Adventure Ausrama Blog

In the 1930s Australian sugar cane was being destroyed by the grey-backed cane beetle and the French beetle. They are both native to Australia. Scientists looked abroad for a solution. They made the biggest mistake in Australia's history. Cane toads were brought in from Hawaii in 1935. They bred impressively in captivity: this should have been a warning sign. Beetles in Hawaii are not the same as Australian types. Ignoring potential danger 102 young toads were released In Innisfall, Cairns and Gordonvale. Entomologist, Walter Froggatt announced that there would be a disaster - he was right. Their population exploded across the country. Cane toads did not eat the beetles damaging sugar cane. They devoured native insects, other amphibians and reptiles. Furthermore, creatures that eat them die because they are poisonous. Fortunately, there has been a breakthrough that could see the end to the dangerous pest. Their DNA has been sequenced. Three viruses have been identified t

The world is changing and it is in a destructive way. Long term employment is fading from sight.  Technology is destroying existing industries. The situation has never been so bad. Even now, 268,000 Australians have been retrenched. It is forecast that 40 percent of jobs will disappear over the next 15 years. companies are improving efficiency and productivity by cutting working hours. Many countries have moved to the soul destroying employment by the hour. As more work is done be "machines" labor demand declines. Global competition is causing this. Perhaps this is why tariffs are back. When the economic structure changes it impacts on political structures. There is a loop here. If wages fall, demand declines as well.  A new business has opened in Australia. If you complete their ten week course, you are guaranteed a job. No work and you get your money back. This is aimed at tech people. Yes, even a growing sector is casting off workers. Academy Xi could be on

Wheat rust is continuing to destroy wheat crops. Up to 70 percent of a farmer's crop can wilt due to rust. A disaster is just around the corner as a third of the world's population in all climates relies on this commodity. Csiro, the University of Sydney, John Innes Centre (UK) and the National Institute of Agriculture Botany (UK) have identified three key genes that sustain the disease. Research has brought to light how the genes work in stripe rust. All three genes were cloned using mutational genomics. Editing of genes could make wheat genes that are susceptible to rust become active again. They could then fight the disease. Much more work needs to be done but the future looks bright. ch genes yu rust or wheat sh zhang fe resistance = an genes eh rust er wheat do zhang st resistance jo gene mi stripe al csiro re university = up genes by rust aa wheat so zhang ba resistance of gene bi stripe to csiro if university za research be sydney ob work et scientists l

Since 1986 the proportion of biology students who believe that God had no hand in evolution has risen from 25 percent to over 60 percent. The study was set up 32 years ago at the University of New South Wales by Mike Archer. In the first year 10 percent were creationists. They were adamant that their figure would rise over the years. Unfortunately, their confidence was not well founded: now it has fallen to 4 percent. Time changes everything. To get another perspective, the number who felt that God guided the evolution of humankind fell from half to a quarter of respondents. All this is bad for those of a religious persuasion. Despite the push by religionists, non-believers are winning out. Anyone with a rational mind can see there is no one God and there certainly are no multiple Gods. The gods of ancient Egyptians disappeared when Rome decreed that Christianity was the state religion throughout the Roman empire. There is a tendency for new religions to adopt many of t

A fragment of a long bone from a hominid at least 13 years old shows that it had a Denisovan father and Neanderthal mother. The specimen was found in Denisova Cave in Russia in 2012. Because it was found indicates that other cross breeding occurred. Neanderthals obviously migrated to eastern Eurasia from western Europe. They were not "stuck" in regions around the Iberian Peninsular. Genetic analysis shows that the father of the Neanderthal/Denisovan adolescent also had some Neanderthal ancestry, so the groups were coexisting in the east. It is believed by scientists that Neanderthals interbred with humans and had fertile young. However, this is not possible as Neanderthals have 24 pairs of chromosomes while humans have 23. Interbreeding of Denisovans and Neanderthals could occur as they both had 24 pairs of chromosomes. + so denisovan is neanderthal us dna ox humans a denisovans i fossil oh mother ah genes by mixed id years + ~ ha denisovan in neanderthal on dna an hum

No security can be claimed for Australia's new My Health Record. Staff at hospitals can download patient records from the central database, copy them, then take the information home. Password gateways are useless. No hacking is needed. Records have been kept for years on people in hospitals anyway. Many have found that they already have an MHR record when they attempt to opt-out. After October 15 clearing your data is not possible. It cannot be deleted, only cancelled - whatever that means. Apparently, cancelled records will be kept in the cloud for 30 years. Don't be fooled. Governments can bring in new rules to access them. Politicians of all colors know the future will be Orwellian. There will be nowhere to hide and everything about you will be known by the state. The government started My Health Record without your consent six years ago. It was called the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR). A patient was pestered after release from hospital. He r

It is estimated that 1.2 million Australians have diabetes. There has been an increase of 300 percent in the last 15 years. Those with lower incomes are twice as likely to contract the disease as higher income earners. More people die of diabetes in  rural areas, particularly Aboriginals. Furthermore, Diabetic women are 27 percent more likely to get cancer, usually kidney, stomach or oral. The rate for men is 19 percent. The reason for this difference is not known. The belief that anti-oxidants extend life has been disproven in animal trials. However, it is planned to treat the ailment by giving supplements of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ). Hopefully, this will raise the level of oxidants thus preventing pre-dabetes. It has been found that a genetic disposition will change gut microbiota before type 1 diabetes expresses itself. Eating the "wrong" food interacts with the unhealthy microbiota and this detrimentally affects the way sugar levels are controlled. Ryzodeg in