Maths model helps rangers protect national parks, despite tight budgets.
Mathematics can help reduce poaching and illegal logging in national parks, researchers have found.
A team of applied mathematicians including Macquarie University’s David Arnold has developed an algorithm that predicts which areas inside park boundaries offer the greatest possibilities for criminals – and how rangers can most efficiently combat them.
[continue reading…]Researchers close in on an objective measure for physical distress.
A new microscope-based method for detecting a particular molecule in the spinal cord could help lead to an accurate and independent universal pain scale, research from Australia’s Macquarie University suggests.
An accurate way of measuring pain is of critical importance because at present degrees of discomfort are generally assessed by asking a patient to estimate pain on a one-to-10 scale. The situation is even more acute in the treatment of babies, the very old and animals, where speech is absent.
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UWA, Curtin university and Perth zoo researchers have discovered that Australian endangered ghost bats in the Pilbara (WA) eat over 46 different species.
Its diet is very diverse ranging from small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
Researchers used a new approach by combining two methodologies: DNA analysis of faecal pellets and classification of dried food remains.
They receive their name due to their pale grey colour and “ghostly” appearance. They are top-level predators and very important for the ecosystem.
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Bright ideas and beer combine when Australia’s Fresh Scientists strut their stuff at 2019’s Fresh Science Pub Nights.
Fresh Science is annual competition that invites early-career scientists to present their fascinating research in the time it takes for a sparkler to burn out.
[continue reading…]You can read more about each of these stories below, including details of scientists to interview.
Kind regards,
Niall
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.
Researchers have designed a new way to grow nose cells in the lab heralding hope for sufferers of spinal cord injuries, including those who are wheelchair bound.
Griffith University’s Mr Mo Chen grew nose nerve cells in the lab, which can treat mice with spinal cord injuries.
“My colleagues placed the nerve cells into mice that were suffering from spinal cord injuries,” says Mr Chen. “The mice quickly recovered and could walk again, but we’re still working on improving the therapy”.
One of the difficulties of this kind of research is growing cells effectively in the laboratory.
“Our bodies are 3D not 2D so the best way of growing cells in the lab, is 3D,” says Mr Chen. “With our method we can grow healthier 3D cultures in a shorter time.”
A remote WA coral reef has recovered from mass bleaching in just twelve years – surprising scientists with its resilience. The study published overnight in the journal Science challenges our assumptions about reef recovery. Photos and video available and more information below.
Colour-changing dragons will reveal their secrets in a half million dollar study launching on Sunday. The tricks of bearded dragons could change medicine and solar energy. [continue reading…]
Embargo: 10.30 am Monday 18 February
Melbourne researchers are turning skin cells into eye cells to help them understand an incurable form of blindness that affects one in seven older Australians.
Hear more on Monday at the launch of the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia, a new charity that is supporting stem cell research, and informing the community of the potential opportunities, and the present dangers of stem cell medicine.
Meet Dr Kathryn Davidson, a young American stem cell researcher who’s coming to work at the Centre for Eye Research Australia.
Meet a patient the research could help and see the world through her eyes.
Also in this bulletin: the end of poverty; the killer on our doorstep; and science in pubs from Broome to Hobart.
Fresh Science takes young researchers with no media experience and turns them into spokespeople for science.
More than 60 early-career researchers get a taste of life in the limelight, with a day of media training and a public event in their home state.
Then we throw the media spotlight on 12 of the best and brightest young scientists, putting them through a four-day media bootcamp in Melbourne.
Read on for more information, or jump straight to the nomination page.
At the national physics congress this week:
And from Fresh Science
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