Fresh Science
Now in its fifteenth year, Fresh Science is a national event, which brings together scientists, the media and the public. It is designed to:
- enhance reporting of Australian science
- highlight and encourage debate on the role of science in Australian society
- provide role models for the next generation of Australian scientists.
Previous Fresh Scientists have attracted national and international interest resulting in hundreds of media stories, including national television news.
For more information please visit our Fresh Science site.
March Bulletin
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Nominations closed 5pm Wednesday 30 March 2011.
We’re trying to identify the best research produced in the past year or so by early-career scientists, for Fresh Science and AMP’s ‘Tech on Tap’.
Fresh Science serves as a communication boot camp for early-career researchers – getting their stories out to local, national and international media, and teaching them essential communication skills.
This year we will be holding state finals so we can expose more young scientists across the country to the Fresh Science experience. Short-listed entrants will be invited to the State finals which will include a day of media training in their home state. The top candidates will then be flown to Melbourne for the Fresh Science National Final.
We won’t hold finals in every state – our final choice will be dictated by nomination numbers, quality of nominations and sponsorship. But entries from every state and territory will be eligible for the National Final.
In essence we’re looking for:
- early-career researchers (from honours students to no more than five years post-PhD)
- a peer-reviewed research with a significant result which has had no media coverage
- some ability to present ideas in everyday English.
This year we are also offering an additional opportunity for research students (doing honours, masters, PhD as of June 2010).
Those nominating for Fresh Science who are students also have the option to also nominate for AMP’s Tech on Tap, a Sydney-based partner event to Fresh Science.
Technology on Tap is an event which is held as part of AMP’s Amplify Festival of Innovation and Thought Leadership. The Festival is a week-long celebration of learning designed to get people thinking, talking, acting and innovating around emerging technologies and trends.
Technology on Tap provides an opportunity for early-career scientists and researchers to win $5,000 by sharing their research and how it benefits society with the Amplify Festival audience.
Nominations for Fresh Science and AMP’s Tech on Tap closed at 5pm, Wednesday 30 March 2011.
Fresh Science State finals will be held between 18 April – 6 May with the national Fresh Science event in Melbourne 6-9 June 2011.
AMP’s Tech on Tap will be held on Monday 6 June 2011 in Sydney.
Nominations for Fresh Science or Tech on Tap are now closed. If you’re interested in the selection criteria or nomination process for 2011, check out the how to nominate page to read the selection criteria.
Fresh Science is supported by the Federal Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Museum Victoria, and New Scientist magazine.
For further information about Fresh Science visit www.freshscience.org.au or contact Tim Thwaites on (03) 9078 5398 or email tim@freshscience.org.
Tech on Tap is an AMP project, and part of their AMPlify Festival.
For more information about the AMPlify festival or Tech on tap, visit http://www.amplifyfestival.com.au/tech-on-tap1 or contact Danielle Miller on (02) 9257 7756 or Danielle_Miller@amp.com.au.
2008 Fellow Amanda Barnard and 2010 Fellow Rowena Martin have been awarded Eureka Prizes for their research achievements. Amanda has won the 2010 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research for her work on predicting properties of nanoparticles in sunscreens. The $10,000 prize is sponsored by UNSW and presented by the Australia Museum. You can read more [...]
The 2010 L’Oréal Australia For Women In Science Fellowships will be announced on Tuesday, 24 August at the Melbourne Museum. On Wednesday 25 August, 140 students will meet the 2010 Fellows at a schools forum at the Walter and Eliza Institute for Medical Research. The forum is fully subscribed. We are now briefing the media on embargo. [...]
New genus of bugs discovered at WA alumina refineryPreviously unknown species of naturally-occurring bacteria have the potential to save the alumina and aluminium industries millions of dollars while helping to reduce their impact on the environment, microbiologist Naomi McSweeney has found in a collaborative project between Alcoa of Australia, CSIRO and the University of Western Australia.
The bacteria can successfully break down and remove sodium oxalate, an organic impurity produced during the refining of low-grade bauxite into alumina. The work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a national competition for early-career scientists. Naomi was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
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…by putting the squeeze on mining waste
You may not be able to squeeze blood out of a stone but, by applying the right amount of ultrasound during processing, Jianhua (Jason) Du and colleagues from the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE) have been able to squeeze a considerable amount of fresh water from mining waste.
