Stories of Australian Science

2014 Stories of Australian Science

Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014 Inside: science heroes, inventions, discoveries and ideas

Our Prime Minister recognises the best of the best 3 Our thanks to the following organisations for their Inspiring Australia: sharing science with all Australians 5 ﬁnancial support: Advanced Instrumentation and Astronomy: mega-black holes, a new Technology Centre at ANU radio telescope, clearing up space debris, testing spacecraft indoors 6 Australian Institute of Marine Science

Australian Regenerative Medicine For Women in Science: serial killers, how Institute, Monash University India and Australia split, tracking typhoid, colour-changing dragons 8 CSIRO

A healthy start in life: glucosamine and fertility, CSL Limited inheriting obesity, preterm teenagers, gastro vaccines 10 Australian Government’s Department of Industry Protecting and using marine resources: clearing harms the Reef, ocean acidification threatens EMBL Australia sea creatures, finding fresh water under the sea 12 Inspiring Australia Copying nature: dragonfly wings guide superbug L’Oréal Australia research, light manipulation inspired by sea snails 13 National Centre for Groundwater Regenerative medicine: how to regrow a limb, Research and Training, your first hug, stem cells remember their origins 14 Flinders University

Robinson Research Institute, Eureka Prizes: mapping with Zebedee, mystery University of Adelaide gut immune cells, and more 16 Swinburne University of Technology Diamonds peer into living cells, a test to beat TB, protecting ships: 2013 highlights from State and Victorian Life Sciences academy awards 18 Computation Initiative

Protecting footballers’ knees, building on mud, saving beer, sticky ear mystery and other Fresh Science stories 20 Welcome to Stories of Australian Science 2014 Australian ideas are transforming lives around the world: the bionic ear, cervical cancer vaccines, gum that repairs teeth, the astronomical ideas that make Wi-Fi fast and reliable and many more.

In this collection of stories you’ll hear about the next generation of ideas and discoveries that will change the world: from big ecology to quantum computing; from vast water reserves to tracking typhoid; from growing new limbs to watching serial killer cells. Sarah Brooker Niall Byrne We’ve included winners of many of Australia’s science prizes: people Managing Director Creative Director whose discoveries and inventions are transforming mining, medicine, maths and more. And we’ve included the best young researchers from Fresh Science. Watch these young achievers in coming years. Science is a driver of economic, social and cultural change. We encourage fair reporting of these stories. It tells us how our world is changing, and what we can do about it, Full permissions and more stories at www.scienceinpublic.com.au if we choose to. We welcome your feedback on the stories by email and online. But science needs stories and it needs heroes to tell those stories in order to engage with the wider community. Science in Public @scienceinpublic We believe this collection of stories helps. It’s a taste of the best of Australian science. All the stories are online at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/stories. Please feel free to share the stories with your own audiences. Everything is cleared for reproduction and you can search through hundreds of yarns from our past collections. Enjoy this dose of science!

Science in Public Pty Ltd Concept/editor in chief Editing and writing Design 82 Hudsons Road Niall Byrne Chris Lassig www.saltcreative.com.au (PO Box 2076) Project coordination Jane Lyons Print Spotswood Victoria 3015 Australia Margie Beilharz Melissa Trudinger immij Margie Beilharz Tim Thwaites Tel: +61 (3) 9398 1416 Samantha Harris-Wetherbee [email protected] Science in Public is based in Melbourne, Australia. Laura Boland We help scientists present their work in public space. www.scienceinpublic.com.au

1 PHOTOS: FRONT COVER: LEFT: ANGELA CREAN’S RESEARCH ON SEA SQUIRTS MAY ASSIST IVF METHODS, CREDIT: UNSW, SEE P 20; RIGHT: (TOP) BARLEY IS VULNERABLE TO LEAF RUST, CREDIT: LEE HICKEY, SEE P 21; (BOTTOM) VACCINATING AGAINST ROTAVIRUS IN YEMEN. THE VIRUS WAS FIRST DESCRIBED IN MELBOURNE BY RUTH BISHOP, CREDIT: AMIRA AL-SHARIF/GAVI/2012, SEE P 11. OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP: RESISTANT STARCH IN THE DIET MAY PROTECT MILLIONS OF CHILDREN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES FROM DIARRHOEA, SEE PAGE 18; BOTTOM: AUSTRALIA’S ANZAC FRIGATES ARE BEING UPGRADED WITH IAN CROSER’S RADAR TECHNOLOGY TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST MISSILES, CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE DEPARTMENT THIS PAGE: LEFT: A 3D LASER SCAN BY ZEBEDEE OF THE WRECK OF THE HMQS GAYUNDAH, AT REDCLIFFE, QUEENSLAND, CREDIT: CSIRO, SEE PAGE 16; MIDDLE: (TOP) ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF A STAR BEING PULLED INTO A BLACK HOLE, CREDIT: GABRIEL PEREZ DIAZ, SEE P 7; (BOTTOM) SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE IMAGE OF DISRUPTED STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS CELLS ON A DRAGONFLY WING, CREDIT: SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, SEE PAGE 13; RIGHT: LAND CLEARING AND ACIDIFICATION THREATEN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF, SEE PAGE 12. Turning a nation on to science

2 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science

Since 2000 Australia’s Prime Ministers have recognised Terry Speed: Fighting Now at WEHI, Terry applies statistics the best in science. In 2013 our new Prime Minister cancer by the numbers to the fields of genetics and molecular biology. Cancer is a particular focus. Terry Speed doesn’t expect to see Tony Abbott honoured three scientists and two He is developing techniques to sort out headlines reading “Statistician cures teachers including: the thousands of differences between cancer” any time soon. But he knows normal and cancer cells, investigating that maths and stats can help • a man of numbers whose statistical skills ideas to treat cancer more efficiently, researchers understand the underlying and working with the small company have contributed to farming, diamonds, justice causes of cancer and reduce the need Veracyte to create a tool to determine (and the OJ Simpson trial), and now to slashing for surgery. whether your thyroid growth is benign. cancer surgery rates A mathematician and statistician, he has written elegant theoretical Angela Moles: Rocking • a young woman who is overturning ‘zombie papers that almost no-one reads. the ecological boat science’ in ecology by crunching large botanical But he has also testified in court, helped farmers and diamond miners, Until recently, everyone thought that data sets harvested online and from visits to some and given biologists statistical the biologically active candidates for 50 global ecosystems tools to help them cope with the new drugs would mainly be found in genetic revolution. high-biodiversity tropical forests. • the likely creator of the world’s first quantum For his contribution to generating “No,” says plant ecologist Angela computer using silicon. He and his colleagues knowledge using genomics and Moles. “Up in the Arctic tundra are 100-year-old willow trees just a few have already created the critical building related technologies, Terry, head of Bioinformatics at the Walter and centimetres tall. They grow just a few blocks—reading and writing the spin state Eliza Hall Institute of Medical leaves each year and can’t afford to of a single electron. Research (WEHI), was awarded lose them. So, as you get closer to the the 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize poles, the chemical warfare www.industry.gov.au/scienceprizes for Science. intensifies.” At the University of California, She studies thousands of species at Berkeley, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Terry once—by scouring the world’s came across the new microarray computer databases and undertaking technology that simultaneously extensive field trips across jungles, assessed the activity levels of deserts and tundra, assisted by thousands of genes. There he a global army of collaborators— developed statistical analysis and hopes to help predict the impact techniques that are still widely used. of climate change, so that we cope better with its effects.

