Global Scientists Draw Attention To Threat Of Ocean Acidification. More than 150 leading marine scientists from 26 countries are calling for immediate action by policy-makers to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions so as to avoid widespread and severe damage to marine ecosystems from ocean acidification. [ScienceDaily: Latest Science News]
Category Archives Research
First Ever Video Of Dynamics Of Carbon Atoms Makes Spintronic-based Computing Look More Promising. Researchers working with TEAM 0.5, the world's most powerful transmission electron microscope, have made a movie that shows in real-time carbon atoms repositioning themselves around the edge of a hole that was punched into a graphene sheet. This is the first ever live recording of the…
McKinsey maps the world's innovation clusters How innovative is your city? McKinsey Digital has released a new innovation study of the world's leading cities, grouping them into one of four different categories -- "hot springs," "dynamic oceans," "silent lakes," and "shrinking pools." The most innovative cities are "dynamic oceans," while the "hot springs" are the types of cities with a lot…
My kind of cartoon. From XKCD (HT: Rocco Weglarz & Robert Wiblin) [Andrew Leigh]
Another good one from Andrew Leigh. As we draw near to budget time, there has been plenty of talk about what “middle Australia” will get. But where exactly is the middle? To provide a more precise sense, I’ve tabulated the pre-tax annual income distributions for individuals and households, in the 2008-09 tax year. My raw data is the 2006 HILDA…
This is re-produced from Andrew Leigh's WebSite. Among the most interesting debates in economics today is the dispute between Jeffrey Sachs and William Easterly over how best to help the world’s poor. The discussion is interesting not only because it concerns the most important question in all of economics, but also because Sachs and Easterly happen to be exceptionally good…
How and why has teacher quality changed in Australia?. International research suggests that differences in teacher performance can explain a large portion of student achievement. Yet little is known about how the quality of the Australian teaching profession has changed over time. Using consistent data on the academic aptitude of new teachers, the report compares those who have entered the…
Teachers are not as smart as they were 20 years ago, an Australian study by economists Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan from the Australian National University concludes, in a finding that will reinforce concerns over declining classroom standards. The study used literacy and numeracy tests as the best proxy available for assessing teachers' academic abilities. Link: Teachers not so clever any…
An ongoing, recurring and avoidable national disgrace.... Children are among the highest users of a government-funded program for the homeless, a report says. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report shows of the almost 160,000 people who accessed government-funded accommodation last year, 43 per cent were children. The Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) is a shared responsibility of…