|
Contact:
Science in Public Pty Ltd
365 Esplanade
Altona VIC 3018
Australia
ph +61 3 9398 1416
Niall Byrne
+61 (3) 9398 1416
niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
(backup address -
niall@scienceinpublic.com )
Sarah
Brooker
mobile +61 413 332 489
sarah@scienceinpublic.com.au
Are you a scientist
who was awarded a PhD
less than five years ago? Do you have interesting results that have
not received any publicity? Why not enter
Fresh Science
and tell your story?
Looking for
science stories?
We send out a collection of science stories every couple of weeks. If
you would like to receive the media bulletin, please email
Niall
Science story archive
Read previous science story bulletins.
In April
2007, Australia
hosted the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists.
We helped organise the event for the Australian Science
Communicators.
Australian Science Communicators
We help organise the Victorian activities
for the Australian Science Communicators, an association of writers,
journalists, teachers, communicators and generally anyone with an interest
in communicating about science.
In Melbourne we meet every third Thursday
of the month at the Redback Brewery hotel, 75 Flemington Road North
Melbourne
|
|
Current stories:
Latest story: 15
July
The world’s fastest
growing abalone—the tropical donkey’s ear abalone, Haliotis asinina—can
be bred to grow rapidly and reliably for aquaculture, Queensland biologists
have found. And that makes it potentially a high value alternative crop for
struggling prawn farmers.
The researchers looked at
whether they could speed up breeding of abalone for aquaculture using modern
technology to identify and select genes that are activated in fast-growing
animals. By linking the abundance of specific genes with fast growth rates,
they have now shown their proposal is practical.
12 July
Turning on the atom laser
The first practical atom laser
is a step closer today thanks to Australian researchers.
The researchers have shown how
to refuel the laser with ‘quantum foam’ allowing continuous
operation. The results, reported today in Nature Physics,
hold great promise for precision measurement in navigation, industry
and mining and for fundamental tests of quantum mechanics.
Scientists hope to use this
‘atom laser’ as the basis for a swathe of new devices, some offering
staggering improvements in measurement sensitivity.
“We discovered how to refuel
the material, potentially allowing continuous operation of the atom
laser,” says lead author, Nick Robins from the Australian National
University.
5 July
3 July
Stories issued Tuesday 24
June:
Stories issued Thursday 19
June:
Stories
issued Tuesday 17 June:
PNG running out of forests to protect
2 June 2008
As Papua New Guinea pushes for payments for forest conservation, new
analysis says the nation may be running out of forests to protect.
Satellite images show that PNG is rapidly losing its extensive forest cover,
under pressure from industrial logging, agricultural expansion and forest
fires.
L'ORÉAL Australia For Women
in Science Fellowships are now closed for 2008
James Watson’s genome published today
18 April 2008
Today the co-discoverer of the double helix, James
Watson, had his genome published in the journal Nature. His was the second
genome published. The first cost billions. Watson’s genome cost just a few
hundred thousand.
In a decade your personal genetic code will be available
for a thousand dollars or so. “This news is the crest of a giant wave in
personal genomics that is coming,” says US geneticist Eddy Rubin, who is
visiting Melbourne this week to mark the first ten years of Australia’s national
genome research facility (the AGRF).
Why are we so complicated?
17 April 2008
Fifty five years
after Watson and Crick discovered DNA’s double helix and ten years after Australia’s
national genome facility opened, how are genetics and genomics changing our lives?
What will the next decade bring?
Australia and Papua New Guinea launch efforts to crush
deadly Hib disease in Pacific region
1 April 2008
Following the recent announcement of a NZ $3.8m grant package for the Australia New Zealand
Biotechnology Partnering Fund (ANZBPF), applications for the 2008/09 fund
are now open.
An
Australia-New Zealand biotechnology partnership is creating a new kind of
grass that will reduce cattle burps, improve productivity, and help dairy
farmers prepare for climate change.
The partnership will be assisted by a NZ$2 million grant announced by New
Zealand Economic Development Minister Pete Hodgson last night.
An
Australian - New Zealand partnership is developing a way of diagnosing
cancer and other diseases by mustering individual molecules and measuring
their properties as they pass though a gate.
Their ideas are based on a unique elastic nanopore
technology developed by New Zealand company Australo.
Elizabeth Blackburn is one of five women to receive the 10th annual
L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science in Paris on 6 March 2008.
-
The secret of ageing – telomerase
-
How cancer cells cheat death
-
How the platypus and wallaby genome are revealing human
secrets
-
Deadly shellfish toxins that may fight pain and save lives
One in ten Australian women suffer from bacterial vaginosis (BV). But
how is it spread?
Tuesday 4 March 2008
First year female
students at the University of Melbourne are being sought to take part in a
study on bacterial vaginosis (BV), a common but poorly understood known
genital disease.
The study, which starts today,
has been initiated by L'Oréal Australia For Women in Science Fellow Dr
Catriona Bradshaw. She hopes to learn more about how common this infection
is in young women commencing university, and how it may be related to
contraceptive and sexual practices.
Read more
Genetic
analysis of light assists faster internet
Wednesday 7 February 2008
 Australian
scientists have used genome analysis tools to create a patented technology
to investigate the fate of the laser beams zapping through the optical
fibres that connect our cities.
Their ideas have broken the back of a communications industry problem – how
to identify the causes of noise in these optical cables that form a key part
of the backbone of the internet.
Of bats, bugs and men: Lessons for Australia in 2008
January 2008
The equine 'flu outbreak was a
reminder to all Australians that our health and our livelihood continue to be at
risk from emergency disease outbreaks.
So what did happen and what can we
learn for 2008?
The Australian Synchrotron at
work
Sunday 9 December 2007
Just months after the Australian
Synchrotron opened for business in July 2007, scientists are already
achieving stunning research progress in important fields such as climate
change, in-vitro fertilisation and cancer therapies.
Australian
genetics pioneer receives international For Women in Science Award
Telomeres keep our
chromosomes young
Sunday 9 December 2007
Elizabeth Blackburn is one of five women to
receive the 10th annual L’ORÉAL-UNESCO Awards For Women in Science. She
discovered the enzyme telomerase that repairs the ends of our chromosomes
and may play a role in ageing and cancer.
She will receive the honour, and a US$100,000
cheque at a ceremony in Paris 6 March 2008.
Shigetada Nakanishi receives
$500,000 Gruber Neuroscience Prize
for discoveries about the molecular
processes that drive our nervous system.
Two early career researchers also recognized.
November 4, 2007, San Diego, California
Over the last forty years, Shigetada
Nakanishi has unraveled many of the molecular secrets that underpin the
function of the human nervous system. His work has created new tools for
researchers, and new drug targets for pharmacologists. Today at 2.30 pm he
will receive the Gruber Neuroscience Prize at the Society for Neuroscience
conference in San Diego. In the 2007 Gruber Lecture he will address the
fundamental question of how synaptic transmission is regulated and
integrated in the neural network.
Maynard Olson receives $500,000 Gruber Genetics Prize
and reflects on personalized genomics
October 24, 2007, San
Diego, California
The human genome would have been
an impossible jigsaw puzzle without the work of Maynard Olson. Today at 3.30
pm he will receive the Gruber Genetics Prize at the American Society for
Human Genetics Conference in San Diego.
Australian-Korean business
and technology opportunities
24 October 2007, Melbourne
Companies
from Australia and Korea are both are working together to bring their best
technologies to a global market. A delegation of 20 Korean technologists
visited Melbourne to look for business and technology matching opportunities
with their Australian peers. They discussed:
|
