UNSW Centre for Ideas

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.