrior Ray Evans dies aged 74

Ray Evans, a co-founder of the HR Nicholls Society and so a major driver of industrial relations reform in Australia, as well as a noted climate sceptic, died on Tuesday night after a long battle with illness.

• Updated Jun 18, 2014

Digital age rings the changes on a family fixture

There was a time when the telephone, a shaped chunk of plastic with a dial sitting on a kitchen top and connected to the outside world by a copper wire, was a mainstay of family life on a par with the television. No longer.

• Updated Mar 19, 2014

Putin should take lessons from gaming world

As a veteran computer gamer I can offer Vladimir Putin some advice about how to handle the crisis in the Crimea, including the one precaution he should have taken – he should have saved his game before doing anything.

• Mar 6, 2014

• Opinion

The height of civilisation in high summer

Life is supposed to be a beach but whoever said that never encountered an Australian beach.

• Updated Jan 30, 2014

• Opinion

Finding a spot in the sun proves challenging

Anyone who wants an object lesson about the difficulties of forecasting, need only look at the problems scientists have in forecasting the behaviour of the sun.

• Updated Jan 17, 2014

• Opinion

Fashion? Why, you’re already standing up in it

As someone who was born middle-aged and has been growing older and crankier ever since, I do not understand why we have to have fashion or, more importantly, why fashion should be allowed to change.

• Updated Jan 8, 2014

Bushfire focus still on NSW

Updated | Residents were returning to their homes in the Tasman Peninsula, one of the areas hardest hit by bushfires, wondering if their houses were still standing. But attention on Friday remained fixed on NSW, where about 100 fires were still burning.

• Updated Jan 12, 2013