Recent news and analysis on Academic Research

Academic research news covering universities, labs, grant outcomes, replication debates, and cross-disciplinary studies.

• PhD student earns $18.50/hr, barely above poverty line

  Maxim Buckley, a PhD student at University of Adelaide researching children's leukemia, earns $18.50 per hour, barely above Australia's poverty line. The minimum RTP scholarship of $34,315 fell below the Henderson Poverty Line in September 2025. A December 2025 report recommended raising the stipend to $50,000.

• "Smartphones arrived just before the US fertility rate plunged. One study says it's a direct cause"

  This commentary reports on a new study arguing that the introduction of smartphones in 2007 is a direct cause of the subsequent decline in US fertility rates. The article presents the study's findings linking early smartphone access to reduced birth rates, especially among teens, while noting skepticism from other researchers about attributing a long-term trend to a single factor.