Big Ideas Folgen

At a time when the South Pacific is a focus of geo-political tension, it’s also facing worsening economic and health challenges. There’s rising unemployment, food shortages and girls are being pulled out of schools. The pandemic has smashed tourism – the biggestindustry. Meanwhile, the islands are still recovering from last summer’s extreme cyclone, something forecast to be more common with climate change.

Australia produces world leading scientists, and world class scientific research. But, compared to the United States, the UK, and other countries, we don’t translate enough of our science into solutions or products. Do we lack an entrepreneurial culture? Are universities, and other institutions, doing enough to encourage innovation and industry collaboration? Is covid 19 changing how scientists work, for the better? Paul Barclay speaks to Australia’s Chief Scientist, and two entrepreneurial scientists

Black Lives Matter: Has anything really changed? The protests following the death of George Floyd generated a surprising solidarity against racism in many countries around the world. And BLM became a symbol against the oppression of many different minority groups. But looking at policies, organisations and the general society, experts say that not much has really changed. Governments have used the protests to clamp down on activism and re-define racism in a way that’s not posing a problem to them.