Koo-koo-kaa-kaa, crawk, howl… nationwide project to proclaim Australia’s favourite call of the wild.

Media contacts: Laura Boland, laura@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0408 166 426; or Tanya Ha, tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863.

Participate at: www.abc.net.au/sounds from 31 July.

Do you love the summer night sounds of cicadas? Or the outback howl of dingoes? Are you intrigued by the lyrebird’s mimicry or the mating croaks of frisky frogs?

The search is on to find our most-loved Aussie animal sound. This National Science Week, ABC Science wants people to go online to eavesdrop on the animal kingdom, explore the wonder and science of bioacoustics, and vote for their favourite call of the wild.

“Bioacoustics – the study of the sounds of wildlife – is really important for science,” says ecologist and science communicator Dr Jen Martin.

Daily alerts

• Friday:
  • Paranoid plants, productive sheep, queen bees, wheat, barley, rice, bin chickens, flower and fruit yield
  • Antidepressants, bowel cancer, ancient DNA, liver, heart, short stature, and Indigenous inequity
• Thursday: Bin chickens; platypus threat; bilby poo; isolated koalas; sex changing fish
• Wednesday: Are bin chickens spreading Japanese encephalitis?; A prize for nonsense and quality control
• Tuesday:
  • Stuttering Gene found; fast living killifish reverse muscle wasting; solving cold cases; concerns about gene testing and genomic medicine.
  • Fast living killifish reverse muscle wasting. Could we?
  • Are we ready for gene testing?
• Monday: Teeth reveal missing slavery stories; who owns and benefits from DNA; capturing the Tree of Life, Tiger genetics, prostate DNA
• Sunday: From $3 billion genome to the $1,000 genome. Tomorrow: your code on your phone?

Media releases

• Are bin chickens spreading Japanese encephalitis?
• A prize for nonsense and quality control
• Precision medicine for Indigenous communities
• Transforming Melbourne, transforming the world
• Media welcome – International Congress of Genetics

Agricultural genetic stories from the International Congress of Genetics in Melbourne.

• A genomic future for Australian sheep?
• Paranoid plants: conflict in the immune system
• Australia’s wild relatives key to climate adaption
• Fruit and flower yield influenced by ‘shoot branch architecture’.
• Queen bee larvae need more TLC
• Beneficial insects develop insecticide resistance – and that’s not a good thing. 
• Barley loses diversity, wheat doesn’t
• OzWheat reveals which wheat genes to edit
• Improving rice nutrition: zinc, iron, beta carotene
• Are bin chickens spreading Japanese encephalitis?

Read on for more information about each story.

Friday at the Genetics Congress

• Inequity in genomic health for Indigenous Australians
• New guidelines released for achondroplasia, the most common form of disproportionate short stature
• Repatriation of remains and land management: Who owns ancient DNA and its story of deep history?
• The genomics of a liver or heart
• A genetic test to choose the right antidepressant
• “Māu Tēnā Kīwai o te Kete, Māku Tēnei:” Early detection of bowel cancer for Māori population

Genetic health stories from the International Congress of Genetics in Melbourne. Read on for more information about each story.

Thursday at the Genetics Congress

• Are bin chickens spreading Japanese encephalitis? Anjana Karawita from CSIRO says the native ibis could be implicated in the spread.
• Platypus viability threatened by dams, genetic analysis reveals. Luis Mijangos, Bill Sherwin, and colleagues from UNSW show how dams are separating our platypus populations.
• Bilby scats, DNA and Indigenous kids: Carolyn Hogg from University of Sydney has designed a scat-based test to assess the health of endangered bilby populations.
• Victorian koalas are more isolated, according to University of Sydney researchers, as bushfires take their toll.
• What got into your dog? Lucas Huggins has devised a portable test to detect a wide range of parasite infections simultaneously.
• What are the causes and consequences of sex reversal in fish? Unexpected impacts of a warming world.

More on all these stories below.

mRNA ‘quality control’ pioneers Allan Jacobson and Lynne Maquat receive US$500,000 Gruber Genetics Prize in Melbourne

Every plant, every animal, every human depends on mRNA to accurately translate the DNA of their genetic code into proteins, the building blocks of life.

Are bin chickens spreading deadly diseases? Anjana Karawita and his colleagues at CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong are investigating the role of Australian ibis in spreading Japanese encephalitis virus

By 2100, the impacts of sea level rise and storm surge are predicted to result in a $442 billion economic loss according to a study led by the University of Melbourne and commissioned by the Victorian Marine & Coastal Council and Life Saving Victoria.

• Impacts on land and property along the Victorian coast are predicted to reach a loss of $337 billion, with a further loss of up to $105 billion for wetlands.
• More than 80,000 existing residential, commercial, and industrial properties covering 45,000 hectares will be impacted.
• 144,000 hectares of coastal reserves will be affected as will 288,000 hectares of Victoria’s wetlands.
• The cumulative impact will be about $40 billion by 2040. Without action, it will grow ten times as 2100 approaches.
• Appropriate action over the next decade will dramatically reduce the long-term costs.

71 per cent of Australians believe that gene testing does not necessarily contribute to effective cancer or disease treatment according to a survey by Lonergan on behalf of gene technology company, Illumina.