ethics & philosophy

ideals, breaches, disappointments and inspirations

Louis Nowra? He has no idea what makes sexists tick

The irony within his own essay, which instead of simply engaging with Greer’s ideas includes gratuitous slams at her personal appearance, slams based on Greer eschewing these allegedly essential feminine fripperies, eludes him. Why, how could people like him mocking women who fail to delight his eye with fripperies possibly have anything to do with women’s “inherent” desire for fripperies?

Friday Hoyden: Elizabeth Blackburn, Nobel Laureate

My daughter’s school science department organised for our Year 10 students to go to a speech given by Dr Blackburn at the inner-east Moriah College yesterday. They were thrilled by her clever slide presentation and the passion she conveyed for her work. Dr Blackburn was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology/medicine for her joint discovery of Telomarese, an enzyme that replenishes a protective structure at the end of chromosomes called the telomere, an enzyme with exciting implications for the study of cancer and human longevity.