News & Events

10/12/2015

 Your FREE Article Preview – Nuclear Energy: Game Over

As life expectancies continue to increase, how are we going to maintaining a high quality of life as we all live to 100?

While science is offering new and exciting ways to prevent and even reverse cognitive decline, the divisive idea of human enhancement becomes more and more of a reality.

And what about the Nuclear Question? With the global nuclear industry in decline, why is Australia still courting a role in the nuclear life cycle?

A Bumper Issue!

How, when we’re all living to 100, are we going to keep from losing our marbles and physical capacities? Modern science is presenting us with a couple of scenarios: Do we learn how to better maintain our brain and our bodies, or do we use science to improve the very nature of ourselves?

From rejuvenating our brains to chemically, genetically or mechanically altering our very beings, AQ looks at the big science discoveries that will change how we live and how we age.

Also in this issue, Prof Derek Abbott provides a searing overview of the viability of nuclear power, bringing science back into an argument too often hijacked by ideologies.  In order to continue the debate AQ has made the whole article available for you to read, just see the article preview at the top of the page!

We also welcome to the pages of AQ a new regular contributor: science communicator, scientist and happy cynic, Dr Andy Stapleton, who’ll be bringing you the topics in science that fall between the cracks.

AQ continues to deliver In-depth and independent analyses of the topics that are shaping Australia. With longer-style articles written by the people at the forefront of the debates, AQ is unique in bridging the gap between journal and magazine, combining the compelling writing of a glossy with the intellectual rigour of a journal.

FEATURING:

Nuclear Power: Game Over

Every second humans globally consume 15,000 gigawatts (GW) of power, in oil, coal, gas, nuclear, and renewables all added together. That is an enormous number, equivalent to switching on 5 billion electric kettles. Yet even so, this figure is 5000 times less than the average solar power hitting the earth’s surface. So given the inherent risks, limited resources, legacy issues and declining popularity, why are we still talking about nuclear energy? It’s Game Over for nuclear, and here’s why…

Derek Abbott

Rejuvenating the Brain: Ageing with Cognitive Sparkle

Statistically, 1 in 3 girls born in 2011 can expect to live to 100.  As this happens, our attention will focus more and more on how we will be able to maintain a good quality of life in the latter 25-30 years of this elongated lifespan. Since the incidence of dementia rises to 1 in 3 people by age 85, the fear of progressive loss of a functioning and creative brain is a stark statistical reality.  Yet can advances in our understanding of the brain actually prevent – and even reverse – decline in brain function? The answer seems to be yes.

Perry Bartlett

A Brave New World: Understanding the Ethics of Human Enhancement

Drug therapies, genetic interventions, mechanical augmentation – for decades debate has raged about the ethics of using science to enhance human physical and mental capacities above the upper limits for our species. As technology enables increasingly drastic options for the human race, this issue is set to become the most important debate to ever face our species. Are enhancements unethical, even if they are likely to benefit humanity as a whole? Is there some ethical line we should not cross, and if so, where is it?

Steve Clarke

Cell Therapies – Australia Playing Catch-up?

Australia, like the rest of the Western world, is facing the challenges of an ageing population, rapidly rising health costs, near-stagnant economic development and a decline in traditional manufacturing industries. Regenerative Medicine, which includes cellular and gene therapies, not only offers a new paradigm in the treatment of previously incurable diseases, it promises to be an exciting new advanced manufacturing and export opportunity. Australia has the skills and the capacity to be a world-leader, but are slow policy change and a lack of government initiative leaving Australia in the dust?

Sherry Kothari

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Feature Image Credit: Garry Knight – Flickr