3 Angela has used data on 450,000 For his intellectual leadership in The idea has snowballed and How bugs stick to species from 40,000 different sites for developing the silicon components to Ric now knows of at least 40 similar our stomachs the first serious analysis of how plant make quantum computing possible, labs in Western Australia. And his James Whisstock and his Monash height varies with latitude, again with Andrea was awarded the 2013 accompanying website, Johnno’s University colleagues have uncovered surprising results. Typically plant Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Science (www.johnnosscience.com), how the bacterium Helicobacter heights decrease with distance from Scientist of the Year. is inspiring thousands of teachers pylori sticks to the stomach lining, the equator, but Angela found a around the world. Assisted by colleague Andrew Dzurak where it can cause ulcers and sudden drop in height at the edges of and others, Andrea has shown how to For their innovations in and sometimes cancer. the tropics, suggesting a complete read information from and write contributions to teaching science, The role of Helicobacter in causing change in growth strategy. information to the spin of a single Sarah and Ric have each received a gastric ulcers was originally For her work in establishing electron, and now to an even more 2013 Prime Minister’s Prize for discovered by Australian Nobel Big Ecology—the study of ecology reliable single phosphorus nucleus. Excellence in Science Teaching. Laureates Barry Marshall and at a global level—Angela was Robin Warren. awarded the 2013 Frank Fenner Prize Motor races and A new job for glass fibres for Life Scientist of the Year. science labs fuel The recent work by James and his While researching the performance of interest in science team was performed using the the optical fibres that are the backbone Australian Synchrotron and showed Andrea Morello: Each year in early July, when its 700 of telecommunications and the Quantum computing how the Helicobacter pylori protein students are on holiday, Townsville internet, Tanya Monro realised that becomes more than SabA interacts with sugars present State High School becomes the they could do much more. just spin on the cells that line the stomach. headquarters for a V8 Supercars race. She’s invented a new class of hollow James received the Science Minister’s People have speculated about the But before and after the race, Sarah or holey fibres using soft glass, which Prize for Life Scientist of the Year in potential of quantum computers for Chapman’s Year 11 science students have thousands of applications as 2006 and has just been awarded decades—how they would make are hard at work, slopping their way sensors: detecting metal fatigue in a $28 million grant to build the ARC child’s play of constructing and through the nearby mangroves and aircraft wings and other structures; Centre of Excellence in Advanced testing new drugs, searching through wading into the neighbouring estuary. monitoring contamination in water Molecular Imaging, which will develop huge amounts of data and ensuring The data they collect is then used by supplies; and a smart bung that new approaches for security of information. the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park monitors wine development while understanding the This scenario may be coming true in a Authority to manage the impact of the it’s still in the barrel. workings of the high-tech basement at the University race on local estuaries. “The students Her latest venture is leadership of a immune system. of New South Wales. are really taken by the idea that they new ARC Centre of Excellence for Andrea Morello and his colleagues at are finding out things nobody else Nanoscale BioPhotonics, which will the ARC Centre of Excellence for knows,” Sarah says. develop her fibres to watch developing Quantum Computation and Sarah relates her science teaching embryos, probe immune signals, Communication Technology are to daily life, and to her audience, and explore plaque in our arteries. developing the building blocks of a such as by investigating the elasticity Tanya won the Malcolm McIntosh quantum computer, and they expect of jelly snakes and the Prize for Physical Scientist of the to build a working prototype within thermochemistry of chewing gum. Year in 2008. a few years. What’s more, it will Richard (Ric) Johnson has reinvented be constructed out of the same the primary school science lab, inexpensive, abundant material used complete with overhead pterosaurs to build classical computers—silicon. and a solar BBQ at Rostrata Primary Their studies place Australia in the School in Perth. “It worked from lead in the race to construct one of the very beginning,” Ric says. the game-changing technologies of “Some of the boys became so this century. excited they had to go to the toilet halfway through class. And it’s just got better and better.”

44 PHOTOS: PAGE 2: TOP: ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF THE GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE, WHICH IS USING AUSTRALIAN ADAPTIVE OPTICS TECHNOLOGY, CREDIT: GMTO CORPORATION, SEE P 6; BOTTOM: ANGELA MOLES HAS STUDIED ECOSYSTEMS FROM TUNDRA TO DESERTS; GLUCOSAMINE MAY AFFECT FERTILITY, CREDIT: ROBINSON RESEARCH INSTITUTE, SEE P 10. PAGE 3: (TOP) PRIME MINISTER TONY ABBOTT WITH THE WINNERS OF HIS SCIENCE PRIZES: L-R: ANGELA MOLES, ANDREA MORELLO, TONY ABBOTT, TERRY SPEED, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY BOB BALDWIN, SARAH CHAPMAN, RIC JOHNSON, CREDIT: PRIME MINISTER’S PRIZES FOR SCIENCE/BEARCAGE; BOTTOM: (LEFT) TERRY SPEED, CREDIT: WEHI; (RIGHT) ANGELA MOLES, CREDIT: UNSW/PETER MORRIS. Citizen science: eyes in “The public often don’t get the science Inspiring Australia the skies and on the seas of climate change modelling,” says Gretta Pecl, Redmap founder Australian citizen scientists are and senior research fellow at the helping to catch shooting stars in the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Over the past three years Australia has vast skies of outback Australia and to Studies at the University of Tasmania. established and advanced a unique track the impact of climate change on national engagement model—working species in our warming oceans. “But people understand the simple idea that fish that prefer warmer with governments at all levels, with Curtin University’s Fireballs in the waters might move farther south science sector agencies and organisations, Sky project invites people to use a if the oceans are warming.” as well as industry. smartphone app to record and submit the time, location, The involvement of citizen The results include: trajectory and appearance of scientists enables the project to meteors they spot. cover a huge area, and helps identify • a cohesive national strategy for science and prioritise locations and species By triangulating these reports communication for future research. The two projects with observations from an array are amongst some 63 backed by • three leadership bodies across science of cameras in remote Western Inspiring Australia. and governments and South Australia, scientists can try to determine where the meteorite may • state and territory-based science have come from and where it landed. National Science Week communication networks The participants get to experience the National Science Week is one of the • strategic approaches to six areas of highs (and occasional lows) of highlights of the program. From desert industry-focused and regionally based scientific endeavour, as well as ecology in Alice Springs to slow food science engagement learning about planetary science. at a Tasmanian radio telescope, National Science Week gives “It’s about giving the public • increased industry-government engagement Australians creative ways to celebrate access to something not normally and learn about science, technology, • a common framework of principles for accessible—the workings of a real, mathematics and engineering. With science communication initiatives legitimate research project,” says almost 1.6 million people taking part Gemma Mullaney, Geoscience • development of an evidence base for the in over 1800 events, it is the country’s Outreach Officer at Curtin University. assessment of science engagement activities biggest festival. Meanwhile, marine biologists working in Australia The 17th National Science Week will on the Range Extension Database and take place from 16 to 24 August 2014. • projects across Australia developing and Mapping project—or ‘Redmap’—are strengthening science-media relationships tracking shifts in species distributions Read more at www.inspiringaustralia.net.au and skills using photographs taken by divers and fishers. Redmap was inspired by a and www.scienceweek.net.au. • increased youth, Indigenous, regional and finding that 80 per cent of Tasmanian remote Australian science engagement. rock lobster fishers didn’t consider climate change a problem, despite Through these achievements, the Inspiring observing its effects on the marine Australia initiative is ensuring that a strong platform environment. exists from which quality coordinated science engagement activity can take place. With the ongoing support of the science communication sector, we are building a future for Australia inspired by science.

5 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: (TOP) RIC JOHNSON, CREDIT: PRIME MINISTER’S PRIZES FOR SCIENCE/BEARCAGE; SARAH CHAPMAN AND STUDENT, CREDIT: PRIME MINISTER’S PRIZES FOR SCIENCE/BEARCAGE; (BOTTOM) ANDREA MORELLO, CREDIT: UNSW/PETER MORRIS. THIS PAGE: KEVIN WILSON RECORDED A RED EMPEROR 300 KM FURTHER SOUTH THAN PREVIOUSLY RECORDED, CREDIT: KEVIN WILSON; LONG-EXPOSURE OF STAR TRAILS AND A METEOR FIREBALL, CREDIT: DESERT FIREBALL NETWORK; TANYA MONRO, CREDIT: JENNIE GROOM. INSET: FIREBALLS IN THE SKY APP, CREDIT: DESERT FIREBALL NETWORK. No more twinkle, junk Just as its namesake Ferdinand and stars, now we know Magellan navigated by the stars 500 just where you are years ago, this new telescope will use Technology that ‘de-twinkles’ stars is four laser guide stars to constantly being used to pinpoint manmade adjust its mirrors, making it more space junk and avoid devastating powerful than even the Hubble Space collisions like those dramatised in the Telescope. movie Gravity. “It will be able to see planets orbiting Australian company Electro Optic other stars and even measure the Systems, based on Mount Stromlo in makeup of their atmosphere,” says Canberra, is using adaptive optics and François. “It’s very exciting.” pulsing lasers to locate detritus too For more information: small for conventional radar. Australian National University, Ultimately, the company hopes to use François Rigaut, similar lasers to remove the debris Tel: +61 2 6125 0210, from orbit. [email protected] Adaptive optics helps the pulsing www.rsaa.anu.edu.au lasers to cut through the Earth’s atmospheric turbulence, which distorts Wombat puts electric and scatters light, by using a second rocket through its paces orange-coloured laser to illuminate sodium atoms in the upper A new breed of spacecraft engine is atmosphere. undergoing its first indoor test flights, thanks to a giant ‘wombat’ on the This creates an artificial ‘guide star’, outskirts of Australia’s capital. or a bright spot of known size and position, which can be used to The Australian National University has track and compensate for the developed a plasma thruster that uses atmospheric distortions. electricity to ionise gas and produce thrust, allowing the engine to run for “Normally the beam spreads out to longer and with much less fuel than a 10 or 20 metres in width, but with chemical rocket. adaptive optics we can focus it to within a metre,” says François Rigaut, This makes it ideal for manoeuvring head of the Adaptive Optics Group at satellites in orbit, or for extended the Australian National University that voyages to places like Mars. However, developed the technology. rocket manufacturers need to be sure it works before trusting it on These distortions are also what multimillion-dollar satellites. causes the twinkling of stars, so it’s no surprise that the ANU technology Enter the thermal vacuum chamber will also be used in the world’s dubbed ‘Wombat XL’, which is found biggest telescope, the Giant Magellan on the top of Mount Stromlo, home to Telescope, to be constructed in Canberra’s historic observatory. Las Campanas, Chile. The five-metre long cylinder mimics the airlessness of space, as well as the dramatic temperature changes of over 250 degrees that a satellite experiences as it moves in and out of Earth’s shadow.

