Posts tagged as:

WA

Six-legged miners strike gold

10 December 2012

Termites and ants are stockpiling gold in their mounds, new CSIRO research has found. Australia’s smallest and most numerous mining prospectors can show us where new gold deposits are.

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Crocodile eggs measure river health

12 November 2012

A new land management tool using Aboriginal knowledge Ngan’gi speakers know it’s time to look for freshwater crocodile eggs when the red kapok trees near the Northern Territory’s Daly River burst into flower. This can occur at a different time each year, but the environmental link is solid. A Darwin-based scientist has converted this link [...]

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A little lupin improves the bread of life

12 June 2011

In flour it reduces heart disease risk say Melbourne and WA researchers You can lower your risk of heart disease significantly, just by using flour containing 40 per cent lupin beans in the place of conventional wholemeal flour, according to research by Victoria University dietitian Dr Regina Belski and colleagues from the University of Western [...]

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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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Ancient eruptions warn of climate change and mass extinctions

4 June 2009

A Curtin University researcher has shown that some ancient periods of massive eruptions released green house gases so quickly that they caused rapid climate change and mass extinctions. But today we are adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere faster than even the most rapid sequence of eruptions. “We have carefully dated minerals contained in the [...]

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Broken backs – can we improve assessment for spinal osteoporosis?

19 June 2008

A technique which measures the variation in bone density within spinal bones may improve the ability to identify people at special risk of breaking their backs, Curtin University physiotherapist Andrew Briggs has found.

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Taking the Bull Out of the China Shop

14 August 2006

Research by a Perth forensic scientist is helping to stem the flood of forgeries entering the international antiques market. A Perth forensic scientist is employing lasers to help trace pottery back to the kiln site of its production, thus exposing ceramic forgeries, a multi-million dollar criminal business. Emma Bartle from the Centre for Forensic Science [...]

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The sport of lizards

31 August 2004

Sporting technology used on lizards to watch them run. The same camera that analysed the bowling action of Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan is being used to study how dragon lizards can escape a bigger, faster predator, the goanna. “It’s all in the running action,” says zoologist, Chris Clemente from the University of Western Australia. [...]

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Locating the trigger to conservation

31 August 2004

A treasure hunt through Western Australia’s south-west has uncovered more than 20 new trigger plant species – small plants that catapult pollen onto visiting insects. Perth botanist Dr Juliet Wege made her findings whilst researching at the Department of Conservation and Land Management, the study funded by the Australian Biological Resources Study. Juliet has formally [...]

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Saving orang-utans

23 August 2001

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.  

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Breastfeeding is not a letdown!

2 August 2001

More mums can breast feed successfully First images of the breast in action 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 [...]

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Fossil molecules, oil, dinosaurs and the weather

15 May 2000

Fossil molecules in rocks obtained from mining operations have unlocked dramatic secrets of immense fluctuations in climate and sea level in prehistoric times. The method charts climate changes through history and paints a new picture of the Earth’s vegetation cover.  It is used by the petroleum industry to identify likely drilling sites for oil wells.

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Humanoid robots “a thing of the past”

6 May 2000

Robots that look and behave like humans are proving too complicated and expensive to use in industry, and are being replaced by devices called ‘modular manipulators’. The manipulator is made up of modules, with each module performing one simple task, like putting a bolt in place or twisting it, or bringing two components together.  The [...]

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Making Mountains: the Wonderful World of Plate Collision

6 May 1999

Searching for oil and gas on Australia’s North West Shelf using a perspex tank full of honey, putty, sand and cake sprinkles may seem a little bizarre, but University of WA geologist Dr. Myra Keep believes it may help us locate where oil fields may or may not be.

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Voyage to the Centre of the Earth – by Computer

10 May 1998

Geologists fascinated by the scum of the earth: giant computer models have replaced Jules Verne’s fevered imagination in producing images of the centre of the Earth.

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