Melbourne researchers have invented and patented a way of detecting and locating potential electrical faults along large stretches of power line before they occur.
The patented detection system, already being employed by local electricity companies, could help prevent the major discharges that lead to sparking and blackouts.
This story is part of Fresh Science. Twelve early-career scientists are unveiling their research to the public for the first time in Melbourne this week and in coming weeks.
Yesterday we revealed how mixing drugs and alcohol could lead to better asthma inhalers thanks to a Monash University researcher.
Tomorrow, Tuesday at 10.30 we have two Sydney researchers on:
- how worms could help us understand dementia.
- a marsupial fossil the size of a grain of sand that reveals unexpected links to South America – and possibly North Africa.
Read on for more details of those stories and the others which will be presented this week at Fresh Science.
And, if you’re free, join us at the pub tonight to meet the 12 Freshies. We’ll be at the Duke of Kent in Latrobe St from 6pm. All welcome – the more the merrier!
Kind regards,
Niall
- Electric fishes spark safer power line technology
- Tiny fossils link ‘old bastard’ marsupials to South America and Africa
- Worms reveal link between dementia gene and ageing
- Mixing drugs and alcohol for better asthma inhalers
- Later this week at Fresh Science…
Electric fishes spark safer power line technology
Melbourne researchers have invented and patented a way of detecting and locating potential electrical faults along large stretches of power line before they occur.
The invention was inspired by a boyhood interest in electric fishes, such as the black ghost knifefish.
The patented detection system, already being employed by local electricity companies, could help prevent the major discharges that lead to sparking and blackouts, says Dr Alexe Bojovschi, a post-doctoral fellow in electrical and computer engineering at RMIT University.
“Internationally, this is very important. Last year, blackouts left 620 million people in India without power for a couple of days and cost the US economy more than US$120 billion. Electric sparking has been blamed for major bushfires in Australia.”
Alexe is one of 12 early-career scientists unveiling their research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government through the Inspiring Australia initiative.
He says he got the idea on how the electromagnetic signatures of potential faults could travel in the power networks from the ability of electric fishes to transmit and receive electromagnetic radiation.
Our power networks, many of which were built at least 50 years ago, are ageing and deteriorating just at the time when they are being overloaded with new appliances, Alexe says. “All it takes is a salt deposit or a build-up of lichen to provide a conductive path on an insulator, and you enhance the likelihood of electrical discharges.”
The patented wireless sensing technology can be mounted to the power poles to detect the discharge signature in the power network. The sensors can be used to locate the fault point by translating the time of arrival of the signature into a measure of distance.
Alexe and his project managers Associate Professors Alan Wong and Wayne Rowe have established a company, IND Technology (www.ind-technology.com.au), to commercialise the system.
At present, IND Technology is offering the technology as an early-fault-detection service to electricity companies in Victoria online 24 hours a day. “The system provides a dynamic picture of the health of their power networks,” Alexe says. “But this is a worldwide issue, so the company has the potential to expand globally.”
For interviews:
- Niall Byrne, 0417 131 977, niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
Tiny fossils link ‘old bastard’ marsupials to South America and Africa
Two tiny fossils are prompting an overhaul of theories about marsupial evolution after they revealed unexpected links to South America – and possibly Africa.
The two fragments are set to overturn the conventional theory about the evolution of marsupials, which holds that there was a single migration from the part of the Gondwana ‘supercontinent’ that became South America to the part that became Australia.
For more details, contact Niall on niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0417 131 977.
Worms reveal link between dementia gene and ageing
The discovery of a link between a specific gene and ageing in a species of worm could reveal valuable lessons for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
The discovery, by Sydney University PhD candidate Yee Lian Chew, shows that the levels of a specific gene – called ‘tau’, and present also in humans – not only hastens age-related
changes in worms’ brains but also shortens their lives.
Yee Lian says that her findings – together with related experiments on mice and other models – could be very important for future Alzheimer’s Disease treatments.
For more details, contact Niall on niall@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0417 131 977.
Mixing drugs and alcohol for better asthma inhalers
More details at freshscience.org.au/2013/asthma-inhaler
Asthma inhalers could soon become much more effective, thanks to a clever new way of making the particles they deliver invented by a Melbourne chemical engineer and his team.
Current puffer designs and typical size ranges of particles mean a large portion of the medication propelled into a patient’s throat remains there. Only a fraction reaches the lungs.
But Monash University lecturer Dr Meng Wai Woo and his team have now developed a method of making ultra-fine particles, which will make drug delivery much more consistent and efficient.
Later this week at Fresh Science…
Twelve early-career scientists are unveiling their research to the public for the first time this week at Fresh Science, a national program sponsored by the Australian Government through the Inspiring Australia initiative.
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