Light has unlocked many technologies over the course of human history. The more we learn about what light is and what it can do, the more applications we find to advance our lives. When we study light at the smallest scale possible, at the atomic level, we can unlock some pretty amazing, pretty weird capabilities.

Find out from Dr Alison Goldingay, an award-winning Postdoctoral Fellow at UNSW in the School of Physics, about how the study of light is making quantum computing a reality.

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Within today's social media landscape, a finely tuned content algorithm is serving up often unhealthy and sometimes extreme views on masculinity. For boys, in particular, the injection of vitriol into playgrounds, classrooms, backyards and wider society has turned the question of what it means to be a man on its head. This is also having far-reaching consequences for young girls and women.

So what do we do when influencers co-opt masculinity for clout? As the dawn of the social media ban for young people rapidly approaches, is this a chance to reframe what it means to be a man?

ABC presenter Siobhan Marin as she explores this topic with award-winning author, human rights advocate and Indigenous leader Thomas Mayo, former Aussie Rules player and Sydney Swans Chief Executive Officer and newly appointed Chief Operating Officer for the AFL, Tom Harley.

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Ask any AI image generator to create an image of a garden and you’re likely to receive a very specific type; manicured English or French, colourful plants, geometric forms and a winding pathway made of stone or gravel. Why is this such a big deal? Millions of AI images are generated every week but they only represent a narrow view of real life because the technology is trained off western-centric perspectives.

In an era of AI slop and Shrimp Jesus’, hear from Dr Charu Maithani, a Lecturer in Media, Journalism and Communication, about how changing the approach to machine learning could have far reaching effects on our visual vocabulary.

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As natural disasters increase in frequency and severity, we are all at risk of one day having our homes and our lives being in danger from fire or flood. Right now, we are seeing an unprecedented level of people needing rescue in the midst of disaster. But rescue shouldn’t just be after the point of no return, when people must evacuate their homes because hazardous conditions overwhelm communities.

Listen to Dr Regina Jefferies, a human rights and refugee lawyer, on how recognising the broad scope of who tends to be a first responder in a disaster, and what it means to truly save people, could offer a fairer, kinder chance of rescue.

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More than 400,000 children and adolescents will be diagnosed with cancer worldwide this year. Many treatments that are meant to save a child can leave them with lifelong side-effects, including heart damage, infertility and cognitive issues. But for the first time, precision medicine is using the tiniest tools – nanoparticles – to design tailor-made treatments to beat childhood cancer.

Tune in to learn how precision medicine is changing the odds in the fight against childhood cancer with Professor Maria Kavallaris AM, a researcher whose own cancer diagnosis occurred at the same time as a career-changing opportunity to join the Children's Cancer Institute.

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The scintillating chronicler of human weakness, Oscar Wilde, once said, “True friends stab you in the front”. 

In this popular event, writer and presenter Annabel Crabb and writer David Marr lead opposing teams in a rollicking debate on the legitimacy of this aphorism about friends who betray each other.  

Featuring debaters Matilda Boseley, Rhys Nicholson, Justine Rogers and Jennifer Wong, and adjudicated by Yumi Stynes, this debate is sure to get provocative, pithy and personal.

This event was presented by the Sydney Writers' Festival and supported by UNSW Sydney.

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Ivan Coyote doesn’t fit neatly into one of two gender boxes, they never have. From an early age in the Canadian Yukon, they can remember discovering a coded but very possible queer future hidden in the music coming out of the AM radio in the kitchen, lurking in their parent’s record collection, and leaking out of the lyrics in their elementary school musical.

In conversation with Yves Rees, the award-winning author, performer, and musician explores the deeply personal terrain of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, approaching every story with warmth and sharp wit.

This event was presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas as a part of Diversity Festival.

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When Nila Ibrahimi posted a video of herself online, singing proudly in protest of the ban on girls over 12 singing in public, she hoped the music would inspire young girls to continue their education. It was 2021 and the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan had come down swiftly on women's freedom. The video went viral and the ban was reversed, sending a powerful message across social media – women of Afghanistan would not be erased from public life. The Taliban would, however, go on to prohibit female education and Nila and her family would have to flee her homeland. Undeterred, Nila continues to advocate for Afghan girls from Canada.

Listen in to winner of the 2024 International Children’s Peace Prize Nila Ibrahimi in her first ever visit to Australia. In conversation with UNSW’s Verity Firth, they’ll unpack how peaceful grassroots activism can empower people of all ages to challenge authority and the importance of a right to education.

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