- A new way of creating single photons: polariton filter turns ordinary laser light into quantum light.
- An Aussie eucalypt can ‘remember’ past exposure to extreme heat, which makes it better able to cope with future heatwaves. Scientist available for interview.
- The Milky Way is warped and twisted. Scientist available for interview, plus visuals.
- Saving lives by predicting firestorms. Scientists available for interview, plus a great picture.
- Do you need help to find the story in your science that works for media, funders, and other stakeholders? Join one of our communication training days.
This week at Science in Public
19 February, 2019A polariton filter turns ordinary laser light into quantum light
19 February, 2019Nature Materials paper Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Artist’s impression of the polaritonic photon conversion platform. Laser photons enter through the top mirror and leave through the bottom mirror exhibiting quantum ‘granularity’ – after interacting with the semiconductor layer. Image: Andrew Wood
An international team of researchers led out of Macquarie University has demonstrated a new approach for converting ordinary laser light into genuine quantum light.
Their approach uses nanometre-thick films made of gallium arsenide, which is a semiconductor material widely used in solar cells. They sandwich the thin films between two mirrors to manipulate the incoming photons.
The photons interact with electron-hole pairs in the semiconductor, forming new chimeric particles called polaritons that carry properties from both the photons and the electron-hole pairs. The polaritons decay after a few picoseconds, and the photons they release exhibit distinct quantum signatures.
The teams’ research was published overnight in the journal Nature Materials.
Trees remember heatwaves
14 February, 2019
The flooded gum or rose gum (Eucalyptus grandis). Photo: Geoexplore
An Aussie eucalypt can ‘remember’ past exposure to extreme heat, which makes the tree and its offspring better able to cope with future heatwaves, according to new research from Macquarie University.
This finding could have important implications for restoring ecosystems and climate-proofing forestry, as the number of hot days and heatwaves increase due to climate change.
The Milky Way is warped
5 February, 2019
A slightly exaggerated impression of the real shape of our warped and twisted Milky Way. Image: Xiaodian Chen (National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
The first accurate 3D map of our galaxy reveals its true shape: warped and twisted.
Background information and further images below.
Astronomers from Macquarie University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have used 1339 ‘standard’ stars to map the real shape of our home galaxy in a paper published in Nature Astronomy today.
They found the Milky Way’s disc of stars becomes increasingly ‘warped’ and twisted the further away the stars are from the galaxy’s centre.
Cane toads: what they do in the shadows
19 January, 2019
A juvenile cane toad (Rhinella marina) in Emma Gorge, Western Australia. Photo: M.G. Swan
Cane toads are picking up some shady habits, according to a new study co-authored by a Macquarie University researcher.
Toads in Western Australia have been spotted awake and active during the day in deeply shaded habitats, despite the species usually being nocturnal in Australia and other parts of the world.
However nearby cane toad populations at more exposed sites remained only active at night.
Promiscuous females and their role in evolution
18 January, 2019
A promiscuous female fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) marked with paint. Photo: The Wigby Lab
Males have to make less of an effort to mate with promiscuous female fruit flies, making the quality and quantity of their semen all the more important in the competition to fertilise the females’ eggs.
This also leads to male flies repeatedly mating with the same female, according to a paper published overnight in Nature Communications, by researchers from Macquarie University, the University of Oxford and the University of East Anglia, who looked into the eyes of thousands of fruit flies.
The shape of a perfect storm: saving lives by predicting firestorms
9 January, 2019Scientists available for interview – details and photos below.
Correction: an earlier version stated the tool is being formally trialed by the NSW Rural Fire SERVICE. It is currently in use, but formal trials ended in 2016.
A fully developed pyrocumulus cloud, formed from the smoke plume of the Grampians fire in February 2013. Credit: Randall Bacon
Firestorms are a nightmare for emergency services and anyone in their path. They occur when a bushfire meets a ‘perfect storm’ of environmental conditions and creates a thunderstorm.
Dr Rachel Badlan and Associate Professor Jason Sharples are part of a team of experts from UNSW Canberra and ACT Emergency Services that has found the shape of a fire is an important factor in whether it will turn into a firestorm.
Fires that form expansive areas of active flame, rather than spreading as a relatively thin fire-front, are more likely to produce higher smoke plumes and turn into firestorms, the researchers found.
This finding is being used to underpin further development of a predictive model for firestorms. The model was trialed in the 2015 and 2016 fire seasons by the ACT Emergency Services Agency and the NSW Rural Fire Service, and now forms part of the national dialogue around extreme bushfire development.
The quest for the missing proteins in rice
9 January, 2019
Rice (Oryza sativa) is the major food source for more than half the world’s population. Photo: Pille-Riin Priske/Unsplash CC
Researchers have identified over 5,700 new proteins in rice and are calling for a global effort to find the remaining missing proteins, in a new study co-authored by Macquarie University.
The international team of scientists from Australia, Iran and Japan say there’s an estimated 35,000 proteins encoded by the rice genome, and yet we still don’t have experimental evidence for 82 per cent of them.
This is important because rice is the major food source for more than half the world’s population, and in order for it to grow in warmer climates and with less water we will need to better understand rice at the molecular level. [continue reading…]
Have you seen a sawfish?
7 January, 2019From Sydney to Cairns to Darwin to Perth, we want to hear about your sightings – a live fish, a saw on the wall of your local pub, or a photo from your family album.
