AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA: New website gives access to academics

Australians will have direct access to the thoughts of some of the country's brightest minds through a new independent news and information website, The Conversation, reports The Herald Sun.

The not-for-profit service is backed by the science agency CSIRO and Australia's leading universities, providing information, analysis, commentary and research news from their researchers and academics. Launched last Thursday, The Conversation's journalists work with academics to put their views straight to the website in areas including business, the environment, science and politics.

In the website's foundation essay, Melbourne University's Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty admitted science communication is not easy. Doherty said the problems lie in both the media and scientists - newspapers often fail to interpret and report complex issues and scientists can sometimes have little idea how to get their message across.
Full report on The Herald Sun site