Memo Mr Baillieu: you're not in favour of discrimination

Victoria's premier has chosen an odd way to show off his progressive credentials, writes Melissa Fyfe.

Diagnosis : Murder

He was the respected head of psychiatry at a top New Zealand university, yet his colleagues - despite their training - did not see that Colin Bouwer was also a psychopath. Carl Elliott dissects the mind of a killer.

No bones about it, got to love a murder

AT 9PM last Sunday, 6.5 million Australians were watching a murder mystery. They weren't all tuned to the same murder mystery, of course, but they were unanimous in their devotion to sleuths in search of solutions, whether that sleuth was Jane Marple, Patrick Jane, Dr Temperance Brennan, Steve McGarrett or, on pay TV, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Kurt Wallander, or Lieutenant Anita Van Buren.

Lost in cancer's great unknown

Being diagnosed as having cancer of unknown primary provides few answers, writes Julie Robotham.

Life-and-death healthcare needs reform, says expert

THE extremely premature baby whose life could be saved at great cost is allowed to succumb. A 90-year-old patient is denied a life-supporting cardiac valve because of age.

Let's talk about sex, baby

Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman play friends with benefits in No Strings Attached, writes Donna Walker-Mitchell.

LETTERS

BUDGET CUTS

Take a close look at life

MICROBIOLOGISTS are the polar opposite of celebrities, in that they live their lives over the microscope. They peer down at all manner of lifeforms, figuring out how they can be used to improve our lives, working among agar dishes and Petri plates.

LAST RIGHTS

[WHO] Dr Rodney Syme, medical carer who has helped hundreds of people die

A trailblazer for female physicians

GWEN FLEMING 1916-2011

Victorian melodrama cloaks a modern vibe

The isolation of playwright Sarah Ruhl‚„s characters can hit a nerve with audiences, writes Bryce Hallett. In The Next Room, or the vibrator play opens at the Opera House Drama Theatre on February 11. Previews begin on Monday.

Third day of heat is the one to beware of

HOSPITALS are bracing for a rise in heat-related admissions today as NSW swelters through a third day of hot weather.