6 “There’s nowhere else in Australia that The telescope is currently nearing Monster black holes Interestingly, some galaxies are so can do this,” says Naomi Mathers, completion at the Murchison supersize their galactic small that they may contain the industry liaison engineer at the Radio-astronomy Observatory, 700 greed yet-to-be-observed ‘intermediate Advanced Instrumentation and kilometres north of Perth. It comprises Monster black holes lurking in the mass’ black holes, which lie between Technology Centre, a new national 36 antennas working together as a centres of galaxies are hungrier than the supermassive monsters and those facility that is also equipped for single instrument with higher previously thought, Melbourne formed by collapsing stars. assembly and integration of orbital resolution and sensitivity than any scientists have discovered. Our own galaxy is relatively small, equipment. existing radio telescope. The antennas Astrophysicist Alister Graham and his with a black hole only six million times The plasma thruster is the first of are connected by a high-speed optical team at Swinburne University have the mass of the Sun. This was hard to many customers for the centre, which fibre and linked to a supercomputer revealed that these so-called explain under the old rules, which will also test the three satellites that in Perth. supermassive black holes consume a have now been updated to predict Australian universities are developing “ASKAP is a completely new type of greater portion of their galaxy’s mass ratios of 10 or even 1,000 times less for launch in 2016, as part of the telescope—everything is the bigger the galaxy gets. The in the smallest galaxies. European Union’s QB50 program. experimental—and it’s all working discovery overturns the longstanding This research was supported by “We’re here to support the Australian remarkably well,” explains ASKAP belief that these supermassive black Australian Research Council funding space industry,” says Naomi. “That project scientist Lisa Harvey-Smith. holes are always a constant 0.2 per through grant FT110100263. “As part of early science activities, means not only giving them a place to cent of the mass of all the other stars For more information: build and test equipment, but also astrophysicists will use ASKAP in their galaxy. helping to connect them with to map distant galaxies, tracking Centre for Astrophysics Alister and his colleagues found that international collaborators.” their evolution over the past and Supercomputing, 10 billion years.” the constant mass ratio rule was at Faculty of Science, For more information: odds with other properties that grow Engineering and Technology, Not only is ASKAP a world-leading non-linearly with galactic size. Using Advanced Instrumentation telescope in its own right, but it will Swinburne University of Technology, and Technology Centre, new data gathered from the Hubble Alister Graham, ultimately be incorporated into the Space Telescope, the European Very Naomi Mathers, future Square Kilometre Array, the Tel: +61 3 9214 8784, Tel: +61 2 6125 1289, Large Telescope in Chile and the Keck [email protected] world’s largest radio telescope, which Telescope in Hawaii, they discovered [email protected] is to be built in Australia and Southern www.astronomy.swin.edu.au www.rsaa.anu.edu.au that the ratio is only fixed for large Africa. The SKA will be powerful galaxies formed when smaller, enough to see the first stars forming gas-poor galaxies merge. Australia’s newest after the Big Bang. radio telescope “This non-linear growth is such that For more information: the black holes start out as much Fundamental questions about the CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, smaller seeds than previously Universe are set to be answered as a Flornes Conway-Derley, realised,” says Alister. “They then new radio telescope in outback Tel: +61 2 9372 4339, grow rapidly by accumulating gas Western Australia comes online, using fl[email protected] that would otherwise go into multiple beam radio receiver www.csiro.au/CASS making stars. technology to view the sky with “While small galaxies can contain unprecedented speed and sensitivity. both a black hole and a dense, The Australian SKA Pathfinder centrally located star cluster, the (ASKAP), CSIRO’s newest telescope, bigger galaxies only harbour massive uses innovative phased array feed black holes containing about 0.5 per receivers, also known as ‘radio cent of the galaxy mass,” he says. cameras’, to capture images of radio-emitting galaxies in an area about the size of the Southern Cross—far more than can be seen with a traditional radio telescope.

7 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP: ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF THE GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE WITH THE LASER GUIDE BEAMS OF ITS ADAPTIVE OPTICS SYSTEM, CREDIT: GMTO CORPORATION; MIDDLE: CSIRO’S ASKAP ANTENNAS STAND AT THE MURCHISON RADIO-ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA, CREDIT: CSIRO; BOTTOM: VIEW OVER THE CORE OF CSIRO’S ASKAP TELESCOPE, CREDIT: CSIRO. THIS PAGE: ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF A STAR BEING PULLED INTO A BLACK HOLE, CREDIT: GABRIEL PEREZ DIAZ; AUSTRALIAN PLASMA THRUSTER BEING TESTED IN THE SPACE SIMULATION FACILITY AT MOUNT STROMLO, CREDIT: NAOMI MATHERS, ANU. For Women in Science

How India and “It looks like they split from the Australia broke up margins of the moving Indian Plate about 100 million years ago,” says Jo. The end of any relationship can be rocky, but a Tasmanian geoscientist She will use her Fellowship to have has dug into the ocean floor to those rocks properly dated and understand how Australia, India and identified, which will contribute to a Antarctica parted ways 130 million broad reconstruction of the Indian years ago. Ocean basin. Joanne Whittaker, of the University “This model has to consistently of Tasmania, has examined ocean account for geophysical and geological rocks from the Perth Abyssal Plain in data across five continents, 130 million an attempt to reconstruct the break-up years and the entire Indian Ocean,” of Gondwanaland and its formation Jo says. of the three continents and the For more information: Indian Ocean. Institute for Marine and She was awarded a 2013 L’Oréal Antarctic Studies, Australia and New Zealand For University of Tasmania, Women in Science Fellowship in Joanne Whittaker, recognition of her research, which may Tel: +61 3 6226 6367, help improve climate change models, [email protected] find new gas resources and better www.imas.utas.edu.au/people/ understand our marine environment. profiles/current-staff/j/jo-whittaker Serial cancer killers, how India and Australia About 130 million years ago the Plain, split, and fingerprinting an epidemic were the around 1,600 kilometres off the coast White cell assassins of Geraldton, Western Australia, was research fields of three pioneering young prove kiss of death the point at which India, Antarctica for cancer scientists from Melbourne and Hobart who and Australia connected to form were awarded L’Oréal For Women in Science Gondwanaland. They then broke apart. White blood cells have proven to be the serial assassins of the immune Fellowships in 2013. Satellite gravity data suggested the system, moving quickly on to their next modern Plain includes two undersea target once they’re released from a And colour-changing dragons brought a plateaux, which when combined dying cancer cell’s grip. second international L’Oréal For Women in measure about half the area of Tasmania. Jo’s project began with a Misty Jenkins, of the Peter MacCallum Science honour for University of Melbourne successful bid for time on Australia’s Cancer Centre, has discovered that a evolutionary biologist Devi Stuart-Fox. Marine National Facility research T cell can only continue its killing vessel Southern Surveyor to explore spree once a targeted cancerous cell the area. has signalled its imminent death and the T cell can unlock. In November 2011, she and her colleagues from the University of Misty’s research, which was supported Tasmania, Sydney University and by a $25,000 2013 L’Oréal Australia Macquarie University found, mapped and New Zealand For Women in and sampled rocks from these Science Fellowship, will give us a plateaux, the Batavia and Gulden greater understanding of our immune Draak Knolls, which tower about 3,000 system and open the way to better metres above the abyssal plain itself. managing T cells to defeat disease.

