They can stop the world’s biggest warships, cripple power stations and kill humans with a single sting but jellyfish are not about to take over the world and turn our oceans to slime, as some reports have claimed. A team of international marine scientists – including an Australian – said they found no hard evidence to support claims that jellyfish numbers are increasing worldwide at an alarming rate. Despite widespread media reports of such claims, the lack of a comprehensive database of jellyfish numbers had prevented a reliable scientific assessment of global trends.
Prof Carlos Duarte, Director, Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia
BioScience; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202024308/research/jedi-scientists-repel-jellyfish-invasion
Heart disease may kill brain cells, say West Australian researchers. Their findings suggest that heart disease may affect a part of people’s brains governing mentally demanding tasks. The work showed that with heart failure and ischaemic heart disease (reduced blood supply to the heart) may suffer impaired memory, reasoning and planning. Heart disease could also affect emotions and mental activity.
Prof Osvaldo Almeida, Director of Research, Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing, the University of Western Australia
European Heart Journal; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202064315/research/ailing-heart-link-grey-matter-loss
Sex plays a much more important role in the reproduction of vitally important seagrasses than previously thought, according to important new findings by researchers from Western Australia. It forms a major re-think of the way seagrass populations spread and is regarded as critically important to help conserve and restore endangered seagrass meadows.
Healthy seagrass populations are extremely important for coastal stability and carbon sequestration. They grow predominately via vegetative growth or cloning, using rhizomes that spread under the seabed, then sent out roots and shoots. But the researchers found that seagrasses also relied a great deal on sexual reproduction involving male and female flowers, pollen, seeds and seedlings.
Prof Gary Kendrick, Oceans Institute, School of Plant Biology, University of Western Australia
Bioscience; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201201164278/research/secret-sex-life-help-save-worlds-endangered-seagrasses
A pioneering therapy that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate the brain to treat conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, epilepsy and stroke is now better understood thanks to Western Australian researchers. The researchers tested the therapy – known as repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) – on mice to find out how it can be applied to treating human neurological disease. The work demonstrated for the first time that pulsed magnetic fields promote changes in brain chemicals that correct abnormal brain connections, resulting in improved behaviour and brain function.
A/Prof Jennifer Rodger, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia
FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology); http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202024309/research/magnetic-research-better-brain-health
A weapon invented by a West Australian farmer to smash and destroy weed seeds is nearing commercial production. The Harrington Seed Destructor was trialled and demonstrated during last year’s harvest in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales after extensive WA testing.
The destructor, based on mining technology, is towed behind a header at harvest. The header separates the chaff fraction containing weed seeds from the straw and fed into a cage mill. This pulverises any weed seeds in the chaff and returns it to the paddock. In studies using dyed seed, up to 95 per cent of ryegrass seed was destroyed.
Associate Professor Michael Walsh, Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative, University of Western Australia
http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202074316/business-and-industry/smash-and-destroy-weapon-wage-war-against-weeds
The last mineral thought to have been unique to the Moon has been discovered in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. Tranquillityite, named after the Sea of Tranquillity where the Apollo 11 moon-walkers landed in July 1969, was tentatively identified while studying a polished slice of Earthly rock in a scanning electron microscope.
Prof Birger Rasmussen, Curtin University
Dr Janet Muhling, A/Prof Alexandra Suvorova, Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, University of Western Australia
Geology; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201201164276/international/moon-walk-mineral-discovered-western-australia
West Australian researchers have found people who engage in vigorous physical activity may be protected against types of colorectal cancer. The study used a Western Australian cohort.
Researchers examined 870 participants who had bowel cancer and a control group of 996 who did not have the disease. Study participants were asked to answer questions about their recreational physical activity, lifestyle, diet, medication and occupation.
Terry Boyle, University of Western Australia
Cancer Causes Control; http://www.sciencewa.net.au/3813.html
New research has found bananas are photoperiod responsive, overruling the widely accepted belief that temperature is the key variable in banana development. Seasonal variation in banana production is an issue for growers worldwide, and has driven research focused on what influences the plant’s rate of development and flowering.
Prof David Turner, honorary research fellow, UWA
Functional Plant Biology
http://www.sciencewa.net.au/3754-banana-crop-abundance-linked-to-length-of-day.html
An Australian experimental evolutionary study on house mice (Mus musculus) has found multiple mating is beneficial for both males and females. The study, in its sixth year running, has found that polyandry drives increased embryo viability in a vertebrate and that the risks associated with multiple mating were far outweighed by the benefits.
Dr Renee Firman, Dr Leigh Simmons, UWA
Ecology Letters Journal
http://www.sciencewa.net.au/3742-polyandry-drives-increased-embryo-viability.html
Banded ironstone core samples from the Pilbara have aided in dating the first appearance of atmospheric oxygen at 2.48 billion years ago. The published date of the Great Oxidation Event by geobiologists in Western Australian researchers rests on the reliability of the rock samples they used as evidence.
A/Prof Mark Barley, UWA
Nature
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20112411-22882.html
Climate change resulting in more frequent flooding of the Wooramel River that leads into Shark Bay is threatening the unique ‘living rock fossils’ that make Shark Bay a World Heritage site. These stromatolites – rocky structures formed over millennia by blue-green algae or cyanobacteria in which a new kind of chlorophyll has been found – thrive in Shark Bay’s Hamelin Pool, where an unusual undersea landscape has created an environment twice as saline as normal seawater.
Emeritus Prof Diana Walker, Oceans Institute, UWA
http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201111104129/research/shark-bay-stromatolites-risk-climate-change
Marine life in the areas to the north of Australia and elsewhere along the Equator, as well as the waters off Australia’s east coast, have emerged as being at particular risk from temperature changes due to climate change, international marine scientists have warned.
Prof Carlos Duarte, Director, Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia
Prof John Pandolfi of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland
Science
Marine biologists have written an open letter against shark culls, and calling for non-lethal alternatives.
Over 100 academics and professionals in the shark and ray field have signed the letter. In addition, a petition from the public has already collected over 5000 signatures.
Barbara Wueringer, Research Associate, School of Animal Biology, University of Western Australia and Adjunct Research Associate, School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University.
