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Past Fresh Scientists
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Fresh Scientists from Darwin, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Hobart, Geelong, Canberra and Melbourne presented these stories at ScienceNOW! from 23 to 26 August 2001 in Melbourne. Each of the researchers had been selected by national competition to present their work at daily press conferences and to the public for the first time. The 2001 Fresh Scientists were:With Ross River virus infecting an increasing number of Australians each year (5000-7000 cases), researchers are seeking to better understand how it operates. New research conducted by Dr Surendran Mahalingam and Dr Brett Lidbury firstly at the University of Canberra and now at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (Australian National University) has found that the Ross River virus has developed an ingenious strategy for avoiding the body’s natural immune system.
Australian researchers have made a break through in developing a quantum computer – a computer so powerful that it calculates in seconds what it would take current supercomputers billions of years. University of New South Wales PhD student, Jeremy O’Brien is part of a research team at the Centre for Quantum Computer Technology who have put a row of single phosphorus atoms onto a silicon surface.
Mothers
can be concerned that they do not have a letdown when breastfeeding, so their
babies cannot get enough milk. For
the first time, Donna Ramsey from The University of Western Australia has used
ultrasound to capture moving images of letdown in the breast while a baby is
breastfeeding. The work will is
helping rewrite the anatomy of the breast.
Kristen
Warren from Murdoch University in WA is working to save Indonesia’s
orang-utans. Many captive orang-utans couldn’t be released into the wild
because they appeared to be carrying a human hepatitis B virus. Kristen showed
the virus is a new, orang-utan virus – a discovery essential to conservation
of dwindling wild populations.
Global warming of the earth’s climate has led to the expansion of shrubs and forests in the Arctic that will further warm the atmosphere, according to Monash University researcher, Dr Jason Beringer. Dr Beringer worked in Alaska over the past two summers with a team of scientists from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Fossil molecules from cells of bacteria and algae many millions of years old may hold the key to reading life signals from extra terrestrial sources, according to research conducted by AGSO – Geoscience Australia researcher, Dr Graham Logan from Canberra. Some molecules within living cells fossilise very well and can reveal evidence of past life, environments and geothermal processes. Researchers at the University of Sydney have come one step closer to discovering what really goes wrong in asthma. During asthma attacks the muscle, which surrounds the airway, passages contracts. In the 1 in 10 adults and 1 in 4 children in Australia who have asthma, these attacks may occur because there is more muscle. Dr Peter Johnson in the Department of Pharmacology has been working on why this is so.
There are up to 20 million ants from 100 species living in any single hectare of the Australian bush. According to Ben Hoffman, from CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Darwin, ants indicate the health of the Australian environment.
Laboratory detective work has helped to identify the real culprit in causing illness from eating fish in southern and eastern Australia. Oil analysis of suspect fillets by Ben Mooney and colleagues of CSIRO Marine Research found the presumed culprit, rudderfish, innocent of all charges.
A new drug, known as AM-36, has been
developed to minimise brain damage and physical impairments caused by strokes -
Australia’s leading cause of disability - by Dr Jennifer Callaway, a stroke
researcher, and her colleagues at Monash University.
A handheld device that can instantly determine whether a suspicious white substance is an illicit drug – or something innocuous like flour - has been developed by Simon Lewis at Deakin University, Geelong. Melbourne researcher, Matthew Jeffrey, has developed a new technique that replaces cyanide with a non-toxic chemical to recover gold from ore bodies. The non-toxic chemical, known as thiosulfate, is commonly used as a fixative in photography.
A radical new
theory proposes that we evolved from a virus that infected ancient bacteria-like
organisms. It’s the work of Dr Philip Bell of Macquarie University. He
proposes that that the nucleus, the structure that contains the blueprint for
the development of all complex organisms, has evolved from a virus
In break-through research, researchers have identified genes in mice that appear to be important in the spread of breast cancer to bones. Australian women have a one in eleven life-time risk of developing breast cancer. For many women, early diagnosis and treatment provides a complete cure. However, if the tumour spreads, the disease is hard to control and the treatment options are limited. PhD student with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Erica Sloan, said her research aimed to identify the genes that allow a breast tumour cell to spread to bone.
Individual humans differ on what makes somebody attractive, but how widespread and important are individual differences in mating preferences among animals? Rob Brooks from the University of New South Wales has shown that female guppies consider some male traits universally attractive and differ on the importance of others.
A naturally occurring bacteria has been shown to control pests that attack cereal crops such as wheat, and at the same time boost the growth of crops. The research conducted by Flinders University PhD student, Justin Coombs, found the bacteria in a place it had never been discovered before - the tissues of cereal crop plants.
About ScienceNOW!ScienceNOW! brings leading Australian science to the media, students and the public. Sixteen scientists, selected by national competition, talk to the media and public daily from 23 to 26 August in Melbourne. The best presentations will win a British Council study tour to the UK or an ABC Science Media Fellowship. ScienceNOW! is sponsored by the Victorian Department of State and Regional Development and the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
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Media contacts:
Niall Byrne 0417 131 977 and Sarah Brooker 0413 332 489
Fresh Science is managed by Science in Public and ASN Events
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