8 “A T cell locks onto a cancer cell when Her research, published in the Royal Infrared gets under Last year, Devi was awarded her its receptor matches a specific protein Society journal Open Biology, changes dragon skin second international L’Oréal For fragment. It’s a kiss of death,” she our understanding of how typhoid Women in Science honour—the 2013 Bearded dragons are revealing some says. “The T cell then introduces toxic spreads and how we can better L’Oréal-UNESCO International Special of the secrets behind their colour- enzymes into the cancer cell, which respond to other bacterial epidemics. Fellowship, worth $40,000. Ten years changing ways, thanks to the work of kills it.” earlier she received a UNESCO-L’Oréal Kat says the discovery could only have a Melbourne evolutionary scientist. Misty found that when T cells were happened through her sequencing of International Fellowship, which Devi Stuart-Fox has discovered that genetically modified to lack the toxic the bacterium’s whole genome. “It’s a supported a study of chameleons in bearded dragons change colour in enzymes, the killing process happened very recently emerged pathogen, so South Africa. response to heat, allowing them to very slowly and the T cells did not there’s little genetic variation to track. In 2013, her research on colour- regulate their body temperature. detach and move on within the usual To get anywhere with it, you have to changing bearded dragons also earned seven minutes. sequence everything,” she says. Her research opens the way for her an Australian Research Council scientists to imitate lizards and She believes the T cell only moves on During her research, Kat was surprised grant that will fund an international develop materials that respond to light when the infected cell gives a signal to find that members of the same research initiative she is leading. and temperature for solar energy, of its imminent death, and she is now Kathmandu family each had different sensor and biomedical applications. For more information: working to identify that signal. strains of the bacterium; it wasn’t a “It’s cool watching lizards, insects and The University of Melbourne, Misty attended both Oxford and single strain that spread between octopuses change colour, but we know Devi Stuart-Fox, Cambridge universities following her them. Instead, she found climate so little about how and why they do it. Tel: +61 3 8344 4846, PhD at the University of Melbourne. mainly drove infection increases. So, we’re working with Australian [email protected] Now back in Melbourne, she’s a “In the wet season, you get flooding bearded dragons to understand more www.scienceinpublic.com.au/ National Health and Medical Research and the drinking water becomes about it,” says Devi, a senior lecturer loreal/media-releases/lizards Council (NHMRC) postdoctoral fellow contaminated, so you get transmission in zoology at the University of in the Cancer Cell Death laboratory and a lot of infections across the city. Melbourne. at the Peter Mac. That means, in the one season you As part of her research, Devi measured For more information: have infections caused by a whole variety of genetically different typhoid the dragons’ near-infrared radiation to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, bacteria,” Kat says. understand the mechanism behind Misty Jenkins, their changing colour. Her achievements won her a 2013 Tel: +61 3 9656 3725, Near-infrared light is associated with [email protected] L’Oréal Australia and New Zealand For Women in Science Fellowship, which heat rather than colour. These www.petermac.org/research she will use to study the origin, wavelengths are invisible to animals, evolution and spread of antibiotic but affect their body temperature. Typhoid tips off new resistance in Klebsiella—a bacterium “These wavelengths are significant epidemic approach that is rapidly becoming a problem in because they affect how the lizards A typhoid outbreak in Kathmandu has hospitals worldwide because of its reflect or absorb heat. By changing provided new insights into bacterial capacity for survival in a broad range colour in both visible and near-infrared epidemics and antibiotic resistance, of environments and its ability to pick wavelengths, the lizards could thanks to a Melbourne scientist’s up novel genes. simultaneously optimise their genomic research. For more information: camouflage and thermal balance,” she says. Kathryn Holt, of the University of Bio21 Institute, Melbourne’s Bio21 Institute, used The University of Melbourne, genome sequencing to discover that Kathryn Holt, an epidemic of deadly typhoid bacteria Tel: +61 3 9035 3155, in Nepal’s capital city was driven by [email protected] climate, and not by the outbreak of www.biochemistry.unimelb.edu.au/ novel genetic strains. research/res_holt.html

9 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: LEFT: JOANNE WHITTAKER, CREDIT: L’ORÉAL AUSTRALIA/SDPMEDIA.COM.AU; RIGHT: DEVI STUART-FOX WITH A BEARDED DRAGON, CREDIT: L’ORÉAL AUSTRALIA/SDPMEDIA.COM.AU. THIS PAGE: MISTY JENKINS, CREDIT: L’ORÉAL AUSTRALIA/SDPMEDIA.COM.AU; A BEARDED DRAGON, POGONA VITTICEPS, CREDIT: DEVI STUART-FOX; KATHRYN HOLT, CREDIT: L’ORÉAL AUSTRALIA/SDPMEDIA.COM.AU. Glucosamine study “Glucosamine has been a very raises fertility concerns powerful tool for manipulating a metabolic pathway highly associated Research on the effects of the popular with diabetes,” says Jeremy. “And we joint supplement glucosamine has found glucosamine has a dramatic raised fears for women’s fertility, and a impact on egg and embryo health.” knee-jerk reaction from the vitamin industry, as Adelaide scientists reveal With the help of a new ARC Centre its threat to conception. of Excellence grant for the Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, the Jeremy Thompson and a team from team aims to better understand the Robinson Research Institute, the links between hyperglycaemia, University of Adelaide, found that embryo development and glucosamine increased the possibility intergenerational health. of congenital abnormalities and reduced foetus and litter size when For more information: it was injected into mice before Robinson Research Institute, conception. The University of Adelaide, “There are concerns that women who Jeremy Thompson, take glucosamine and who are trying Tel: +61 8 8313 8152, to conceive may be reducing their [email protected] chances of conception,” says Jeremy. www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/ “We are particularly concerned that it jeremy.thompson could increase problems in people with diabetes.” Obese dads leave The study, which was published last kids with fat chance year in the journal Reproduction, An obese father increases the risk Fertility and Development, had of his children and grandchildren garnered vitamin industry vitriol. becoming obese, even if they follow “The industry came out strongly a healthy diet. That’s the implication against our preliminary ﬁndings, but of a series of mouse studies conducted we have increasing amounts of data at the University of Adelaide. that supports what we’re proposing,” The researchers found that a Jeremy says. father’s high-fat diet could change Glucosamine, which is taken as a the molecular make-up of his sperm, dietary supplement for joint health leading to obesity and diabetes-like and added to many energy drinks, symptoms in two generations is an amino sugar that mimics of offspring. hyperglycaemia by interfering with the normal activity of a glucose- sensing pathway. Jeremy and his team used glucosamine to investigate how diabetes negatively affects foetal development around conception.

10 “With obese fathers, changes in Preterm birth linked to Gastro discovery The CSL Florey Medal is a $50,000 the sperm’s microRNA molecules teen school angst leads to worldwide biennial award made by the Australian are linked with programming the vaccine rollout Institute of Policy and Science and Large numbers of premature-born embryo for obesity or metabolic sponsored by CSL. It honours children may be slipping under the Fifty million children in the world’s disease later in life,” says Tod Fullston, Australian researchers who have radar, say researchers who have found poorest countries will be vaccinated the study’s lead author and an NHMRC made significant achievements in brain development problems in against the deadly rotavirus by 2015, Peter Doherty Fellow with the biomedical science and/or in teenagers deemed clinically normal thanks to the breakthrough work of a University of Adelaide’s Robinson advancing human health. after a late preterm birth. quiet Melbourne researcher. Research Institute. Julia Pitcher and Michael Ridding, of Ruth Bishop’s rotavirus discovery led to For more information: Compared with control-fed mice, male the Robinson Research Institute, the development of the vaccine CSL Florey Medal, mice fed a 10-week high-fat diet University of Adelaide, found that currently being rolled out by the Global Camille Thomson, passed on a higher rate of metabolic children born even one to five weeks Alliance for Vaccines and Australian Institute of disorders, including obesity, to their premature showed reduced Immunisation—and to her declaration Policy and Science, children and grandchildren. The effect ‘neuroplasticity’ as teenagers. Their as 2013 CSL Florey Medal winner. [email protected], was seen even though all the mice, study provides the first physiological Tel: +61 2 9351 0819 apart from the original test father Each year, around half a million evidence of the link between late www.aips.net.au/news-events/ mice, were fed a healthy control diet. children die from rotavirus infection preterm birth and reduced motor, and the acute gastroenteritis it causes. the-florey-medal However, the transmission of obesity, learning and social skills in later life. insulin resistance and impaired Ruth started her hunt for the cause Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to glucose tolerance to each generation of ‘gastro’ at Melbourne’s Royal create new neural pathways and alter was sex-specific. In the first Children’s Hospital (RCH) in 1965, existing ones to learn new information, generation, the females predominantly making the rotavirus discovery with and this brain network connectivity is inherited obesity while both sexes her colleagues at the RCH and the fundamental to learning and memory. inherited the metabolic defects. University of Melbourne in the The study of 28 teenagers aged 13-14 early ‘70s. First generation males then years old looked at early preterm transmitted obesity and insulin The breakthrough initiated a life’s (before 33 weeks), late preterm (33-37 resistance to their daughters and work for Ruth: understanding the weeks) and term-born children (38-41 first generation females transmitted virus, working out how it spreads, weeks). However, Julia and Michael obesity and impaired metabolic and fighting back with treatments were particularly interested in the late health to their sons. and vaccines. preterm results. “If our laboratory studies are And the current vaccine rollout, which “Using a brain stimulation technique, translatable to humans, this could is supported by the Bill and Melinda we found that even being born mildly be a new intervention window into Gates Foundation, is already achieving preterm really blunted the brain’s the epidemic of childhood obesity,” results. Figures from Bolivia, the first ability to change the strength of its says Tod. low-income country to take part in the connections,” says Julia. rollout, have shown a three-quarter For more information: For more information: drop in hospitalisations from rotavirus. Robinson Research Institute, Robinson Research Institute, Yet Ruth, now in her eighties, won’t The University of Adelaide, The University of Adelaide, be fully satisfied until a new vaccine, Tod Fullston, Julia Pitcher, currently being trialled in Indonesia Tel: +61 8 8313 8188, and New Zealand, becomes available. [email protected] Tel: +61 8 8313 1301, [email protected] It’s intended for newborns: “The only www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/ time children in many developing tod.fullston Michael Ridding, countries are likely to be near a Tel: +61 8 8313 7592, hospital,” she says. [email protected]