Honeycomb-like structure which retains significant amount of water in tailings before ultrasonic treatment. (Photo: Jason Du)
As well as conserving water the technique reduces the waste bulk, which could also save mining companies millions of dollars in operational costs and help postpone significant capital expenditure, Jason says. Jason is one of sixteen winners of the national 2010 Fresh Science program – highlighting the work of leading young scientists.
Read the full article →Australian researchers have invented a new clock that will bring atomic accuracy to your desk.
Skype, online games, air traffic control, smart energy grids – all rely on accurate timing across the internet. But our present computers aren’t accurate enough. They can synchronise with an atomic clock over the internet. But even tiny delays across the network introduce errors – your video conversation gets out of sync, you lose your online game, or the electricity grid wastes power.
University of Melbourne engineer Julien Ridoux and his colleague Darryl Veitch have two solutions to the problem – install an atomic clock in your computer for $50,000, or use their new, free, software clock accurate to within a millionth of a second.
Known as RADclock, their new software has been so successful it is now being tested across Australia with the cooperation of the National Measurement Institute (NMI), the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society and the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet). The work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early-career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Julien was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
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Patented South Australian technology
South Australian researchers have invented and patented a new technology for delivering cosmetics and drugs to the skin.They are using nanoparticles of silica (essentially sand) to create longer lasting cosmetics and creams that control the delivery of drugs through the skin.
They already have a family of international patents on their technology, and are now actively looking for commercial partners to get their invention out of the lab and on to your skin. “We are using specially engineered nanoparticles of silica—so small that about a thousand of them could fit across a human hair—to create the emulsions on which many cosmetic and therapeutic products are based,” says Nasrin Ghouchi-Eskandar from the University of South Australia’s Ian Wark Research Institute. The work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early-career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Nasrin was one of 16 winners from across Australia. Read the full article →
Imagine printing your own room lighting, lasers, or solar cells from inks you buy at the local newsagent. Jacek Jasieniak and his colleagues at CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and the University of Padua in Italy, have moved a step closer to such a future, by developing liquid inks based on quantum dots that can be used to print devices.
These quantum dot inks will transform our use of light in the home and office. In the first demonstration of these inks Jacek and his colleagues have made tiny printable lasers.
Four different colours of quantum dots (photo: Jacek Jasieniak)
The first laser, invented 50 years ago in May 1960, was described as a solution looking for a problem. Today dozens of lasers are built into our computers, cars and homes. Soon, thanks to Jacek’s work, we may have millions of tiny lasers working in our homes lighting our rooms and even acting as pixels in printable TV screens. The lasers could also be used as components in optical computers, electronics, sensors, as cheap laser pointers in a range of colours or even fashion accessories.
Jacek’s work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early-career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Jacek was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
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A compound produced by a pregnant lizard may provide important information on the origins and treatment of cancer in humans, according to zoologist Bridget Murphy from the University of Sydney, who discovered the protein, which is pivotal to the development of the lizard placenta.
“Our egg-laying ancestors probably never got cancer, but things changed when we started having live young. Embryos need an extensive network of blood vessels to allow them to grow. So do tumours. I found that the three-toed skink, which gives birth to live young, uses a particularly powerful protein to encourage the growth of blood vessels. The only other place where this protein has been found is in pre-cancerous cells grown in the laboratory,” she says.
The placenta of the three toed skink is highly vascular (photo: Bridget Murphy)
Future research on unlocking the secrets of how the protein works might well provide the basis of new therapies for cancer, and to promote wound healing or the regeneration of blood vessels in patients with heart disease. Bridget’s work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. She was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
Read the full article →High tech cling wraps that ‘sieve out’ carbon dioxide from waste gases can help save the world, says Melbourne University chemical engineer, Colin Scholes who developed the technology.
The membranes can be fitted to existing chimneys where they capture CO2 for removal and storage. They are already being tested on brown coal power stations in Victoria’s La Trobe Valley, Colin says. His work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Colin was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
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A shoulder-joint implant, with the ball and socket on the opposite bones from nature, can significantly improve the quality of life of patients with severe arthritis and tendon tears, says medical engineer David Ackland from the University of Melbourne.
