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! 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 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.