- Link to HD sawfish footage, courtesy of Biopixel (the watermark must be retained).
- Link to media release backgrounder
- Photos and captions
- Link to Google Drive photos
“Your sightings, no matter how long ago they happened, will help us work out how many sawfish there used to be, how many remain, and how we can help them recover,” says Dr Barbara Wueringer, a zoologist and the director of Sharks and Rays Australia (SARA).
A sawfish caught at Manly, Sydney in 1926.
Photo source: Queensland State Library.
Forty years ago, sawfish were regularly seen off Sydney and the east coast, and Perth and up the west coast. Today they’re rarely seen outside of the Gulf of Carpentaria, NT and the Kimberley.
Media Release: Melbourne steps up to drive global health
14 December, 2018Images, video overlay, two case studies (rotavirus vaccine and TB in adolescents) and backgrounder available.
Melbourne Children’s Global Health initiative to take action for the:
- Two million children dying annually from pneumonia and diarrhoea
- 8 million new child and youth cases of TB each year
- Mental health and wellbeing of youth caught up in global unemployment, civic unrest, conflict, urbanisation and migration
- Hospitals and health workers who want training and education to help them save their young patients.
Three of Australia’s child health leaders are joining forces to tackle global child health. Melbourne Children’s Global Health will build on the achievements of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI), the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) and the University of Melbourne. [continue reading…]
Backgrounder: What is Melbourne Children’s Global Health? What will we do?
14 December, 2018Melbourne Children’s Global Health is an initiative to improve the health of children and adolescents in disadvantaged populations globally through partnerships in research, public health, education and advocacy.
The initiative has been created by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, and the Royal Children’s Hospital under the auspices of the Melbourne Children’s Campus, and with the support of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Images: Melbourne Global
14 December, 2018For hi-res versions please click on the photo and then right click to download the file.
The first baby in Indonesia to be vaccinated with the new vaccine. (Credit: Melbourne Children’s Campus)
The midwives and doctor at the Jatinom Primary Health Centre in Klaten District, Central Java, which is connected to the new rotavirus trial. (Credit: Melbourne Children’s Campus)
Videos: Melbourne Global
14 December, 2018Case Study: New rotavirus vaccine enters manufacturing
14 December, 2018Bio Farma, Indonesia’s national vaccine company, is completing a phase 1 trial of a new rotavirus vaccine invented in Melbourne and has started pilot manufacture of the vaccine. Licencing trials are next, followed hopefully by release of the new vaccine in 2021.
The project is the culmination of a 42-year partnership between Melbourne and Gadjah Mada University which started after Ruth Bishop and colleagues found a virus, now known as rotavirus, in babies at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. They showed it was the cause of an acute gastroenteritis that was hospitalising 10,000 Australian children every year and killing more than half a million children worldwide. [continue reading…]
Case Study: TB in adolescents: Melbourne Children’s Global Health guides new WHO roadmap
14 December, 2018In 2017, almost one million children fell ill and over 200,000 children under 15 died of tuberculosis, according to the latest WHO Roadmap. The report also identifies a previously underreported challenge, TB in adolescents.
University of Melbourne researcher Ms Kathryn Snow has estimated that about 1.8 million young people develop TB every year comprising [continue reading…]
Melbourne paediatrician wins 2018 CSL Florey Next Generation Award
27 November, 2018Oxygen halves child pneumonia deaths
A Melbourne student researcher and doctor has helped Nigerian hospitals halve the number of children dying from pneumonia—just by improving training and access to oxygen.
Dr Hamish Graham has been awarded with the inaugural $20,000 CSL Florey Next Generation Award for top PhD candidate in health and biomedical sciences. [continue reading…]
CSL Young Florey Medal – photos from the award night
27 November, 2018
The Hon Catherine King MP, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare, presents winner Hamish Graham with the CSL Florey Next Generation Award (Photo credit: AAMRI/Bradley Cummings)
2018 CSL Florey Next Generation Award finalists
21 November, 2018Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne young health and medical researchers vie for $20,000 top PhD student award
- Eradicating gut worms: a path out of poverty
- Oxygen halves child pneumonia deaths
- Smart blood pressure measurement to cut heart risk
Scientists available for interviews
Media contacts: Tanya Ha, tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au, 0404 083 863;
Niall Byrne, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au, 0417 131 977, (03) 9398 1416
Eradicating gut worms: a path out of poverty
20 November, 2018Naomi Clarke, Australian National University
Hundreds of millions of children worldwide are infected with intestinal worms, which can stunt their growth and trap them in a cycle of poverty. Naomi Clarke has shown more can be done to reduce these worm infections worldwide.
Global efforts to control intestinal worms are reducing infection rates. Naomi’s research demonstrates that more can be done—simple changes to program guidelines could benefit millions of children and their communities. [continue reading…]
Oxygen monitoring halves child pneumonia deaths
20 November, 2018Hamish Graham, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of Melbourne
Targeted oxygen therapy could save the lives of thousands of children. Melbourne researcher Hamish Graham says the key is identifying the children who need it most. He found that providing Nigerian hospitals with equipment and training to measure blood oxygen levels has halved the number of children dying from pneumonia.
Hamish, a paediatrician who has worked in Sudan and Nigeria, is now working to make oxygen—a treatment we take for granted in Australia—available to every child who needs it. [continue reading…]