Posts tagged as:

2010

Bacteria munch up alumina impurities

19 July 2010

Previously unknown species of naturally-occurring bacteria have the potential to save the alumina and aluminium industries millions of dollars while helping to reduce their impact on the environment, microbiologist Naomi McSweeney has found in a collaborative project between Alcoa, CSIRO and the University of Western Australia.

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Ultrasound puts water back in the Murray Darling…

12 July 2010

You may not be able to squeeze blood out of a stone but—by applying the right amount of ultrasound during processing—Jianhua (Jason) Du and colleagues from the University of South Australia have been able to squeeze a considerable amount of fresh water from mining waste.

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As good as an atomic clock

7 July 2010

Mobile phones, air traffic control, smart grids, and online gaming are all critically dependent on accurate timing across the internet. That’s why it’s so important that University of Melbourne electronic engineer Julien Ridoux and his colleagues have developed a completely new, free, software clock accurate to within a millionth of a second.

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Nano-sand to improve lotions and cosmetics

5 July 2010

Longer shelf lives for creams and lotions, and better control over how and where the active ingredients they contain are released. Those are the potential benefits of using specially engineered nanoparticles—so small that about a thousand of them could fit across a human hair—to create the emulsions on which such cosmetic and therapeutic products are based, says Nasrin Eskander from the University of South Australia’s Ian Wark Research Institute.

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Print your own lasers, lights and TV screens

30 June 2010

Imagine printing your own room lighting, lasers, or solar cells from inks you buy at the local newsagent. Jacek Jasieniak and his colleagues at CSIRO, the University of Melbourne and the University of Padua in Italy, have moved a step closer to such a future, by developing liquid inks to print devices known as quantum dots.

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Aussie lizard reveals cancer secrets

28 June 2010

A compound produced by a pregnant lizard may provide important information on the origins and treatment of cancer in humans, according to zoologist Bridget Murphy from the University of Sydney, who discovered the protein, which is pivotal to the development of the lizard placenta.

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Cling wrap captures CO2

15 June 2010

High tech cling wraps that ‘sieve out’ carbon dioxide from waste gases can help save the world, says Melbourne University chemical engineer, Colin Scholes who developed the technology. The membranes can be fitted to existing chimneys where they capture CO2 for removal and storage. They are already being tested on brown coal power stations in [...]

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Joint reversal eases arthritis

15 June 2010

A shoulder-joint implant, with the ball and socket on the opposite bones from nature, can significantly improve the quality of life of patients with severe arthritis and tendon tears, says medical engineer David Ackland from the University of Melbourne.

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Add fertiliser to fight weeds

14 June 2010

Feeding weeds fertiliser sounds like exactly the wrong thing, if you want to get rid of them, but Jennifer Firn of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems has been doing just that—to control African lovegrass, an invasive species of rangelands in every Australian state.

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Insulin that doesn’t need a fridge or a needle?

12 June 2010

A young Monash University chemist and her colleagues have successfully strengthened insulin’s chemical structure without affecting its activity. Their new insulin won’t require refrigeration.

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Electric Plastics: Better bionic eyes and ears

10 June 2010

A young UNSW researcher has created conductive bioplastics which will transform the performance of bionic devices such as the cochlear ear and the proposed bionic eye.

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Waste is a waste: Pigs reduce the burden on the oceans

10 June 2010

A biotechnologist from the South Australian Research and Development Institute has taken using “everything but the pig’s squeal” to new lengths. Through clever recycling of pig waste, Andrew Ward has been able to produce feed for aquaculture, water for irrigation, and methane for energy. His ‘waste food chain’ can be applied to breweries, wineries and [...]

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How do black holes eat?

8 June 2010

Using galaxies as cosmic telescopes to reveal the diets of the black holes at the heart of every galaxy. Anglo-Australian Observatory Astronomer David Floyd has been able to observe matter falling into a super-massive black hole – one of the Universe’s brightest objects.

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Silk microchip for rapid medical testing

8 June 2010

Silk could provide a sophisticated new way of monitoring health, Peter Domachuk, a physicist from the University of Sydney, has found.

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Wind – the key factor for dangerous bushfire weather

8 June 2010

Wind speed plays a bigger role than temperature in creating dangerous conditions for bushfires, says Dr Andrew Dowdy a physicist from the Bureau of Meteorology.

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Measuring the climate on ice

6 June 2010

Young Tasmanian electrical engineer Natalia Galin has turned US technology into a robust helicopter-borne radar system that can accurately measure the thickness of snow on polar sea ice. Her work will improve NASA’s satellite measurements of what’s happening to the Antarctic sea ice, and will contribute to more accurate climate models. She will present her [...]

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