Sydney doctor and philanthropist Tom Wenkart will donate $4 million on Monday 26 March, in the presence of the NSW Governor Dr Marie Bashir, to endow the University of Sydney Wenkart Chair in Endothelium Medicine at the Centenary Institute.
Just like the popular Muse album Black Holes and Revelations, an international research team led by a Sydney astronomer has found that a newly discovered type of black hole – an intermediate mass black hole – reveals clues on how galaxies are formed. The first intermediate mass black hole, called HLX-1, was discovered in 2009. The latest work examines how they form, which furthers our understanding of how galaxies themselves may form. Focusing on HLX-1 as the prototype of the new class of black hole, the research team has detected the presence of a very young massive cluster of stars around it.
Dr Sean Farrell, Sydney Institute for Astronomy, University of Sydney
Astrophysical Journal
A hotter home appears to produce babies with better cognitive abilities. But before you turn up the home heater to make your baby brainier, take note that the research was conducted by Sydney researchers on the Australian lizard Bassiana duperreyi.
Many other traits in young reptiles are determined by the temperature of the nest, so researchers looked at how incubation temperature would affect the learning performance of these lizards. Their study found that lizard eggs incubated at higher temperatures resulted in baby lizards with enhanced learning performance.
Joshua Amiel, Prof Rick Shine, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
Biology Letters; http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8471
University researchers have debunked the dogma that predators aren’t picky eaters – with a new study finding that if they are given a choice of foods, predators will select a diet that maximises their chances of reproducing.
The researchers, including an Australian, have shown for the first time that predatory animals choose their food on the basis of its nutritional value, rather than just overall calorie content. The findings are based on a study of the ground beetle, Anchomenus dorsalis, a garden insect that feasts on slugs, aphids, moths, beetle larvae and ants.
Prof Stephen Simpson, University of Sydney
Proceedings of the Royal Society B; http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8465
A new approach for diagnosing patients with anorexia nervosa has been developed at the University of Sydney. The approach could have a significant impact on the treatment and recovery of sufferers, as well as reducing the strain on public health. Researchers advocate a move to diagnosing anorexia nervosa in stages of severity, similar to the method used for diagnosing cancer.
“At the moment, you can only diagnose anorexia nervosa if you have the illness quite severely already.”
Prof Stephen Touyz, Centre for Eating and Dieting Disorders, University of Sydney
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8444
A vaccine that slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia has been developed by Sydney researchers. The vaccine, which targets a protein known as tau, prevents the ongoing formation of neurofibrillary tangles in the brain of a mouse with Alzheimer’s disease.
This progressive neurodegenerative disease affects more than 35 million people worldwide. The tau protein is also involved in front temporal dementia, the second most common form of dementia in people younger than 65 years.
A/Prof Lars Ittner, Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney
PLoS ONE
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=1&newsstoryid=8384
A bacterium whose name was inspired by the Star Wars films has provided new clues into the evolution of our own cells and how they came to possess the vital energy-producing units called mitochondria. The Sydney research investigated the bacterium Midichloria mitochondrii – named after helpful Star Wars microbes, called Midi-chlorians, that live inside cells and grant the mystical power known as The Force.
It has revealed that mitochondria may have entered our cells though a parasitic bacterium that used a tail to swim and could survive with almost no oxygen. “Our results challenge the paradigm – shown in every biology textbook – that mitochondria were passive bacteria gobbled up by a primordial cell.”
Dr Nathan Lo, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
Molecular Biology and Evolution
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html
A study involving Sydney cardiac researchers has shown the loss of a loved one really can break your heart. The team is studying why people, who are grieving the loss of a loved one experience heightened blood pressure variability. Increased blood pressure variability has been shown to be predictive for stroke and other cardiovascular complications.
Dr Anastasia Susie Mihailidou, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8301
Scientists have unexpectedly found traces of the supercontinent Gondwana in the Indian Ocean – in the process solving a mystery behind a large group of ocean ‘mountains’ known as seamounts, including Christmas Island.
The German-Australian team of marine geologists set out on the German research vessel Sonne to map and sample about 60 seamounts – ranging in height from one to three kilometres – in one the world’s largest volcanic seamount provinces off the north west Australian coast.
Prof Dietmar Müller, Ms Ana Gibbons, University of Sydney
Nature Geoscience
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=2&newsstoryid=8311
In the remote waters of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, scientists have discovered two sunken islands, almost the size of Tasmania, which were once part of the supercontinent Gondwana. The data collected could significantly change our understanding of the way in which India, Australia and Antarctica broke off from Gondwana.
Dr Simon Williams, University of Sydney
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8188
Sydney University biologists have discovered cane toad tadpoles (Bufo marinus) communicate using chemicals excreted into the water, a finding that may help to impede the cane toad invasion of the Kimberley region.
Dr Michael Crossland, Prof Rick Shine, University of Sydney
http://www.sciencewa.net.au/3723-eradicating-cane-toads-with-their-own-medicine.html
Sydney researchers have investigated the rules underlying how big groups of animals move in a coordinated fashion. They found that each fish in a shoal uses very simple rules to respond to its neighbours.
Mr James Herbert-Read, Dr Tim Schaerf and A/Prof Ashley Ward, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newscategoryid=2&newsstoryid=8145
In the largest study of its kind an international group of scientists, including Australians, have unravelled the factors that caused the extinction of iconic Ice Age mammals such as the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth.
The study shows that both climate change and humans were responsible for the mass extinctions of the megafauna 50,000 years ago.
http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=8109
Dr Simon Ho, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
Nature
Users of heroin and other addictive opioids may be spared from distressing withdrawal symptoms in the future. In an article just published in Nature Neuroscience the researchers describe for the first time a protein in nerve cells that drives the withdrawal response.
Prof MacDonald Christie, Pharmacology, University of Sydney, and Brain and Mind Research Institute
Nature Neuroscience, http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20113110-22781.html
Including enough protein in our diets, rather than simply cutting calories, is the key to curbing appetites and preventing excessive consumption of fats and carbohydrates, a new study from the University of Sydney has found.
Dr Alison Gosby, Professor Steve Simpson, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney
PLoS ONE, http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=7975
Among the single-celled cyanobacteria—formerly known as blue-green algae—which live in the ancient rock-like accumulations called stromatolites in Shark Bay, Western Australia, Associate Professor Min Chen of the University of Sydney last year found the first new form of chlorophyll in 67 years.