11 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: LEFT: (TOP AND BOTTOM) CHILDREN BORN EVEN ONE TO FIVE WEEKS PREMATURE CAN SHOW REDUCED SKILLS LATER IN LIFE; RIGHT: GLUCOSAMINE MAY AFFECT FERTILITY. THIS PAGE: LEFT: GREEN STAINING IN A GLUCOSAMINE-TREATED EGG (BOTTOM) SHOWS INCREASED ACTIVITY IN THE GLUCOSE-SENSING PATHWAY COMPARED WITH A CONTROL (TOP), CREDIT: ROBINSON RESEARCH INSTITUTE; RIGHT: RUTH BISHOP, CREDIT: STEPPING STONE PICTURES. Land clearing harms Water quality typically declines rapidly The team discovered that foram These aquifers are similar to the Reef water quality over the wet season, as rivers bring in communities close to the high-CO2 groundwater used in much of Australia sediment and nutrients, but improves seeps had lower species diversity and and the rest of the world for drinking Coastal land clearing has led to poor again after floods as sediment settles were less abundant than those 500 water and irrigation, and so could water quality in the Great Barrier Reef or is carried out of the lagoon. metres away. It also found that foram come in handy as existing supplies lagoon and threats to reef animals, shells were corroded or ‘pitted’ by the dwindle. according to the first data providing Reducing the load carried by coastal acidic environment. evidence of the damage. rivers would improve the reef’s water “The volume is a hundred times clarity, says Britta. “Forams are particularly vulnerable greater than the amount we’ve The Water Quality and Ecosystem to ocean acidification as they lack extracted from the Earth’s sub-surface Health research team at the Australian For more information: the complexity and energy reserves in the past century since 1900,” Institute of Marine Science has Australian Institute of Marine Science, of other marine creatures with says lead researcher Vincent Post, collected 20 years of data, which Britta Schaffelke, carbonate skeletons, such as of Flinders University. “It could shows the connection between high Tel: +61 7 4753 4382, corals and sea urchins.” sustain some regions for decades.” rates of land clearing and reduced reef [email protected] But the corals also showed the effects He says scientists previously water quality in the late 1990s and www.aims.gov.au/docs/research/ early 2000s. water-quality/position-paper.html of increasing acidity, with branching considered these reserves rare, but the and leaf-like corals being replaced by number and volume of the aquifers “Our analyses show that water quality simpler, boulder-like species close to suggested that their formation was in the lagoon dropped significantly No place like home the seeps. commonplace. during the late 1990s and early 2000s, as reef critters face a period that coincided with very high extinction “The decline of the structurally According to Vincent, they were rates of vegetation clearing on land complex corals means the reefs will be probably filled by rainwater filtering adjacent to rivers,” says research team Coral reef organisms that help build much simpler and there will be less into the water table during the last ice leader, Britta Schaffelke. homes for thousands of other species habitat for the hundreds of thousands age, when these areas were above the face extinction by 2100, thanks to of species we associate with today’s lower sea level of the time. “It also included three major river increased CO2 levels and ocean coral reefs,” says study leader floods. This is the first direct evidence The research team discovered the acidification. Katharina Fabricius. that catchment activity affects marine reserves by analysing previous water quality,” she says. Researchers from the Australian For more information: seafloor water studies, some done for Institute of Marine Science have Australian Institute of Marine Science, oil and gas exploration. The offshore According to Britta, reef water quality discovered that ocean acidification Steve Clarke, drilling used to extract these fossil is critically important for a healthy around naturally occurring CO seeps 2 Tel: +61 7 4753 4264, fuels could also reach these new ecosystem. in Papua New Guinea offer a glimpse [email protected] water supplies, at a cost competitive “When water quality deteriorates, we of a future high-CO2 world and its with desalinating seawater. see deterioration of important habitats impact on coral reef ecosystems, www.aims.gov.au/co2_seeps However, there is a word of such as coral reefs and seagrass beds, including the possible complete loss caution—these new reserves are and these are home to many species of creatures called Foraminifera, Fresh water bounty non-renewable. of reef fish, crustaceans and marine or forams. under the sea “We should use them carefully. Once mammals,” she says. “We found no Foraminifera species at Future global water shortages could be gone, they won’t be replenished until The research shows that seasonal all where acidification had reached the alleviated by huge freshwater reserves the sea level drops again, which is not processes, such as strong winds and predicted level of our oceans in 2100, discovered beneath the ocean floor, likely to happen for a very long time,” river floods, drive water quality in in all but the most optimistic emissions according to a team of Australian and says Vincent. the lagoon, particularly turbidity, or scenarios,” says Sven Uthicke, a international scientists. cloudiness due to suspended particles. senior research scientist. For more information: The scientists from Adelaide, the Land use in the catchment also affects Forams are amoeba-like organisms Netherlands, USA and the UK have National Centre for Groundwater the sediment and nutrient content of covered in shells. These shells make found half a million cubic kilometres Research and Training, river floodwater that empties into up to 40 per cent of some cays or of fresh water in undersea aquifers Flinders University, the lagoon. sandy sea beds of coral reefs—the located off Australia, China, Vincent Post, home to many coral reef species. North America and South Africa. Tel: +61 8 8201 5077, vincent.post@flinders.edu.au www.groundwater.com.au 1212 Insect wings beat Because these surfaces shred the “The nacre (mother-of-pearl) in their superbugs bacteria using a physical rather than shells is made of calcium carbonate, chemical mechanism, they have great which is essentially just chalk, Nanoscale spikes on dragonfly potential for use in hospitals, where held together by a small amount wings are inspiring materials that antibiotic-resistant superbugs are a of organic glue,” says Tiffany. kill bacteria, including deadly growing threat. “Somehow these two very soft antibiotic-resistant golden staph materials become something very (Staphylococcus aureus). “We want to be able to create medical implants with antibacterial hard when they’re combined.” Elena Ivanova and her fellow surfaces so that we can place them in According to Tiffany, the secret researchers at Swinburne University the body without the risk of infection,” seems to be in the way the materials of Technology were studying says Russell. self-organise when mixed, with self-cleaning surfaces in nature when biological mortar holding together they discovered bacteria being killed For more information: tiny calcium carbonate bricks. on the wings of the clanger cicada, Swinburne University of Technology, Psaltoda claripennis, a species Lea Kivivali, She is taking inspiration from this mostly found in Queensland. Tel: +61 3 9214 5428, process to make gold nanoparticles form into three-dimensional arrays, The secret seemed to lie in millions of [email protected] which act as waveguides to tiny rounded spikes, or nanopillars, www.swinburne.edu.au/science- channel light. each a thousand times smaller than engineering-technology the width of a human hair. After simulating the nanoparticles’ interaction with biological molecules “Imagine a water balloon sagging From sea snails to on the supercomputer, Tiffany shares between blunt nails,” says Russell electronic free circuits and exchanges her findings with Crawford, one of Elena’s colleagues Sea snails and sponges are shedding American colleagues at the and dean of science. “The bacterial light on how to create electronic-free Universities of Buffalo and Miami, cell wall stretches between the circuitry and environmentally friendly who then make the materials. nanopillars and eventually it breaks.” optical fibre, say Geelong scientists. “Green manufacturing is the dream,” They soon found similar structures on Inspired by the materials these sea says Tiffany. “If we can find out how the wings of the wandering percher creatures make, an Australian-US they do this, we can create new, dragonfly, Diplacodes bipunctata. team is trying to create 3D gold high-performance materials in a A chance conversation with an nanoparticle arrays that channel light. less expensive way and without engineering colleague Saulius hazardous by-products.” Juodkazis then led them to the “Effectively we are creating circuitry ominously named black silicon, without electronics,” says Tiffany For more information: Walsh, Veski Innovation Fellow which was being evaluated for use in Deakin University, and one of the researchers from solar cells due to the light-absorbing Tiffany Walsh, Deakin University. qualities of its own spiky surface. Tel: +61 3 5227 3116, Both the dragonfly wings and black Tiffany is harnessing the power of [email protected] silicon are even better than cicada supercomputers at the Victorian Life www.deakin.edu.au/research/ifm wings at killing bacteria, dispatching Sciences Computation Initiative to more varieties and even destroying understand how simple creatures like their spores, which are otherwise molluscs are able to make materials nearly impossible to kill. far more advanced than we can.

