Crocodile eggs measure river health; liver transplants; farmers adapt to climate change and more

12 November, 2012
Bulletins, Media bulletins

Ngan’gi speakers know it’s time to look for freshwater crocodile eggs when the red kapok trees near the Northern Territory’s Daly River burst into flower.

A Darwin-based scientist has converted this link and other intimate Aboriginal knowledge of Australia’s landscape into an environmental management tool.

CSIRO’s Emma Woodward says that Aboriginal observations have revealed relationships and links between plants, animals, water and climate that we weren’t aware of before. It’s critical information for water management for example. Emma Woodward is our latest Fresh Scientist.

Also in this media bulletin:

  • More people could benefit from liver transplants – including those on methadone programs or with certain forms of heart disease. Centenary researchers are presenting their findings at the world’s largest annual conference of liver specialists in Boston.
  • Links for this week’s total solar eclipse.
  • Young medical researchers compete for the Centenary Institute’s Lawrence Creative Prize – winner announced at a lunch at UBS in Sydney on Thursday.

And coming up:

  • How farmers are adapting to a changing climate – the latest from winemakers, orchardists and others. Which crops will become marginal? Do we need to all go vegetarian to reduce livestock emissions? These and many other issues will be explored at a climate change in agriculture conference in Melbourne from 27 November.
  • Homeopathy, psychics and crazy Stonehenge theories will all cop a beating at this year’s national Skeptics Convention in Melbourne from 30 November.
  • Quantum science; the glass backbone of NBN; tracking space debris; pink diamonds. The national physics congress will be discussing these and many other topics in Sydney from 9-13 December 2012.

    • Today: Crocodile eggs measure river health

    A new land management tool using Aboriginal knowledge

    Ngan’gi speakers know it’s time to look for freshwater crocodile eggs when the red kapok trees near the Northern Territory’s Daly River burst into flower.

    This can occur at a different time each year, but the environmental link is solid.

    A Darwin-based scientist has converted this link and other intimate Aboriginal knowledge of Australia’s landscape into an environmental management tool.

    CSIRO’s Emma Woodward worked with Aboriginal elders as part of the Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge research program to develop six seasonal calendars from six different language groups from the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

    Emma will present her work today in Melbourne at a Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research conference.

    The calendars provide early warning signs of environmental change, which will help scientists manage water use and monitor the impacts of climate change.

    The full release, more information and high-res images available here: www.freshscience.org.au/embargoed/indigenousecology

    For interviews:

Today: Broadening the possibilities for liver transplantation

Research opens the advantages of organ transfer to wider groups of people, including heart patients and reformed addicts

People on methadone programs or with certain forms of heart disease are among liver patients who could now benefit from transplantation, Professor Geoff McCaughan head of the Centenary Institute’s Liver Injury and Cancer research program will tell the world’s largest annual conference of liver specialists in Boston today.

As an invited speaker to the joint meeting International Liver Transplantation Society and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Professor McCaughan will argue that advances in technology and medical therapy over the past decade mean that transplantation can improve the quality and expectancy of life of an increasing proportion of those suffering from liver disease.

Almost at the same time, his Centenary Institute colleague Dr Nick Shackel will be introducing postgraduate students attending the conference to systems biology—how genomic studies and bioinformatics can be used to help unravel the causes of liver disease and provide new possibilities for treatment.

The full release is at www.centenarynews.org.au

For further information and interviews, contact: 

 Wednesday: Total solar eclipse in Cairns, partial eclipse for rest of Oz, NZ

Australia will experience a solar eclipse on the morning of Wednesday 14 November. The most populous city to experience a full eclipse will be Cairns, which will go into full shadow an hour after daybreak (06:38 AEST).

The rest of Australia and New Zealand will experience a partial eclipse on Wednesday morning. The closer you are to Cairns, the more the sun will be obscured.

Use this map to get an exact time for your location: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2012Nov13Tgoogle.html

More details from NASA at: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2012/TSE2012.html

For safety information visit http://mypolice.qld.gov.au/cairns/2012/11/10/safety-first-consider-how-you-plan-on-viewing-the-total-solar-eclipse/

The ‘official’ Eclipse 2012 event site is at http://www.eclipse2012.org.au/

We’re not doing any work on the eclipse so chase your favourite astronomers for interviews.

 Thursday: Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize announced

The Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize encourages Australia’s best young biomedical researchers to stay in Australia and build their careers here.

The winner of the 2012 Prize will be announced on Wednesday 14 November 2012, at a lunch at UBS in Sydney and will receive $25,000.

The finalists are:

  • Robert McLaughlin, a medical engineer from the University of Western Australia, who has developed an optical probe that fits inside a hypodermic needle and can help surgeons to accurately determine the boundaries of breast cancer tumours.
  • Marc Pellegrini, from Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), whose discoveries about how the body regulates its immune system are being applied to clinical trials of cancer vaccines and treatments for HIV and hepatitis.
  • Jian Yang, from the Diamantina Institute at the University of Queensland, who has solved a major puzzle of missing heritability by developing software and methods to determine the multiple genes involved in conditions such as schizophrenia, obesity and diabetes.

The winner of the 2011 Prize was Dr Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat. Marie-Liesse was part of the team at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) that discovered the breast stem cell and has now turned her attention to lung cancer.

More information: http://www.centenary.org.au/p/about/whatson/lawrencecreative/

For further details and interviews, contact:

Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries Conference

Australia’s only dedicated primary industries and climate change conference will showcase the latest national and international research, policy and practices for primary industries in a changing climate.

When: Tuesday 27 November to Thursday 29 November

Where: Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria

More information: www.theccrspiconference.com.au

More media information to come.

 Three days of intense doubt: The Australian Skeptics National Convention

Homeopathy, psychics and crazy Stonehenge theories will all cop a beating at this year’s national Skeptics convention, when critical thinkers gather in Melbourne to collectively debunk bogus ideas and promote evidence-based thinking. Speakers range from comedian Lawrence Leung to Crikey’s Stephen Mayne, along with senior doctors and psychologists. Anyone frustrated by the paucity of facts in our national discourse, or just the uselessness of their rescue remedy, might like to attend.

When: Friday 30 November – Sunday 2 December

Where: Various locations in Melbourne – see the detailed program at

www.vicskeptics.wordpress.com/events/detailed-program-2012-convention

 Zeptoseconds and laser beams at the Physics Congress

Physical sciences from astronomy to zeptosecond dynamics will be on show in Sydney from 9-13 December 2012 at the Australian Institute of Physics Congress, as 800 Australian and international scientists gather at the University of New South Wales.

We’re starting to work through the program. There should be some good stories including:

  • Developments in quantum science – an area of strong growth in Australia
  • The glass behind the National Broadband Network – optic fibre technology
  • Laser tracking of space debris to reduce the risk of collisions with spacecraft
  • How pink diamonds get their colour
  • 2011 physics Nobel laureate, Brian Schmidt, awarding a school physics experiment competition at the start of his public lecture, on Wednesday 12 December

Media passes are available for the Congress – email margie@scienceinpublic.com.au to organise one or for more information.