Adventure Ausrama Blog

It seems that the eavesdropping of telescopes into outer space has paid off. Something interesting has been heard. Don't get too excited though. The signals originated way outside the Milky Way. If an intelligent civilization made them, the little green guys are long gone. The mystery sound is a series of radio bursts. Most curious is a double signal followed by four single bursts. This takes the count to 11 unidentified "displays" from out yonder. Unfortunately, the first 10 didn't last. The "Wow signal" was the most famous. An observer only had time to write down the word "wow" and it was never heard again. Let's hope the latest sound will hang around. Anyway, a double burst is something new. It appears that there is a mundane explanation for the signal. The source must be extremely powerful, too strong to be controlled by even intelligent creatures. Or, it could be very local indeed, like the leakage from microwave over doors i

Scientists are creating tiny human organs from stem cells just for the sake of it. They hope that it will make for beneficial discoveries and applications in the future. Is it a waste of public and private money? It could be. There is an opportunity cost in using resources for wasteful projects. These tiny but useless mini-organs are called organoids. Indeed, Madeline Lancaster was messing-around" when she realized that she had grown a brain. Attempting to form embryonic stem cells from neural rosettes she accidentally succeeded. The floating milky substance floating in the culture was an embryonic brain - retina cells. A mass of different cells were found when the contents of the culture dish were closely analysed. Organoids seem to mimic the operation of full-sized natural organs. Eye, stomach, gut, kidney, liver, pancreas, lung, prostate and breast mini-organs have been made. They do mimic some of the functions of the real thing. Unfortunately, they remain e

When things get tough people will try anything. Antibiotics are no longer working, so researchers are asking for newly mixed compounds by chemists to be sent along to them. This a new project set up by the University of Queensland. The belief is that scientists are working on the same middle of the road compounds. It is in new compounds where hope lies. Every day new compounds are made and just discarded. They are never screened to see what they can do against pathogens. Community for Open Antimicrobial Drug Discovery (CO-ADD researchers located at UQ are ready to test the compounds against fungi and bacteria, especially superbugs. This will work because rights remain with the chemists who provide the samples. Funding has been been gained from sources in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., France and India. The project began in February and will be ongoing. Prevalent diseases like malaria an dengue fever will be included in the target list. The database will be open

Ebola is still a world crisis. Though the overall rate of infected people has slowed, some pockets in Africa have increased infections. It could still spread to Europe, Asia and the US.  If it does spread this wide, control will be virtually impossible. Some form of effective treatment has to be found - fast. The blood of survivors has been seen has the most probable source of a vaccine. However, any form of treatment should be examined for its usefulness. In Australia a vaccine tested on monkeys holds out great hope. The Kunjin treatment has been created from engineering the Ebola virus protein. Monkeys were given the vaccine and they showed significant protection from the disease. Seventy five per cent of the monkeys kept their resistance. Much research was based on tests on rodents. Success on them did not mean that vaccines would work on humans, so tests on primates is beginning. Scientists must get a move on to create a successful vaccine. Ninety per cen

Australian scientists attempt to understand the aging process. In a partnership with Harvard University, the University of New South Wales has found a way to stop aging. Though it has been achieved on mice it has already been applied to humans. Young youthful genes are turned on while older ones are turned off. Done in the right way, the process can halt and even reverse aging. The triggers are naturally occurring molecules and proteins. Change is made in the muscles and improvement begins in a week. Hopefully, drugs containing the triggers can be developed. At least this is what the researchers are planning. Tests on humans have shown great promise so far. An extra plus for the "treatment" is that it is anti-inflammatory. Such diseases as inflammatory bowel disease could be sent into remission. It makes one wonder, however, why findings aren't applied generally much sooner. Leader of the project, Professor David Sinclair a specialist in the fiel

The robot age is here!  That is if you believe what scientists are trying to tell us.  Shouting and waving your hands in the air about a new thing is par for the course.  We have heard it all before: mew thing, great leap forward, and so on. Apparently, the new gadget is a robot for use on a farm.  Developed in Australia, the machine wanders around the farm "keeping an eye" on crops and pests.  It is guided by hyperspectral cameras and sensors.  The initial field test, forgive the pun, was at a vegetable growing property where beetroot, spinach and onions are grown. The robot has a mechanical arm for pulling up weeds - wow productivity will go through the roof!  Just how fast will this thing go?  Unfortunately, it moves very slowly.  Scientists say it will free up staff from manual labor.  This is absolute rubbish.  How does it know what is a weed and what is a valuable plant? Unless it does high-tech stuff it will not prove to be beneficial.  If it can detect

Can nature beat science? This is an open question but it will be put to the test. Teflon is a material created by scientists. It does not occur naturally. Will it stand the test and be unique, unfettered by mother nature? Geckos can run along many surfaces, whether vertical or upside-down. Their toes are covered in in rows of keratin ridges called lamellae. They are like very fine hairs that attach to just about anything. Students at the University of Akron's Auburn Science Centre tested the ability of geckos to run along vertical teflon sheets. And yes, they could not cross it! By adding water, however, they ran along it quite happily. Apparently, the presence of moisture is a must for geckos to get around. Any surface that repels water is playground for geckos. An adhesive has been developed that will stick things together underwater based on research done on this interesting little creature. Science by Ty Buchanan http://www.adventure--australia.

Minerals are classified into species like animals. You would think that all minerals had been identified by scientists. This is not the case. A completely new mineral has been found in Australia at Polar Bear peninsula, Southern Lake Cowan. It is named after the two scientists who discovered it, Christine and Andrew Putnis based at the University of Münster in Germany. Putnisite is now among the 4,000 known minerals. It was found on the surface of Lake Cowan in Western Australia. The mineral is composed of tiny 0.5 mm diameter crystals in volcanic rock. Its crystals are square and in a range of colors: white, pink, purple and dark green. The mineral is composed of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, sulphur, calcium, strontium and chromium. It glistens as light can penetrate the substance. Unlike other minerals which belong to families similar in structure, putnisite is unique. Nature joins things together to form minerals. Scientist did not believe a blend of these bases cou

Spying is everywhere these days and researchers with employer backing are studying the way employees move during work tasks. They don't seem to care what effect this has on a workers mental state, considering you will have a contraption fitted that will go into the bathroom with you. The DorsaVi company based in Melbourne has developed a monitoring system called ViSafe. It attaches to the body by means of sticky pads that measures muscle impulses and body motion. Critically, it measures the speed at which one is moving. This will help to make the employee move faster by explaining that he/she does not move fast enough during work hours - hands up for running on the spot! Data are examined by the subject, researcher, workplace assessor, oh and another employee who is there to make up the numbers. Just where workplace assessor gets his skills and expertise from is a mystery. Like those wonderful abstract tests they give to job applicants that are never tested in real l