13 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: LAND CLEARING AND ACIDIFICATION THREATEN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF; BUBBLES OF CO2 RISE FROM A NATURAL SEEP IN PNG, CREDIT: K.FABRICIUS © AIMS; VINCENT POST, CREDIT: NATIONAL CENTRE FOR GROUNDWATER RESEARCH AND TRAINING. THIS PAGE: WANDERING PERCHER DRAGONFLY, DIPLACODES BIPUNCTATA, CREDIT: JEAN, VIA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE (CC BY-NC); THE STRUCTURE OF A SEA SNAIL’S MOTHER-OF-PEARL LAYER SUGGESTS HOW TO CHANNEL LIGHT. Regenerative medicine

Axolotls out on limb for Promotion of scar-free healing would future human hope also dramatically improve patient recovery after surgery. An axolotl’s ability to regrow limbs and repair brain and heart tissue James is an independent research could shed light on how humans fellow in Nadia Rosenthal’s ARMI might one day do the same, after laboratory at Monash University, and Melbourne scientists discovered he has been instrumental in setting up the key role played by macrophages, a breeding colony of axolotls to study immune system cells, in the regeneration further. animal’s regenerative process. “We need to know exactly what James Godwin and his colleagues at salamanders do, and how they do it so the Australian Regenerative Medicine well, so we can reverse-engineer that Institute (ARMI) have identified the capacity into human therapies.” critical role of macrophages in axolotl For more information: tissue regeneration, raising the hope Australian Regenerative of future treatments for human spinal Medicine Institute, cord and brain injuries, as well as James Godwin, heart and liver disease. Tel: +61 3 9902 9644, “We need to find out exactly how the [email protected] macrophages are contributing to www.armi.org.au/About_Us/Staff/ regeneration. Down the road, this James_Godwin.aspx could lead to therapies that tweak the human immune system into a more Your first hug regenerative pathway,” James says. Axolotls, a type of salamander, are Most people remember their first known for their ability to regrow limbs kiss but Victorian scientists have and regenerate spinal cord, brain and discovered that your first hug is heart tissue. The healed limb or tissue much further back than you think. is completely functional and scar-free. Nicolas Plachta and his team at the James and his team discovered Australian Regenerative Medicine that when they removed axolotls’ Institute have discovered that macrophages, the animals lost their embryos, when only eight cells in ability to regenerate limbs and they size, develop arm-like structures formed scar tissue instead. that ‘hug’ the cells into shape, helping to determine an embryo’s James also believes that studying the ultimate success. animal’s regenerative processes could lead to new treatments for several The study, which was published in the common conditions linked to fibrosis journal Nature Cell Biology, used live or scarring, such as heart and imaging and fluorescent markers to liver diseases. capture the action in mouse embryos.

14 The pictures and video show the Stem cell memory to It is clear that epigenetic arm-like structures, or filopodia, help tailor regenerative modification—heritable changes appearing on the outer membrane of medicine in gene activity caused by changes some cells before reaching out and A Melbourne scientist is harvesting outside the DNA sequence— pulling the cells closer together. the memory found in reprogrammed is fundamental to both cell Only after the filopodia release their adult cells to develop cell therapy differentiation and cell reprogramming. grip do the cells continue to divide. techniques that have the potential to Jose has shown that iPS cells retain “In a sense, these filopodia are cure a number of diseases. an epigenetic memory of their donor hugging the cells, squeezing them Jose Polo, of Monash University, has cells. Now his research group is into shape,” says Nicolas. found that induced pluripotent stem exploring this memory to work out The Plachta group is now hoping to (iPS) cells don’t lose all their memory how to derive a variety of adult cells improve the success rates of IVF after reprogramming, flagging the in the lab. implantation with this discovery. They possibility that a better understanding Jose is based at the Australian are designing non-invasive imaging of these stem cells will aid Regenerative Medicine Institute and approaches to see whether IVF human regenerative medicine. the Department of Anatomy and embryos form normal filopodia and “Basically an iPS cell derived from Developmental Biology at Monash undergo normal compaction. muscle is more likely to reprogram University, and in 2013 won a Victorian “This could help us choose which back into muscle cells, while iPS cells Tall Poppy Science Award and a embryos should be implanted back in derived from skin will generate skin Sylvia and Charles Viertel Senior the uterus,” says Nicolas. cells,” says Jose. “And this could Medical Research Fellowship for his research. Nicolas is an EMBL Australia research influence what type of iPS cell you leader, recruited by global search and might choose to generate a specific For more information: appointed for up to nine years in cell type.” Australian Regenerative accordance with the successful model Embryonic stem cells, which can Medicine Institute, developed by the European Molecular become almost any type of cell in Jose Polo, Tel: +61 3 9905 0005, Biology Laboratory (EMBL). Australia the body, are known as pluripotent. [email protected] has four EMBL Australia research They hold remarkable potential for www.armi.org.au/About_Us/Staff/ groups. The first two, including the regenerative medicine and drug Jose_Polo.aspx Plachta group, are located at the development. Australian Regenerative Medicine Induced pluripotent stem cells Institute at Monash University. The are adult cells that have been next two groups have recently been reprogrammed to an embryonic established at the South Australian stem cell-like state, and provide an Health and Medical Research Institute. alternative to the controversial use For more information: of embryonic cells in medicine. EMBL Australia, Nicolas Plachta, Tel: +61 3 9902 9612, [email protected] www.plachtalab.com

15 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP: REGENERATIVE MEDICINE OFFERS HOPE FOR LONGER, HEALTHIER LIVES; MIDDLE: NICOLAS PLACHTA’S RESEARCH MAY IMPROVE IVF SUCCESS RATES; BOTTOM: AXOLOTLS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR ABILITY TO REGROW LIMBS. THIS PAGE: IPS CELLS EXPRESSING A GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN INDICATING THE REACTIVATION OF THE OCT4 PLURIPOTENT GENE, CREDIT: JOSE POLO; THE ARM-LIKE FILOPODIA ‘HUG’ THE EMBRYO’S CELLS, SQUEEZING THEM INTO SHAPE, CREDIT: EMBL AUSTRALIA. Eureka Prizes

The 2013 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes recognised some amazing inventions that are saving lives and solving big issues for industry. Here are some of the highlights. You can see all the winners at australianmuseum.net.au/2013-winners-eureka

Vitamin B reveals the Native shrubs good role of mystery gut for sheep and the immune cells environment An accidental discovery by Melbourne Feeding livestock on native plants is researchers has revealed the purpose the key to sustainable profits for of ‘mystery’ immune cells in the gut, Australian farmers, researchers shown how our immune system have found. interacts with the complex bacteria Farmers in dry parts of southern ecology found there, and opened new Australia are planting native perennial paths for drug discovery. shrubs to feed their animals following Our guts, lungs and mouths are lined ground-breaking research by the with mysterious immune cells that Future Farm Industries CRC Enrich make up to 10 per cent of the T cells Project Team. in our immune system. These immune For its role in initiating this change, cells, known as mucosal-associated the Enrich team has won the 2013 invariant T cells (MAITs), detect Australian Museum Caring for our reactive intermediates in the synthesis Country Landcare Eureka Prize for of vitamin B2 (riboflavin) that is made Sustainable Agriculture. by many invasive bacteria and fungi. Humans and other mammals use, A bug that stops dengue but do not make, riboflavin, so the Dengue fever is on the march and presence of these precursors indicates threatening the growing populations invasive bacteria or fungi. That’s when of Asia and even northern Australia. the MAIT cells swing the immune But a ‘vaccine’ for mosquitoes could system into action against foreign stop it in its tracks. invaders. A team of researchers from The team, from the University of Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns and Brazil Melbourne and Monash University, has found a bacterium, Wolbachia, won the 2013 Australian Museum in fruit flies, which could stop University of New South Wales mosquitoes from spreading dengue. Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. For their breakthrough in insect-borne “In the spirit of Pasteur, the team disease control, the Eliminate Dengue exploited an accidental discovery to team, led by Scott O’Neill from reveal a new paradigm for how our Monash University, has won the immune system can function,” Frank 2013 Australian Museum Australian Howarth, director of the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre Museum, says. Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases The team members are continuing Research. their work as part of a new Australian “This work is a potential game- Research Council Centre of Excellence changer in the battle against dengue in Advanced Molecular Imaging. and other insect-borne diseases,” the director of the Australian Museum, Frank Howarth, says.

16 Walking again Mill mapper keeps Zebedee bounces around, Providing the very mines working mapping as he goes stuff of protection Children with a deadly muscle-wasting disease are regaining the ability to If your pepper mill wears out, it’s Now you can map a mine, cave, From keeping Australian troops safe walk and potentially avoiding annoying. But for mines it’s disastrous building or forest just by walking from explosions, to ensuring military life-threatening complications, when their grinders can no longer through it with Zebedee in your hand. vehicles can maintain flexibility on thanks to a new treatment developed smash rocks, often costing them CSRIO scientist Elliot Duff and his damaged roads, the Armour by researchers at Perth’s Murdoch $100,000 an hour in downtime. colleagues developed a spring- Applications Program of the Defence University. Now, a three-dimensional laser mounted hand-held laser scanner Materials Technology Centre has The treatment, developed by system, which takes 10 million that can make 3D images of spaces pioneered high-performance materials. Steve Wilton and Sue Fletcher, targets measurements in 30 minutes, can previously impossible to map. The team’s collaborative research has the genetic defect responsible for take over the dangerous work of The group call themselves the used computer modelling, explosives, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a manually evaluating mining Zebedee Team, in honour of the spring- high-speed cameras and new welding condition that affects around one in machinery conditions. loaded host of the popular children’s techniques to develop technologies 3,500 boys. Researchers at Curtin University TV program, The Magic Roundabout. and systems with improved blast performance, reduced weight and For bringing their drug from laboratory have developed two systems using For their creative solution, Elliot and greater flexibility. bench to bedside, Steve and Sue have 3D laser imaging to map the internal his colleagues have won the 2013 won the 2013 Australian Museum wear of crushers and grinders, Australian Museum ANSTO Eureka “These new materials and NSW Health Jamie Callachor Eureka allowing operators to make better Prize for Innovative Use of Technology. manufacturing techniques are Prize for Medical Research Translation. decisions about maintenance and already protecting Australian troops repair as well as improving efficiency Here be dragons: in Afghanistan,” the director of The dingo: from sinner and safety and saving big money. winning shots of sea life the Australian Museum, Frank to saviour Scanalyse, the company they founded, Howarth, says. A stunning shot of a male weedy sea now sells the technology to dozens For their contributions to safety and Dingoes play a vital role in reducing dragon incubating eggs has earned of companies around the world. performance, the Armour Applications damage caused by kangaroos, foxes amateur photographer Richard Wylie, Program has won the 2013 Australian and feral cats, according to University Scanalyse/Outotec won the 2013 from Safety Beach in Victoria, the 2013 Museum Defence Science and of Tasmania’s Chris Johnson and his Australian Museum Rio Tinto Australian Museum New Scientist Technology Organisation Eureka Prize colleagues. Eureka Prize for Commercialisation Eureka Prize for Science Photography. of Innovation for the creation of for Outstanding Science in They’ve discovered that Australia’s The Eureka Prize is Richard’s second MillMapper and CrushMapper. Safeguarding Australia. dingoes, far from being vermin, major award for his photographs of the sustain biodiversity and can help intriguing sea creatures, which live in land managers control kangaroo Victoria’s Port Phillip Bay. populations and suppress For Mr Wylie, the opportunity to invasive species. take pictures of the sea dragons For their innovative approach to (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) represents conservation, Chris and his team have a happy collision of hobby, work and won the 2013 Australian Museum study. He is a marine biologist and NSW Office of Environment and director of the Euakafa Island Research Heritage Eureka Prize for Centre, a marine science study centre Environmental Research. in Tonga.