In a search for a more effective replacement joint, David and his colleagues looked at the counterintuitive ‘reverse’ implant, which was designed and manufactured in the US by Zimmer, Inc. Their tests on the Zimmer implant showed that it stabilises the joint and increases the range of movement of arthritic shoulders. His work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum last week. David was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
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Feeding weeds fertiliser sounds like exactly the wrong thing, if you want to get rid of them, but Jennifer Firn of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems has been doing just that—to control African lovegrass, an invasive species of rangelands in every Australian state.
Her method works by making the weed tastier to grazing animals. It illustrates that we need to be smarter in dealing with weeds, not just reaching for the Round Up, Jennifer says. Her work was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology earlier this year and is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum last week. She was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
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A young Monash University chemist and her colleagues have successfully strengthened insulin’s chemical structure without affecting its activity. Their new insulin won’t require refrigeration.
They have just filed a series of patents with the support of their long term commercial partner ASX-listed Circadian Technologies who are now negotiating with pharma companies to start the long process of getting the invention out of the laboratory and into the homes of people with diabetes.
At the same time they’re using their new knowledge to develop a form of insulin that could be delivered by pill.
The tertiary structure of human insulin (image: Bianca van Lierop)
“Over two hundred million people need insulin to manage diabetes, but we still don’t how it works at a molecular level,” says Bianca van Lierop.
Her work will be presented for the first time in public this week at Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Bianca is one of 16 winners from across Australia.
The poor stability of existing forms of insulin complicates the management of diabetes, a condition which already affects 1.7 million Australians.
“Like milk, insulin formulations need to be kept cold,” Bianca says.
“At temperatures above 4 ºC, insulin starts to degrade and eventually becomes inactive. So supplying insulin in areas where fridges are scarce or difficult to maintain presents a real challenge.”
From this... (Photo: Sarah G)
The instability of insulin is closely related to its chemical structure, Bianca says.
“Insulin is constructed from two different protein chains which are joined together by unstable disulfide bonds. Using a series of chemical reactions, we have been able to replace the unstable bonds with stronger, carbon-based bridges. This replacement does not change the natural activity of insulin, but it does appear to significantly enhance its stability.”
These so-called ‘dicarba insulins’ are stable at room temperature. And, Bianca says, storage at higher temperatures for several years had not resulted in degradation or loss of activity.
... to this? (photo: doug88888)
The new insulins may also provide much-needed insight into how the molecule works. “Insulin acts like a key in a lock at its receptor. When insulin binds to the receptor the lock opens and allows sugar to be taken up into cells from the blood. But insulin is known to change shape inside the ‘lock’ (the receptor), and its final shape is currently unknown.”
“If we had that information, we might be able to design smaller, less complex, non-protein mimics of insulin.” Such molecules could one day become the basis of treatments taken in pill form, eliminating the need for injections.
Bianca van Lierop and her fellow Fresh Scientists are presenting their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government. Her challenges include presenting her discoveries in verse at a Melbourne pub.
For further information, contact Bianca van Lierop at Bianca.vanLierop@monash.edu
Additional Images
Bianca van Lierop (photo: Mike Coulson)
Bianca van Lierop pitching her story (photo: Mike Coulson)
A young UNSW researcher has created conductive bioplastics which will transform the performance of bionic devices such as the cochlear ear and the proposed bionic eye.
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A biotechnologist from the South Australian Research and Development Institute has taken using “everything but the pig’s squeal” to new lengths. Through clever recycling of pig waste, Andrew Ward has been able to produce feed for aquaculture, water for irrigation, and methane for energy. His ‘waste food chain’ can be applied to breweries, wineries and any system producing organic waste.
Read the full article → 
Using galaxies as cosmic telescopes to reveal the diets of the black holes at the heart of every galaxy.
Anglo-Australian Observatory Astronomer David Floyd has been able to observe matter falling into a super-massive black hole – one of the Universe’s brightest objects.
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Silk could provide a sophisticated new way of monitoring health, Peter Domachuk, a physicist from the University of Sydney, has found.
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Wind speed plays a bigger role than temperature in creating dangerous conditions for bushfires, says Dr Andrew Dowdy a physicist from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Read the full article → A young Tasmanian electrical engineer, Natalia Galin, has turned US technology into a robust helicopter-borne radar system that can accurately measure the thickness of snow on polar sea ice.
