Sunlight

• But it was very likely in regional Queensland that one of Australia’s favourite brews first took root.
• Tracing this history shows a different side to how European tastes were imported to Australia beyond the capital cities.

The Little Italy of Northern Queensland

• In 1891, immigration agent and businessman Chiaffredo Venerano Fraire organised a scheme to recruit cane cutters on behalf of the Queensland government.
• North Queensland became an even more popular destination in the 1920s, after the United States introduced quotas for Italian migrants.

These Italian communities expanded further after WWII, as did their cultural influence. The Australian Italian festival, established in 1995 by the Italian community in Ingham and Hinchinbrook shire, celebrates and preserves the legacy of Italian culture in the district.

Read more:
What does Australian-grown coffee taste like, and how does it compare? Our research describes its unique 'terroir'

What’s in a name?

• But the best case for coining the term comes from Sydney cafe owner Alan Preston, who details his reasoning extensively online.
• While the origin debate rages on, Preston’s argument has the most solid historical evidence to back it.
• Preston claims he was the first to use the term on a menu, and has documented this use through photographs.
• Google is a fan too, and made the flat white its doodle of the day on March 11 2024.

Why is the flat white so popular?

The flat white’s widespread appeal comes down to its balance of textured (steamed) milk and espresso. The sign of a quality espresso is in its “crema”, the caramel-coloured emulsion of hot water and coffee bean oils.
A flat white blends the natural crema of an espresso shot with a thin layer of microfoam at the cup’s surface. Without the thicker foam of a latte or cappuccino, or the distraction of chocolate sprinkled on top, the flat white delivers a stronger coffee flavour with a unified creamy texture. Preston says a properly prepared flat white should leave “tide marks” on the sides of the cup, showing the level go down with each sip.

Regional varieties

• Perth’s unique “long mac topped up” and the enigmatic Melbourne “magic” are two more examples of how regional influences have given rise to different coffee preferences across Australia.
• The West Coast’s long mac topped up has a milk to coffee ratio of 1:4 in a 180ml serving.
• It’s like a strong flat white where the coffee is no longer just “stained” by the milk (but somehow “double-shot flat white in a smaller cup” doesn’t roll off the tongue).

Déjà brew

• Reflecting on its long and nuanced history reminds us of the contributions multiculturalism has made to the nation, and why new iterations of old things ought to be welcomed.
• The story of the flat white, along with its regional variations, reflects a dynamic coffee culture that will continues to evolve to cater to new tastes.

Garritt C. Van Dyk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Our existence is governed by natural cycles, from the daily rhythms of sleeping and eating, to longer patterns such as the turn of the seasons and the quadrennial round of leap years.
• Our research is published in Nature Communications.

Milankovitch cycles and ice ages

• Most of the natural cycles we know are determined one way or another by Earth’s movement around the Sun.
• And over time, the gravitational jostling of the planets changes the shape of these orbits in a predictable pattern.
• These alterations affect our long-term climate, influencing the coming and going of ice ages.

Earth and Mars

There are also slower rhythms, called astronomical “grand cycles”, which cause fluctuations over millions of years. One such cycle, related to the slow rotation of the orbits of Earth and Mars, recurs every 2.4 million years.
The cycle is predicted by astronomical models, but is rarely detected in geological records. The easiest way to find it would be in sediment samples that continuously cover a period of many millions of years, but these are rare. Much like the shorter Milankovitch cycles, this grand cycle affects the amount of sunlight Earth receives and has an impact on climate.

Gaps in the record

• When we went hunting for signs of these multimillion-year climate cycles in the rock record, we used a “big data” approach.
• Scientific ocean drilling data collected since the 1960s have generated a treasure trove of information on deep-sea sediments through time across the global ocean.
• Instead, we concentrated on the parts of the sedimentary record that are missing — breaks in sedimentation called hiatuses.
• Analysing the timing of hiatus periods across the global ocean, we identified hiatus cycles over the past 65 million years.

Warming and deep currents

• Some of these suggest that ocean mixing has become more intense over the last decades of global warming.
• Deep-ocean eddies are predicted to intensify in a warming, more energetic climate system, particularly at high latitudes, as major storms become more frequent.

Can Mars keep the oceans alive?

• Our deep-sea data spanning 65 million years suggest that warmer oceans have more vigorous eddy-driven circulation.
• This process may play an important role in a warmer future.
• Our results and analyses of deep ocean mixing suggest that more intense deep-ocean eddies may counteract such ocean stagnation.

Adriana Dutkiewicz receives funding from the Australian Research Council. Dietmar Müller and Slah Boulila do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• There is a simple and practical way – red light therapy to improve your brain function.
• Red light therapy (RLT), also known as low-level laser therapy (LLLT) or photobiomodulation (PBM), involves exposure to specific wavelengths of visible red and near-infrared light (660-850 nm) to stimulate biological processes in the body.
• Red light therapy increases mitochondria function to promote balance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body.
• Studies have highlighted red light therapy has a potential neuroprotective and disease-modifying role in treating Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients.

• In celebration of International Women’s Day, Hello Sunshine, a part of Candle Media, and iHeartPodcasts, the No.
• This new format will bring the Hello Sunshine community together for a daily dose of entertainment, culture, wellness, fashion, books and more.
• View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240308707603/en/
  Reese Witherspoon will serve as executive producer on the podcast alongside Maureen Polo and Natalie Tulloch for Hello Sunshine; and Ali Perry and Conal Byrne for iHeartPodcasts.
• For 30 minutes each day, listeners will join the hosts as they share the bright side of life, alongside experts and celebrity guests.