Scientists at UQ are part of an international team mapping the Brassica plant genome – that’s cabbages, broccoli and canola.
Australia is the world’s second largest exporter of canola. Mapping the genome will help scientists breed and engineer canola which is resistant to disease and fungal infection.
Dr David Edwards and Dr Jacqueline Batley, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, UQ
Nature Genetics, http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=23953
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about travelling faster than light; ancient proteins; a vaccine for acne; missing planets; and more… Read the full article →
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about growing drugs in sunflowers; electric dolphins; silent submarines; fingerprinting zombies; and more… Read the full article →
The world cannot rely solely on high tech, genetic modification to generate the extra food needed to satisfy a human population projected to peak at about 9.5 billion later this century, according to keynote speakers at the XVIII International Botanical Congress being held in Melbourne this week. Read the full article →
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about wayward whales; possums in packs; battling sea monsters; space junk; and more Read the full article →
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about obese pets; reversing ageing; how your mother is to blame for your sense of taste; the peril of heat stress; and more… Read the full article →
Welcome to our November bulletin celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity (IYOB).
October saw the launch of the crocheted coral reef, the discovery of science, policy, leadership and action in Wellington, New Zealand, and discussion of the politics of biodiversity in Canberra.
Here’s a taster of what’s on in November:
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about slowing wind; love and pain; cane toad caviar; shining light inside your body; and more… Read the full article →
Welcome to our October bulletin celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity (IYOB).
This month Biodiversity Year gets serious, and fun.
This week on radio, Tim Thwaites is talking about using your beach towel to charge your MP3 player; carrying brains overseas; flu vaccinations; healthy fruit extracts; and more… Read the full article →
In two weeks Australia will play host to a major UN conference focusing on global health and the Millennium Development Goals. More than 70 countries and over 300 organisations will be represented. There will be many compelling stories that matter to Australia and our region. More details and downloads below.
Also, in Canberra today the Australian Academy of Science Think Tank is tackling questions regarding Australia’s mineral deposits. Will we run out of minerals? How much more mineral wealth is still to be found? Do we have the technologies to find it and extract it safely? The media releases are online at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/blog
These issues are being discussed in Canberra at a forum on 19 and 20 August. The media are invited to day one and the speakers are available for interview. The findings will be published later in the year. Read the full article →
We’ve identified 135 Science Week events around Australia with a biodiversity connection. So we thought we’d share them with you in this special Science Week edition of our Biodiversity Year bulletin.
You can learn how to keep bugs alive, immerse yourself in flora and fauna on a walk through the forest, hear about the unique environment of Barrow Island in Western Australia and discover how a genetic disease in the Royal Family relates to biodiversity.
Biodiversity events happening during National Science Week in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory
More than 30,000 East African farmers are using plants to protect their corn (maize) crops from insect and weed attack. The crop protection strategy was developed by Kenyan and UK scientists.
Termed “Push-Pull’, it relies on strategically deploying attractive and repellent plants in alternating rows to control the growth of African witchweed and stemborer insects. These are the biggest threat to cereal crops in Sub-Saharan Africa. Stem borers often destroy 80% of a crop.
Victorian farmers are in a phony war right now – but in spring the invasion will come. We’re likely to see the worst locust plague for 30 years. David Hunter will tell the conference how plagues occur and what can be done to reduce their impact. Read the full article →
IUPAC Plenary Six and Seven, Wednesday 9:45am
Chris Leaver, University of Oxford
The world’s population has more than doubled in the past 50 years and the relative abundance of food has kept pace, with the poorest benefiting most. Yet one billion people are malnourished and live below the poverty line.
IUPAC Symposium 6B – Crop Biofactories: Plants as Sustainable Bio-Production Systems for Industrial Raw Materials, Wednesday 3:30pm
Sten Stymne, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Vegetable oil is the agricultural product that chemically most resembles fossil oils and has therefore great potential to replace it, says Sweden’s Sten Stymne.
He’s part of an 11-million-Euro global project to engineer seed oils for bio-lubricant uses.
IUPAC Symposium 1A – Formulation: Efficacy and the Environment
Ingo Fleute-Schlachter, Cognis, Germany
Friendlier pesticides are on the way. Every pesticide contains an active ingredient. But there is more in the can. The formulation may need additives and adjuvants which boost performance: working as emuslifiers, wetters, dispersants, or sticking agents to deliver the pesticide to where it’s needed – the surfaces of leaves for example.
IUPAC Symposium 3B – Changing Pesticide use and Risk Scenarios with the Introduction of GM Crops Monday 3:30pm
Gary Fitt, CSIRO Entomology
GM cotton was released in 1996, as part of the fight back against Helicoverpa – arguably the most destructive agricultural pest in the world. Bollgard II varieties now make up 90% of the Australian cotton industry. What difference have they made?
Gary Fitt from CSIRO Entomology in Queensland will report that farmers have reduced pesticide use by up to 90% providing on-farm benefits and greatly reducing environmental disruption.
IUPAC Symposium 4B – Formulation, Efficacy and the Environment
Monday 4:30pm
Heping Zhu, United States Department of Agriculture
“Current label-recommended levels of pesticides for spray application technology, pest pressure and crop growth structure are vague, frequently resulting in excessive use of pesticide,” says Heping Zhu from the USDA in Ohio.