17 PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: TOP: A 3D LASER SCAN BY ZEBEDEE OF THE WRECK OF THE HMQS GAYUNDAH, AT REDCLIFFE, QUEENSLAND, CREDIT: CSIRO; MIDDLE: WEEDY SEA DRAGON, CREDIT: RICHARD WYLIE; BOTTOM: T CELL ACTIVATION BY TRANSITORY ANTIGENS, CREDIT: JEFFREY MAK, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND. THIS PAGE: BUSHMASTER ARMY VEHICLES ARE KEEPING AUSTRALIAN TROOPS SAFE, CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE DEPARTMENT; DINGOES HELP SUSTAIN BIODIVERSITY. Bubbles capture minerals A malaria vaccine target Starch to save Putting off joint and toxic algae young lives replacement A vaccine is the holy grail of A radical flotation technology has malaria control. Alan Cowman, of A fibre may help save millions of Advanced medical imaging has earned Australia over $4 billion in Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall children in developing countries allowed Tasmanian scientists to trial mineral exports each year by improving Institute, has discovered proteins that who die or who are left malnourished new therapies for osteoarthritis and mineral particle recovery from are key to the malaria parasite’s from diarrhoea each year. to potentially delay the need for wastewater. virulence, and therefore a potential Graeme Young, AM, of Flinders joint-replacement surgery. Chemical engineer Graeme Jameson, vaccine target. He’s been able to University, is leading a global project Graeme Jones and his team from the AO, of the University of Newcastle, weaken live parasites by manipulating that will test his theory that resistant Menzies Research Institute used developed the technology, which was their genes. It’s the culmination of over starch increases zinc absorption in dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to first used in mineral processing plants 20 years’ research into malaria and the body. see what was happening to a joint’s won Alan a $50,000 Victoria Prize. and is now being applied to other “Zinc tablets are currently given in internal structure as osteoarthritis industrial practices. response to an acute attack of developed, allowing them to spot Mundane passion He was named 2013 NSW Scientist diarrhoea but only a minority follow changes long before a conventional anchors $20 billion of the Year for his innovation. the recommended course of tablets. X-ray could. industry The technology, developed in the late There may be other complementary With a better understanding of the 1980s, is used in over 300 plants An engineer has credited a passion for ways to ensure we better correct early factors that lead to the disease, across 25 countries. It’s also being the mundane as the driving force nutritional deficits in zinc and so better the team has been able to test new used in the extraction of oil from tar behind his geotechnical solutions that deal with the problem,” Graeme says. therapies to target bone swelling, sands in Canada and the removal of have influenced nearly all the oil and Graeme was named the 2013 South cartilage regeneration and blue-green algae from waterways in gas developments in north-west Australian Scientist of the Year for this inflammation, among others. Central Australia. Western Australia. research, as well as for his work on Graeme’s research has earned him Graeme is director of the University The industry is expanding rapidly to Australia’s national bowel cancer the Tasmanian Scientist of the of Newcastle’s Centre for Multiphase meet the demand for natural gas in the screening program. Year Award. Processes. growing Asian economies. Mark He is professor of global Randolph has contributed to anchoring gastrointestinal health at Flinders Shine on you tiny the essential infrastructure as the University, and at the time of the diamond industry moves offshore and into deep award was director of the Flinders waters. He provides the analysis and Centre for Innovation in Cancer. Tiny diamonds have been used to track design of piled foundations and single atoms and molecules inside solutions for offshore foundations, living cells. anchoring systems and pipelines. A University of Melbourne team has “I make no apology for being first and developed a device that uses foremost an engineer working at the nanoscale diamonds to measure the very applied end of science,” he says. magnetic fields from a living cell’s “And it’s primarily for my passion to atoms and molecules, with resolution see the rather mundane—and I might a million times greater than current say the rather grubby—world of soil magnetic resonance imaging. mechanics and geotechnical Their work, which opens the possibility engineering elevated in this way.” of improved medicine delivery by Mark won the 2013 Western tracking molecules inside cells, won Australian Scientist of the Year. He is the team a 2013 Eureka Prize, as well based at the Centre for Offshore as a $50,000 Victoria Prize for their Foundation Systems at the University leader, Lloyd Hollenberg. of Western Australia.

1818 PHOTOS: THIS PAGE: JAMESON CELL TECHNOLOGY IS USED IN OVER 300 MINERAL PROCESSING PLANTS WORLDWIDE, CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE; RESISTANT STARCH IN THE DIET MAY PROTECT MILLIONS OF CHILDREN IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES FROM DIARRHOEA; OPPOSITE PAGE: AUSTRALIA’S ANZAC FRIGATES ARE BEING UPGRADED WITH IAN CROSER’S RADAR TECHNOLOGY TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST MISSILES, CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE DEPARTMENT; MARK RANDOLPH IS PROVIDING ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS TO SUPPORT OFFSHORE OIL RIGS. The 2013 ATSE Clunies Ross Award Winners follow in the footsteps of past winners such as Ian Frazer, Academy recognition inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine; Nobel The Australian Academy of Science recognised five laureate Barry Marshall, who discovered the bacteria individuals for their career achievements in 2013. that causes stomach ulcers; Fiona Wood, inventor of spray-on skin; and Martin Green and Stuart The search for dark matter was kicked Symmetries found by mathematician off by Ken Freeman’s discovery that Cheryl Elisabeth Praeger lie at the Wenham, international leaders in silicon there wasn’t enough matter to hold heart of permutations and real-world cell technology. spiral galaxies like ours together. systems, from large agricultural experiments to the patterns of Medicines based on metals like weaving. Under every ocean, crossing every mountain copper, chromium and ruthenium could come out of chemist Peter Andrew Geologists use Roger Powell’s models Our connected lives depend on reliable global communication Lay’s study of how they work on and computer software to determine carried by a net of undersea glass cables. diabetes, cancer and inﬂammation. how metamorphic rocks were formed And in those cables are technologies developed by Simon Poole and in the intense heat beneath the Big data can help solve problems in Earth’s crust. Steven Frisken. Simon and Steven are Australia’s most successful public health, biological systems and commercialisers of new technologies that have shaped the internet the natural environment using worldwide including key components of the Australia’s National statistical computer algorithms Broadband Network. developed by Matthew Paul Wand. Their products, including undersea communication systems, are sold to all the major telecommunications equipment manufacturers in Europe, A further eight researchers under the age of 40 the United States, Japan and China, and have generated exports worth received the Academy’s early-career awards. hundreds of millions of dollars from their factory in Sydney. Microbes in soil may determine the Techniques developed by Aurore The tests we need to eradicate TB development of plants that grow in Delaigle for analysing data and ﬁnding them, and Ulrike Mathesius’s work the patterns and relations behind Anthony Radford, James Rothel, Paul Wood and Stephen Jones have understanding how they do this could them are being applied to complex fundamentally changed the way tuberculosis is diagnosed around the open possibilities for improving crops. investigations in biology and physics, world, by inventing and commercialising revolutionary technology that such as the search for gravitational is greatly assisting in global TB control in both humans and cattle. How blood cells form, how they waves. develop into cancer and how both They played a role in successfully eradicating bovine TB in Australia. these processes are affected by cancer A map of galaxies created using treatments are being illuminated by Australian telescopes has enabled Protecting ships Benjamin Kile’s research. Christopher Adam Blake to determine “Floating targets”, said a junior defence minister of Australia’s Anzac the strength and smoothness of dark An improved understanding of the energy, the mysterious force that’s frigates back in 1998. This year one of those frigates, HMAS Perth, genetics of mitochondria, the tiny intercepted a missile travelling three times the speed of sound in trials causing the accelerating expansion powerhouses inside our cells, is of the Universe. off Hawaii. The frigate now has one of the best small warship defence enabling Aleksandra Filipovska to systems in the world. create new drugs to treat diseases Polymers and nanomaterials At the heart of the system is a digital phased-array radar technology caused when they malfunction. assembled by chemist Sébastien Perrier with what he calls ‘molecular developed by Ian Croser of CEA Technologies. The system looks 60 km Convincing evidence of the link lego’ are being used for sustainable in all directions and can track multiple threats. between worsening heatwaves in new materials for paint, personal care In 1982 Croser and his colleague David Gaul left the Australian Navy Australia and greenhouse gas and health and medicine. and founded CEA Technologies. Now employing over 270 employees, it emissions has been provided by Lisa Alexander. A full list of AAS awards is at is Australia’s largest majority owned defence company, making advanced www.science.org.au/awards radar and communications solutions for civil and military applications. A new understanding of the movement of tectonic plates and the formation of mountains, volcanoes and deep-sea trenches has come from Wouter 19 Schellart’s theories of the dynamics of the solid Earth. Each year we identify early-career scientists with a discovery and bring them to Melbourne for a communication boot camp. Here are some of their stories. For more information go to freshscience.org.au

