Adventure Ausrama Blog

The fossil of a fish much like a piranha appears to be the earliest flesh-eating fish. It was found in Germany. Having teeth similar to a piranha it lived 150 million years ago. Remains of its victims were found nearby. It mainly ate the fins of fish. Evolving to consume only fins was a survival mechanism. Fish that were attacked did not die immediately. They survived to provide a meal another day. The hunter's teeth were triangular. With serrated edges, they were ideal for cutting flesh. Initially, bony fish could only bite chunks of flesh out of prey or swallow them whole. Slicing of flesh appeared much later. The hunting method of the fossilized fish was identical to modern-day piranhas. Injuries to the attacked were the same. The ancient specimen was a sea dweller. Piranhas live only in fresh water. Oddly, some piranhas are vegetarians mainly eating seeds. They are a normal food for South American people who say they taste like any other fish. It is not understood why they...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body, makes absolutely stupid findings. It says coal use will have to be completely stopped within 22 years or Australia's Great Barrier Reef will be destroyed. Saying that all cars will have to stop by 2050 is also ignoring reality. Without coal power stations most electricity production will cease. Using oil to create electrical power pushes the same amount of greenhouse gases into the environment as coal. Solar and wind will never make enough current to power air conditioners, fridges and ovens. Hydro just gives a starting base to major city demand. Tidal is just for small villages. Nuclear is a danger unto itself - never viable. The world will continue on its merry way. The standard of living will be maintained. Future generations will suffer. It is obvious that the Great Barrier Reef will die. The whole planet will become toxic. We face this: inundation of coastal cities as the oceans rise due to melti...

Live to be 150 years old. But can you afford it? To live that long will take genetic manipulation and intensive drug therapy. Research has shown that the primary thing extending life is diet. Remove processed food completely and you will live longer. That is all processed food. New evidence shows that people did live into their eighties centuries ago. Note, there were no processed foods then. Meat and vegetable were eaten every meal. Even bread kept the attributes of the grain. What brings the average life-span down is the large number of people dying in accidents. Suicide is another factor. Improved health care will extend life over coming decades. That is if taxpayers can afford it, which is doubtful. Much is said about good genes predisposing a person for a long life. However, personality is important. How you choose to live determines longevity. Good food. regular exercise and mixing socially are major factors. It is important to be positive. Keeping the brain acti...

From what you read you would think that genetic science is going ahead in leaps and bounds. Really it has been stuck in the same place for a decade. Ninety percent of human genes are not studied because they are too complicated. These genes impact on people just as much as the 10 percent of "easy" ones. Most genes are inside cell nuclei so they are difficult to get to. However, dealing with the obvious is not sustainable. The 90 percent have to be studied. Hardly any funding at all is allocated to lesser known gene research. Scientific papers keep on regurgitating the familiar. PHD students have tunnel vision. Industry can provide a firm basis to examine the known. The little known has no industrial foundation. A study to apply existing learning tools to the neglected genes failed as people moved back to what is safe. Clearly, scientific principles are not being applied. Critical knowledge to identify what is true about DNA is being selectively ignored. Throwing out the ...

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...