Adventure Ausrama Blog

Science: the latest meteorite give insight into formation of the solar system Scientists are interested in a space rock. The meteorite crashed into the Australian outback a year ago and has unique features. It is currently in London undergoing tests and will eventually be returned to the Museum of Western Australia. The meteorite is small, only as big as a tennis ball. Because its trajectory was tracked its origin is known. This is unusual: of the 50,000 meteorites that have hit the Earth over the last 200 years  the sources of only 10 have been ascertained. Tracking of the meteorite was carried out by Curtin University, London's Imperial College and the Ondrejov Observatory in the Czech Republic. The point of impact was only 100m from the projected point. Meteorites are the oldest rocks being 4.5 billion years old. Critical information about the formation of the solar system will be gained. ◆ Science by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australia Funny Animal Photos Fu

Science: Extroverts and introverts are on a continuum. Do you mix with others easily?  Are you a loner?  Human beings can be categorized as extrovert or introvert.  There appears not to be a continuum to give variety to the species.  You are either one or the other. Don't get me wrong here.  Introverts can rise to the occasion and mix in a group.  Oddly, many introverts become entertainers to bring themselves out and beat their fears.  Clearly though, extroverts love other people and get lonely quickly, whereas introverts thrive doing things on their own. After a noisy party where alcohol has temporarily changed introverts into extroverts.  The basically quieter type starts worrying about what he/she said at the bash.  The mixers just get on with life and don't fear anything. Wait on.  Research has shown the people do fit on a continuum.  We cannot all be divided into either mixer or loner, not totally.  To make it simpler scientists have coined the phrase "

Well what happened in 2015? Some odd claims were made. In October KIC 8462852, a star doing strange things was observed. Some said that it was created by intelligent life. Actually it is a comet swarm. The barbecue charcoal theory was taken a step further with suggestions that processed meat such as bacon causes cancer. However, the risk is statistically insignificant. Just don't eat too much of it. NASA's mysterious EM Drive was announced which apparently is a microwave "powered" warp drive. Roll on Star trek. Thrust was produced from nothing but at a such a low level as to be unusable. We do not have to worry about global warming because the sun will take care of it. The Maunder Minimum phase will push us into an ice age in the 2030s. Have no fear. Such a drastic 5º C fall will not happen. We have done far too much damage for the Maunder Minimum to have any effect. The little Tardigrade creature picks up genes from the environment by horizontal t

Rice came from Asia, more specifically China, right? You would be wrong. Genetic tests on rice grown today show it come from northern Australia. It was clean, uncontaminated and has been pinned down to Cape York in Queensland. Originally, it was growing wild in the tropics, an unusal place for rice as we associate it with wet conditions all year round. The real question is how did it get to Asia? Obviously, people from Asia came to Australia and took it home. The Middle East is the cradle of Mankind. For rice it is Australia. Wild rice growing there today is more genetically diverse than anywhere else in the world. Asian domestic and wild rice is inbred. Australian rice is wild. It grows there today unchanged by human intervention. This took place 7,000 years ago. Australian rice will be the basis of research to improve world food production. It holds the genetic keys to open the door very wide indeed. Modern rice varieties are just little sparks from the fire

The number of school students doing maths and science is woefully inadequate in city areas. Numbers in rural areas are even worse! A new plan is in progress to improve the situation. Unfortunately, it will prove to be a total failure and waste of money. Culture has inertia. It takes about half a century to alter established beliefs. Rural children believe that maths and science are too difficult for them so they do not even attempt them. They stay with the social subjects. The new "curative" program to solve the matter will ignore city students and concentrate on rural regions. There is a noticeably low number of rural students doing education, engineering and science degrees.  Note that 74 per cent of teachers in city areas have STEM experience, while only 17 per cent of rural teachers have done STEM work.  The intention is to send high quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) teachers to the bush - they will love that! It is like sending the

Get ready for the dole queue as technology puts more people out of work. Even traditional occupations such as law is to be taken over by computers doing routine work. Nearly half of the workforce is predicted to lose their jobs. This is frightening and will be devastating to the economy and society. It seems that efficient technology will take over menial tasks. While it is conceivable that routine work will be done by computers, it is questionable whether laboring tasks will. Even laboring takes a conscious mind to wield the shovel. We do not yet have human-sized robots smart enough to do this. Automated combine harvesters are one thing, but robotised fence repairers - I think not! Australia could make the mistake of hanging on to old ways of making money. Primary products have been the major source for earning foreign exchange for a couple of centuries. Primary products will always be needed. Australia must change, however, to accept new ways of doing things in a

The possibility of scientists creating a Frankenstein monster in genetic experiments is real. It could happen. Something that runs roughshod over human chemical barriers can be given life. The reality of genetically modified crops "contaminating" adjacent farms and ridiculous monetary claims by Monsanto are common. Everything living does affect everything else. There are no hard barriers keeping them in. A great frontier is wide open to them. An "off-switch" is badly needed. Modified insects to fight pests and disease have already been released. There is a way to reduce the danger. Create a genetic code that is able to force a genetically modified organism to commit suicide. This works for insects but not so well for GM bacteria. Denying bacteria an essential element is problematic. There are two ways to destroy such bacteria. The first involves the creation of a synthetic extra amino acid in proteins. GM bacteria are created that need this 2

I do not often agree with Christopher Pyne on government policy, Dare I say, I have "never" been in favor of his hair-brained ideas until now. Indeed, I would take his latest plan even further. He is attempting to make maths and science compulsory for students in years 11 and 12. These two critical subjects should be part of the core curriculum in all years of school throughout primary and secondary education. I may say "When I was a lad..." Yet on this point I believe I have a solid foundation. When I was at school maths and science were for everyone. Advanced maths and science were only for those who proved themselves capable of effectively coping with the main subject areas. When my children were at high school there were five grades of maths in years 8 to 12. Many students, with their parents' guidance I may say, chose a level too high for them to cope with in the next year. This ruined their whole higher education. If one attempts a higher

The conclusion reached by Bill Schopf that tiny carbon-rich filaments in Pilbara rock of Western Australia show the presence of fossils is now proved to be incorrect. There has been debate about the issue since Bill Schopf made his announcement. Tests indicate that they are just rocks. Professor Martin Brasier first highlighted the problem in 2002, when he claimed that the rocks were part of a high-temperature thermal vein. In other words they were not sedimentary in nature. New high-spacial resolution examination indicates stacks of clay-like mineral plates in the rocks' structure. Carbon has been absorbed into the worm-like chains giving the impression of cell walls.  Carbon distribution was completely wrong for microfossils. The "mischievous" clay plates are the culprit in leading scientists astray in their findings. Authentic microfossils just as old as the Shopf example have recently been found in Western Australia, so the claim for the oldest fossi

As international trade continues so does "equalization" of the planet. Many marine species are now found in all waters of the world. This is because transport ships literally hoover up animals in ballast water, which is released at any time, any place, when it is no longer needed. All ballast water is released into a port when cargo is taken onboard. Marine survivors of this rough treatment give the local environment a go. Some are successful and multiply to epidemic proportions. Zebra mussels and Pacific seastars in particular are a major problem. An Australian study gathered data such as ports where ballast was likely to be taken on and where it would probably be released. Marine species spread this way were identified and it was predicted how long they would survive. This data was fed into a computer. It was noticed that shipping volume was increasing mainly in the transport of primary products. Most of this Australian export was delivered to Asia and