Adventure Ausrama Blog

Forget your plastics. There is a naturally occurring material with better properties. It is produced in the nests of the Australian masked bee. The substance is resistant to fire and repels water. Furthermore, it is very strong. A company called the Humble Bee located on New Zealand is reverse-engineering the cellophane-like material in an attempt to create a biodegradable substitute for plastic.  If successful, world pollution will be substantially reduced. We are so dependent on things made from oil. The little bees sourced from Noosa in Queensland hold out great hope for a reduction in such products. A way of trapping the Hylaeus nubilosus has been developed by Chris Fuller of Kin Kin. Veronica Harwood-Stevenson has spent her house deposit and winnings from the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency's Bright Ideas Challenge on the project. It is in the early stages. Ways of manufacturing are being studied. The aim is to initially make outdoor apparel and ...

The platypus is a peculiar creature. When first brought to England and put on display, it was said to be a fake made up of parts of other animals. For centuries it was just an oddity. Only recently it was found to have stingers. The venom is painful though not lethal to humans. This poison contains a useful chemical. A hormone, glucagon-like peptide-1 (or GLP-1), stimulates the release of insulin. Investigation is ongoing to find out if GLP-1 can be used to treat type 2 diabetes with GLP-1. Usual medication break down in the body fast. Human disease related to sugar control, or lack of it, is a stomach issue. GLP-1 is produced in the "stomach" as well as the stinger of the monotreme. The platypus genome project in 2008 showed that the animal has discarded a massive number of digestive genes, so it does not have a fully-functional stomach. The new wonder hormone breaks down very slowly. A more effective treatment may be on the way. Funding of $200,000 has been given by ...

According to new research humans purposefully set out to reach Australia. It seems scientists can read minds now - what a great leap forward! Seriously though, knowing what individuals are thinking is an impossible thing to do, largely because people perceive settings differently. No two people are exactly alike not even twins. Perception is a function of consciousness as perceived through the senses which differs for everyone. Sea levels were lower in 65,000 BP, so islands off the coast of northern Australia could be seen from high points on islands off Indonesia. There is a problem here, however, in that there are major racial differences between Australian Aboriginals and Indonesians. Surely, some dark skinned inhabitants of the South East Asian archipelago would have remained and interbred with "typical" Asians we see today. Note, Papua New Guineans are different than Australian "natives". To say that an assembly of about 100 boats were organized...

Jellyfish are spineless little devils. I do mean that in a good way. They are the most efficient swimmers on Earth, pulling their way forward rather than pushing. The "immortal jellyfish" rises phoenix-like from the dead. When it dies the decomposing body puts out stolon stalks which become babies. They are rapidly increasing in the world's oceans due mainly to Man. Most variations breed under man-made marine structures such as piers. The killing off of predatory fish for human food allows the transparent creatures to vastly increase in number. Cyaneidae have caused many problems over the years. Those going for a swim regularly get stung. In 2006 the seemingly invulnerable USS Ronald Reagan was put out of action by masses of jellyfish clogging the cooling system. Power plants and desalination facilities have also been stalled. Two million workers became unemployed when the comb jelly native to North America invaded the Black Sea in 1980 and destroyed anchovy...

Corals at high-latitude locations in Australia, i.e., towards the south, can change their chemistry in order to adapt to colder conditions. Unfortunately, the sea is heating up not cooling down. The analysis was done by the Australian Research Centre (ARC) at the University of WA. (Australia western). A warmer ocean could be expected to slow down coral growth in Bremer Bay but the animals altered their chemical composition. Indeed, they are flourishing. It seems that growing in a cold condition is what they do best. The two-year study showed that it is only tropical reefs that are under threat. There is more food available in cooler regions. By extrapolation it can be surmised that corals situated in hotter areas get less nutrition with global warming. % ai corals za high-latitude oh reefs gu internal ex coral el chemistry oi growth ta temperatures % + a corals i high-latitude oh reefs ah internal by coral id chemistry my growth ax temperatures as ross an cooler am wester...

Australian scientists are discovering new Species every day. It certainly seems this way. Spiders are on the new knowledge table at the moment. Many have been unknowingly in the Queensland museum for a very long time. The new arachnids are in the Dendrolycosa, Dolomedes, Ornodolomedes, Megadolomedes and Mangromedes genera. They are all spiders of the water. New ones in the Ornodolmedes category are the most beautiful of all. Striking patterns and colors abound. The Queensland Museum Network includes existing collections and field trips by scientists recording discoveries. New kinds of arthropods have been found in all Australian states as well as New Caledonia Naming of recent additions have taken a turn as well. They carry the names of celebrities such Mick Fanning, Jack Nicholson and Professor Brian Greene. Soon there will be Blondie, Boy George or perhaps Kiss. Jokes aside, This is an interesting field. Why are there so many spiders that hunt on the surface of water?...

It is accepted that early photography was a difficult path for an enthusiast to take. Cameras were bulky and heavy. The person who took photos had to be a virtual specialist chemist. It is so different from the ease of trapping a moment in the present. A pioneer in this field was Ducos du Haurun a brilliant Frenchman. He took color photographs. Three different colored filters were used to capture negative shots developed on gelatin film. The yellow, red and blue layers were then assembled to produce a single print. Over time, Ducos du Hauron introduced practises to speed up the process. French investigators have analyzed some of the 18th century pictures. They used x-ray florescent spectroscopy, synchrotron-based infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy to determine the chemicals used as pigments for the different colors. Photographs taken in 1878 showed that Prussian blue was the ingredient used for the blue gelatin layer. Carmine lake was the foundation pigmen...