Two tiny fossils link Worms reveal link Australian marsupials between dementia to South America gene and ageing and Africa The discovery of a link between a Two tiny fossils are prompting an specific gene and ageing in a tiny overhaul of theories about marsupial transparent worm could reveal evolution after they revealed valuable lessons for the treatment of unexpected links to South America— Alzheimer’s disease. and possibly Africa. Yee Lian Chew, a PhD student at The two fragments, found at the Sydney University, found that the tau Tingamarra site in south-eastern gene, which is also present in humans, Queensland, are set to overturn the codes for a protein that affects the theory that there was a single worm’s life span—low levels of the migration from the part of the protein hastens age-related changes in Gondwana ‘supercontinent’ that the worm’s brain and shortens its life. became South America to the Yet high levels of the proteins are also part that became Australia. thought to be associated with One of the fossils is a 55 million-year- cognitive impairment in people with old ankle bone from a mouse-sized dementia. marsupial previously known only from “It needs to be a balance,” says Yee South America. The second is a tooth, Lian, whose research could provide a which derives from a formerly stepping stone towards improving unknown species that shows diagnostic tools and treatments for similarities to fossils found in Alzheimer’s sufferers. South America and North Africa. “The origins of Australian marsupials The fastest sperm suddenly got a lot more complicated,” may not be best says palaeontologist Robin Beck, of Sydney sea squirts show that there’s the University of New South Wales. more to fertilisation, and maybe IVF, than we thought. Electric fishes spark safer power line technology Angela Crean, of the University of New South Wales, discovered that sea Inspired by electric fishes, Melbourne squirt eggs fertilised within minutes by researchers have invented and speedy sperm, and their subsequent patented a way of detecting and larvae, had low survival rates. The locating potential electrical faults strongest, fittest, longest-lived sea along large stretches of power line. squirts grew from eggs fertilised by Early detection could help prevent sperm that swam for about an hour major discharges that lead to sparking before reaching the egg. and blackouts, which might reduce the “This is surprising because it suggests risks of bushfires caused by electric that a sperm’s influence on offspring sparking, says Alexe Bojovschi, of extends beyond just the DNA it RMIT University. carries,” says Angela. The patented wireless sensing As part of her research Angela studied technology, which Alexe and his larvae produced from mass sea squirt colleagues have commercialised, spawnings in Sydney Harbour. She is already being used by local hopes her research will contribute to 20 electricity companies and has improving assisted reproduction the potential to be used globally. methods in humans. Fresh Science #freshsci

Using genes to How ankles can save “It is devices like this that will … Their research could reduce the counter rust footballers’ knees dramatically change the quality of life need for antibiotics and surgery, of billions of people around the world,” and help tackle hearing loss in An international study led by a Knee injuries in Australian footballers Aliaa says. Indigenous communities. Queensland scientist has found a way could be dramatically reduced if to better safeguard an important food physiotherapists paid more attention crop—and the world’s beer supply. to ankles, according to a mechanical Aussie algae fuel Mixing drugs and engineer from the University of green oil hope alcohol for better University of Queensland geneticist asthma inhalers Lee Hickey and his team successfully Melbourne. Newly trialled native algae could identified a gene, Rph20, which Hossein Mokhtarzadeh has developed provide real hope of developing Asthma inhalers could soon become protects barley against the serious leaf mathematical models of the muscles commercially viable biofuels. much more effective thanks to a clever rust disease. They then developed a that protect the anterior cruciate Evan Stephens and his team at new way of making the particles diagnostic DNA marker to determine ligament, which is often damaged in the University of Queensland, in they deliver. the presence of the gene. football knee injuries and costs the collaboration with Germany’s Bielefeld Monash University lecturer Lee’s discovery will enable selective game millions of dollars each year. University and Karlsruhe Institute of Meng Wai Woo and his team have breeding of barley to provide genetic “We are improving our mathematical Technology, have identified fast- developed a method of making protection to the disease—resulting models to predict and screen athletes growing and hardy microscopic algae ultrafine particles, which will make in much lower chemical use and who are at a high risk of injury while that could be farmed to produce a drug delivery to the lungs much reduced crop losses. they play,” says Hossein, who is renewable fuel that would help steer more consistent and efficient. Australia away from petroleum “To date, there have been no reports working with the Carlton Football Club. Current puffer designs and the typical oil dependency. of a strain of leaf rust that has He says the study will help develop size ranges of particles mean that overcome the Rph20 resistance,” new neuromuscular training methods Despite the claims of some in the much of the medication propelled he says. “Thus we hope this gene and the design of bracing systems, biofuel industry, commercially viable into a patient’s throat remains will continue to provide long-lasting which would benefit coaches, fuels from algae have not yet been there—only a fraction reaches protection around the world.” physiotherapists, human movement developed. the lungs. scientists and athletes. “While we know that we can produce Building on mud: algae oil that is even higher quality when can we start? Monitoring drugs at than standard petroleum sources, we are working to increase the efficiency A Queensland engineer can now home, not the hospital of production so that we can compete predict how long it takes for reclaimed Personalised medication may become with fossil fuels dollar for dollar,” land to become suitable for a reality with a tiny Tasmanian Evan says. development, potentially saving invention that accurately measures millions of dollars in building costs a drug’s concentration in the blood and avoiding structural failures. in just three minutes. Sticky ear mystery solved Julie Lovisa, of James Cook University, Aliaa Shallan, a PhD student at the Perth researchers are trialling a has created a mathematical model to University of Tasmania, developed the treatment that could end the sleepless predict when reclaimed land is solid mechanism at the heart of a hand-held nights that families face when ear enough to build on, allowing for device that could let millions of people infections strike and won’t go away. greater accuracy in construction test their own blood at home for just a Ruth Thornton and her research team timelines. few dollars per test. at the University of Western Australia “We need to be as accurate as Billions of people take prescription have discovered that sticky nets of possible in our predictions—if drugs every day but the optimum DNA hide the bacteria in the ears we’re out by just one per cent, this dose for each person can vary greatly. of kids with recurrent middle-ear can mean the difference between Personalised medicine accommodates infections, where they evade starting construction in two or these differences by tailoring the antibiotic treatment by creating 20 years,” she says. dose to the drug level in the blood. impenetrable slimy biofilms.

PHOTOS: OPPOSITE PAGE: CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: LEE HICKEY, CREDIT: LEE HICKEY; EVAN STEPHENS IS WORKING TO PRODUCE BIOFUEL FROM NATIVE ALGAE, CREDIT: EVAN STEPHENS, UQ/FRESH SCIENCE; MENG WAI WOO IS DELIVERING ASTHMA MEDICATION WITH FINE PARTICLES, CREDIT: MENG WAI WOO; YEE LIAN CHEW (CENTRE), CREDIT: ESTELLE LLAMOSAS, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY; ALIAA SHALLAN, CREDIT: AEMI ABDUL KEYON, UTAS. THIS PAGE: ROBIN BECK, CREDIT: UNSW; ALEXE BOJOVSCHI, CREDIT: ALEXE BOJOVSCHI, RMIT; RIGHT (TOP): JULIE LOVISA IS IMPROVING LAND RECLAMATION PLANNING, CREDIT: PORT OF BRISBANE; (BELOW LEFT): ANGELA CREAN’S RESEARCH ON SEA SQUIRTS MAY ASSIST IVF METHODS, CREDIT: UNSW; (BELOW RIGHT) RUTH THORNTON, CREDIT: EBONY FROST, TELETHON KIDS INSTITUTE. INSET: HOSSEIN MOKHTARZADEH’S MATHEMATICAL MODELS MAY REDUCE KNEE INJURIES IN AFL FOOTBALLERS, CREDIT: HOSSEIN MOKHTARZADEH, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE. Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014…Stories of Australian Science 2014

Published by Science in Public Pty Ltd 2014 82 Hudsons Road (PO Box 2076) Stories of Spotswood Victoria 3015 Australia Australian Science [email protected] Find us online at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/stories and register for regular updates on Australian science.

Science in Public @scienceinpublic