Issue 2:
Disorder

10 December 2021

A few words on (Dis)Order!

Sophia, Maya, Patrick and Felicity

A few words on (Dis)Order!

Columns

Maxing the Vax: why some countries are losing the COVID vaccination race

Grace Law

This piece discusses key challenges faced by some countries in increasing their rates of getting the jab.

Chatter

Tactile communication: how touch conveys the things we can’t say

Lily McCann

Our daily dose of touch has decreased through months of lockdowns. But why is touch so important to us, and why do we feel the lack of it so severely?

The Body, Et Cetera

Hiccups

Rachel Ko

Evolution might be a theory, but if it’s evidence you’re after, there’s no need to look further than your own body. From the column that brought you a deep-dive into ear wiggling in Issue 1, here’s an exploration of why we hiccup!

Humans of UniMelb

Postdoc Possibilities

Renee Papaluca

Thinking about postgraduate research? This column has some advice for you, courtesy of a recent PhD graduate.

Cinema to Reality

Building the Lightsaber

Manthila Ranatunga

Some of the most iconic movie gadgets are the oldest ones. For this issue we look at how the lightsaber was brought to life.

Features

Making sense of the senses: The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Dominika Pasztetnik

What do spicy food, menthol lozenges and walking around blindfolded have in common? They all activate protein receptors, newly discovered by 2021 Nobel Prize winners.

Law and Order: Medically Supervised Injecting Centres

Caitlin Kane

Keeping people safe from the harms of drug use is an important public health goal, but some question the value of medically supervised injecting centres in improving health and community outcomes.

Spirituality and Science

Hamish Payne

Common thinking is that science is a rigid, cold and largely academic field which sneers at the domain of spirituality. I posit that one must move beyond this point of view in order to do good science, and to find the true aims and values of the discipline.

Hidden Worlds: a peek into the nanoscale using helium ion microscopy

Erin Grant

How do scientists zoom further in than the typical optical microscope? Through the helium ion microscope – revealing beauty that at scales too small to imagine!

Man-Made Science: On the Origins of the Gender Gap

Mia Horsfall

Scientific practice remains doused in centuries of unreasoned discrimination against women. But what is the best way to unravel the complexities of such an intricate web of injustice, intellectual theft and suffering?

What’s the forecast for smallholder farmers of Arabica coffee?

Hannah Savage

Changing weather patterns are threatening the livelihoods of smallholder Arabica coffee bean farmers in rural East Timor and Ethiopia. How will dramatically reduced global coffee yields touch Melbourne’s privileged cafe culture?

Discovery, Blue Skies... and Partisan Bickering?

Andrew Lim

Journeying from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Melbourne, Australia, this feature ponders over deadlocked bills, economic mandates and the era of the scientist-politician, considering science in the age of politics.

The Evolution of Science Communication

Monica Blasioli

With social media users in now having far more power over content posted online than before, how does this impact the information which others receive about the COVID-19 pandemic?

How to use a time machine

Sabine Elias

Whilst time travel is thought to be nothing more than science fiction, the very laws of physics point to its possibility. From rockets to wormholes, physicists have long sought the answer to such a phenomenon.

Mastering Chaos with Pen and Paper

Xen Papailiadis

Drawing upon physics and meteorology, the mathematical laws which govern our chaotic and complex universe have found special use in describing the rapidly changing global climate.

Issue 2: Disorder

A few words on (Dis)Order!

Sophia, Maya, Patrick and Felicity

A few words on (Dis)Order!

Columns

Top Stories

Maxing the Vax: why some countries are losing the COVID vaccination race

Grace Law

This piece discusses key challenges faced by some countries in increasing their rates of getting the jab.

Chatter

Tactile communication: how touch conveys the things we can’t say

Lily McCann

Our daily dose of touch has decreased through months of lockdowns. But why is touch so important to us, and why do we feel the lack of it so severely?

The Body, Et Cetera

Hiccups

Rachel Ko

Evolution might be a theory, but if it’s evidence you’re after, there’s no need to look further than your own body. From the column that brought you a deep-dive into ear wiggling in Issue 1, here’s an exploration of why we hiccup!

Humans of UniMelb

Postdoc Possibilities

Renee Papaluca

Thinking about postgraduate research? This column has some advice for you, courtesy of a recent PhD graduate.

Cinema to Reality

Building the Lightsaber

Manthila Ranatunga

Some of the most iconic movie gadgets are the oldest ones. For this issue we look at how the lightsaber was brought to life.

Features

Making sense of the senses: The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Dominika Pasztetnik

What do spicy food, menthol lozenges and walking around blindfolded have in common? They all activate protein receptors, newly discovered by 2021 Nobel Prize winners.

Law and Order: Medically Supervised Injecting Centres

Caitlin Kane

Keeping people safe from the harms of drug use is an important public health goal, but some question the value of medically supervised injecting centres in improving health and community outcomes.

Spirituality and Science

Hamish Payne

Common thinking is that science is a rigid, cold and largely academic field which sneers at the domain of spirituality. I posit that one must move beyond this point of view in order to do good science, and to find the true aims and values of the discipline.

Hidden Worlds: a peek into the nanoscale using helium ion microscopy

Erin Grant

How do scientists zoom further in than the typical optical microscope? Through the helium ion microscope – revealing beauty that at scales too small to imagine!

Man-Made Science: On the Origins of the Gender Gap

Mia Horsfall

Scientific practice remains doused in centuries of unreasoned discrimination against women. But what is the best way to unravel the complexities of such an intricate web of injustice, intellectual theft and suffering?

What’s the forecast for smallholder farmers of Arabica coffee?

Hannah Savage

Changing weather patterns are threatening the livelihoods of smallholder Arabica coffee bean farmers in rural East Timor and Ethiopia. How will dramatically reduced global coffee yields touch Melbourne’s privileged cafe culture?

Discovery, Blue Skies... and Partisan Bickering?

Andrew Lim

Journeying from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Melbourne, Australia, this feature ponders over deadlocked bills, economic mandates and the era of the scientist-politician, considering science in the age of politics.

The Evolution of Science Communication

Monica Blasioli

With social media users in now having far more power over content posted online than before, how does this impact the information which others receive about the COVID-19 pandemic?

How to use a time machine

Sabine Elias

Whilst time travel is thought to be nothing more than science fiction, the very laws of physics point to its possibility. From rockets to wormholes, physicists have long sought the answer to such a phenomenon.

Mastering Chaos with Pen and Paper

Xen Papailiadis

Drawing upon physics and meteorology, the mathematical laws which govern our chaotic and complex universe have found special use in describing the rapidly changing global climate.

Issue 2:
Disorder