City gardens often don’t have the right types of food and homes for native bees and flies, with knock-on effects for our gardens and for biodiversity. Urban ecologist Katherine Berthon from RMIT University found that only 43% of flowers in the Melbourne city gardens she studied were being used by bees and other pollinating insects.
Research conducted by former Fresh Science participant Dale Robinson has been covered in the 2020-2021 edition of Defence Science and Technology’s Outlook magazine. Dr Robinson is a biomedical engineer at the University of Melbourne. Minimising severe injury from blast events on military vehicles Blast events inflicted on military vehicles are a consistent threat in contemporary…
Researchers have been able to pick a water leak within 1 percent of its location within seconds. Artificial intelligence combined with pressure waves has been used to find faults in major water pipelines faster and more cheaply than existing methods. Jessica Bohorquez and researchers from the University of Adelaide have developed a system that utilises…
Using a face mask, Adelaide researchers have a new way to detect a major hidden equine health issue. Up to 80 percent of horses – including racehorses and showjumpers – suffer from a form of asthma that affects their performance and wellbeing. Researchers led by veterinarian Surita Du Preez from the University of Adelaide are…
A new type of concrete that is made out of waste materials and can bend under load has been developed by researchers from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. This material, which incorporates industrial waste products such as fly ash produced by coal-fired power stations, is especially suited for construction in earthquake zones –…
Using zircon crystals, researchers have discovered the route of a massive ancient river that could help find new reservoirs of fossil fuels and suggest how modern rivers might change over time. More than two thirds of the worlds’ major cities are located in coastal deltas. How they change over time can impact communities that live…
Nanotech technique could revolutionise neurological treatments. Light could replace invasive techniques to measure brain temperature– eliminating the need to place a thermometer in the brain when treating a range of neurological disorders. Researchers from Victoria’ Swinburne University have teamed up with Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain and Stanford University in the US to develop…
The iconic Australian tea tree (Melaleuca decora) is more vulnerable than native eucalypt species to extreme temperature and moisture stress, Western Sydney University researcher Anne Griebel has discovered. To make the finding, Anne and colleagues fitted instruments that measure the exchange of carbon, water and heat at 10 times a second to an extendable mast…
Animals play critical roles in ecosystems, but they are broadly overlooked in assessments of mine site restoration success says Sophie Cross, an ecologist at Curtin University. She tracked Australia’s largest lizard species, the perentie, using VHF radio and GPS tracking, and walked hundreds of kilometres through unmined and restoration bushland on a mine site in…
We can’t easily monitor the health of plants, by the time we see that they’re sick it’s usually too late to save that. That’s an issue for your house plants, a field of wheat, orchards and plantations. Karina Khambatta has developed a way to use the waxy surface of leaves to monitor their health. Currently…