No futile research at the Eurekas

5 September, 2013
Bulletins, Media bulletins

Last night at the Eureka Prizes we saw some amazing inventions that are saving lives and solving big issues for industry.

  • Zebedee maps mines, caves and forests while you walk
  • A ‘vaccine’ that stops mosquitoes from spreading dengue
  • How vitamin B provides early warning of invasion
  • A laser that knows when giant mining grinders will fail
  • Lighter, strong armour for our troops in Afghanistan
  • The mystery of orgasm
  • And fatherhood – from a sea dragon’s perspective.

When the researchers each started on their journeys some might have regarded their work as futile. So I was worried to read in the Telegraph today that a coalition government will review all ARC grants. That’s a worry. Who would have thought, for example, that looking for exploding black holes would lead to the wi-fi revolution? Science is full of serendipity.

But back to the Eurekas. There are medical stories, rural stories, mining stories, regional stories, and we’ve got Rick Shine talking snakes, and Rob Brooks talking about sex.

Here are some of my highlights. Most of the winners are available for interview today. They’ve all got YouTube clips about their work online.

Full releases, YouTube videos and photos at http://australianmuseum.net.au/2013-winners-eureka 

In this bulletin:

Inventions

Zebedee bounces around mapping as you walk

Map a mine, cave, building or forest just by walking through it with Zebedee in your hand. This spring-mounted hand-held laser scanner can make three-dimensional images of spaces previously impossible to map.

The scanner was developed by CSIRO scientist Dr Elliot Duff and his colleagues, who call themselves The Zebedee Team, in honour of the spring-loaded host of the popular children’s TV program, The Magic Roundabout.

For their creative solution, Dr Duff and his colleagues have won the 2013 Australian Museum ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology.

Their device is able to survey enclosed spaces where GPS cannot reach, such as inside caves, mines, factories and public buildings, or beneath forest canopies.

Lighter armour protecting Australian troops in Afghanistan

From keeping Australian troops safe from explosions, to ensuring military vehicles can maintain flexibility on damaged roads, the Armour Applications Program of the Defence Materials Technology Centre have pioneered and commercialised high-performance materials.

For their contributions to safety and performance, the Armour Applications Program has won the 2013 Australian Museum Defence Science and Technology Organisation Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia.

Through collaborative research involving computer modelling, explosives, design, stress measurement, high-speed cameras, and new welding techniques, the team’s work has led to technologies and systems with improved blast performance, reduced weight and greater flexibility.

Helping children walk

Children with a deadly muscle-wasting disease are regaining the ability to walk and potentially avoiding life-threatening complications, thanks to a new treatment developed by researchers at Perth’s Murdoch University.

The treatment, developed by Murdoch Professors Steve Wilton and Sue Fletcher, targets the genetic defect responsible for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a condition which affects around one in 3500 boys.

For bringing their drug from laboratory bench to bedside, Professors Wilton and Fletcher have won the 2013 Australian Museum NSW Health Jamie Callachor Eureka Prize for Medical Research Translation.

Mill mapper keeps mines working

Across Australia giant crushers and grinding mills are smashing up rocks to extract the minerals. These machines typically consume 60 per cent of a mine’s electricity. And when their grinders wear out, it can cost the mine $100,000 an hour in downtime.

The performance of these machines can literally make or break a mine but monitoring the condition of these machines was slow and dangerous work requiring someone to climb inside and make up to ten measurements.

Curtin researchers thought there was a better way and created a three-dimensional laser system that measures 10 million points or more in just 30 minutes.

Scanalyse, the company they founded, now sells the technology to dozens of companies around the world.

Scanalyse/Outotec wins the 2013 Australian Museum Rio Tinto Eureka Prize for Commercialisation of Innovation for the creation of MillMapper and CrushMapper.

A vaccine for mosquitoes – saving them and us from dengue

Dengue is on the march and threatening the growing populations of Asia and even northern Australia. A ‘vaccine’ for mosquitoes could stop it in its tracks.

Prior to 1970 only nine countries had had epidemics. Today it is common in more than 100 countries. With climate change it could spread further. There are no effective vaccines or drugs. Our only method of control is to stop the mozzies.

A team of researchers from Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns and Brazil are changing that. They found a bacterium- Wolbachia-in fruit flies that could stop mosquitoes from spreading dengue. In field trials in Cairns they showed that Wolbachia quickly spread through the mosquito population and that a year after the start of the trial 80 to 100 per cent of the mosquitoes in the area couldn’t spread dengue.

For their breakthrough in insect-borne disease control the Eliminate Dengue team, led by Professor Scott O’Neill from Monash University, have won the 2013 Australian Museum Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research for their work on successfully infecting dengue-carrying mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacterium that stops the development of the deadly disease.

Vitamin B reveals the role of mystery gut immune cells

An accidental discovery by Melbourne researchers has revealed the purpose of ‘mystery’ immune cells in the gut, shown how our immune system interacts with the complex bacteria ecology in our gut, and opened new paths for drug discovery.

The team, from the University of Melbourne and Monash University have won the 2013 Australian Museum University of New South Wales Eureka Prize for Scientific Research.

“This discovery of a previously unknown function of the immune system opens up possibilities for new treatments or vaccines for conditions as diverse as tuberculosis and irritable bowel syndrome,” Frank Howarth, Director of the Australian Museum said.

Also:

Diamonds that light up the insides of cells have been created by the Quantum Bio-probes team from the University of Melbourne winning the University of New South Wales Eureka Prize for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research.

Discoveries

Native shrubs good for sheep and the environment

Feeding livestock on native plants is the key to sustainable profits for Australian farmers, researchers have found.

Farmers in dry parts of southern Australia are planting native perennial shrubs to feed their animals following ground-breaking research by The Future Farm Industries CRC Enrich Project Team.

For its role in initiating this change, the Enrich team has won the 2013 Australian Museum Caring for our Country Landcare Eureka Prize for Sustainable Agriculture.

The dingo: from sinner to savior

Dingoes are key elements in the struggle to reduce damage caused by kangaroos, foxes and feral cats, according to University of Tasmania Professor Chris Johnson and his colleagues.

Far from being vermin, Australia’s dingoes sustain biodiversity and can help land managers control invasive species.

For their innovative approach to conservation, Professor Johnson and his team have won the 2013 Australian Museum NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Eureka Prize for Environmental Research.

Their work shows that dingoes control kangaroo populations and suppress foxes and feral cats. As a consequence they’ve found that ecosystems with dingoes have better vegetation condition and more diverse and abundant populations of small native mammals.

Also:

  • Numbers saving lives: maths vs pseudoscience in the AIDS battle. David Wilson from UNSW provides the evidence base and won the 3M Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science.
  • Targeted spending provides more bang for the buck when it comes to protecting threatened species, according to new guidelines developed by the University of Queensland’s Kerrie Wilson. These insights are helping to prioritise orang-utan conservation efforts in Borneo in a way that balances competing land-use demands and the maintenance of forests to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Kerrie won the Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Young Researcher.

The University of Melbourne’s Professor Frank Caruso, an international nanotechnology expert, has won the CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science for his leadership in developing nanotechnology-enabled materials for biomedical applications. He believes these materials have great promise for drug delivery and imaging, and have the potential to revolutionise healthcare and medicine.

Communications

  • Sleek Geeks Eurekas for Beauty Point primary students and Casino High School secondary student (his third win).

Beauty

 

To line up interviews with winners or finalists, contact: