Archive for the 'Biology' Category

Dark Science

Published on September 28, 2009 in Biology, News, Recorded Talks and Podcasts, Technology, events and science. 0 Comments

Dark Science at the Powerhouse MuseumUltimo science Festival may be over but the stories keep coming. We got a lot of coverage for our dark science nights in August. Here are just a few links to stories about the science of fear and pain;
1. Natasha Mitchell – the host of Dark Science presents All in The Mind on Radio National and has her take on the nights here.
2. 10daysofscience the NSW National Science Week committee’s great news blog about NSWk told a few stories about dark science here, here , here, here, here and here.

Take a look and tell us what you think.

Sydney Crochet Coral Reef

Published on March 27, 2009 in Biology, Climate, News, coral reef, craft, crochet, events, geometry, hyperbolic, mathematics, modeling and modelling. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Not long ago I wrote about the Museum presenting the Sydney Crochet Coral Reef as part of Ultimo Science Festival in August.

courtesy of In stitches

Well the In stitches Collective will be in the museum this Sunday March 29 from 3-5pm running a workshop. Wether you are an experienced crocheter who wants to be part of this global phenomena or an inexperienced crocheter, the workshop will cater for you.

To take part simply turn up at the Powerhouse on Sunday, normal Museum entry applies but this will also let you come back to workshops each month and into the exhibition in August.

All workshop participants will have the opportunity to submit completed coral pieces for possible inclusion in the exhibition.

Future workshops
April 26, May 31, June 29, July 30
3-5pm
Powerhouse Museum
Free with Museum entry

August 8th
Exhibition 10-2pm
Workshop 12-2pm
Powerhouse Discovery Centre
Cost: TBC

Darwin in museums

Published on March 20, 2009 in Biology, History, NSW, News and Reviews. 0 Comments

Last chance to see Darwin at the NMA, Canberra

Darwin’s original notebooks used on the Beagle and a reconstruction of his study share the stage with living plants and animals in the Darwin exhibition at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. The exhibition, which is organised by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, will be closing on Sunday 29 March.

The accompanying NMA exhibition, Darwin and Australia, showing Darwin’s experiences and encounters during his visit to Australia, closes on the same day.

Maritime exhibition on Darwin at sea opens in Sydney

Join Charles Darwin aboard the Beagle in Charles Darwin – voyages and ideas that shook the world, at the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, opening Friday 20 March. See how Darwin lived aboard the Beagle and examine some of the specimens he collected on the voyage which set him on the path to his theory of evolution.

Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, a symposium In the wake of the Beagle: Science in the Southern Oceans from the Age of Darwin is being held at the National Maritime Museum on 20-21 March. Internationally acclaimed speakers will explore the work of Darwin and his contemporaries, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace, and their influence on current scientific research.

And also at the ANMM, Happy Birthday Mr Darwin on Thursday 26 March. What were the contributions of artist Conrad Martens, who spent a year on the Beagle, and Joseph Hooker, who classified Darwin’s Galapagos plants and became his greatest friend.

Could you be a CSI and identify blood spatters

Published on February 26, 2009 in Biology, News, Reviews and Technology. 0 Comments

Blood spatter from New Scientist
This just in from New scientist
Bloodstain analysts claim to be able to identify how a bloodstain was created – whether by dragging, dripping, or impact at close range – simply by looking at it. But no-one has tested the accuracy with which they can do this until now.

Brian Gestring of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, conducted a preliminary study in which 92 professional analysts and 65 non-experts were asked to name the mechanism by which ten different blood patterns were created. The blood patterns were not from real crime scenes, but were recreated using animal blood.

He found that the experts got it right 97% of the time, while laypeople guessed correctly in 21% of cases. The study, which was presented at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver, Colorado, last week, is a first step towards being able to quantify an error rate for bloodstain analysis. Jurors could be presented with the error rates when hearing evidence in court.

The next step will be to recreate an entire crime scene and test the ability of analysts to interpret what has happened.

See the New Scientist quiz here I got 80% – how did you do?

Links
New Scientist

How do you combine multi dimensional mathematics, the great barrier reef and hand crafts

Published on February 4, 2009 in Biology, Climate, Energy, News and Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

http://sydneyreef.blogspot.com/ image from Institute For Figuring
The answer is the Sydney crochet coral reef. An offspring of the crochet coral reef presented by Margaret and Christine Wertheim and initiated by The Institute For Figuring, originally inspired by geometric models of hyperbolic space developed by mathematician Dr Daina Taimina in 1997.

Hyperbolic space is intriguing on its own with a complex relationship to the work of Einstein to mention just one. As an idea though it is another in that long running set of understanding changes that lead to new understanding of the world. It is something that everyone should try and think about at least once.

That is where the Coral reef and crochet come into it. Dr Taimina discovered that one of the simplest ways to represent the growth of hyperbolic space was to crochet it. If you crochet the right pattern you form shapes reminiscent of hyperbolic space. What’s more when you look at your crocheted things you discover they are also reminiscent of coral. Another little known fact is that coral and a number of other marine organisms grow in hyperbolic ways.

Put it all together as the Wertheim sisters did and you have a hyperbolic crocheted coral reef. Three Sydney artists have been inspired to build/grow their own. In stitches, the Sydney reef artists, are calling on the community to join their collective of coral reef crocheters (is that the word). Get a group of like minded people and crochet away.

While you crochet think about hyperbolic spaces, discuss the demise of Euclid’s fifth axiom, you could also discuss the parallels between that and the decline in coral reefs around the world, or why it is that you know so few mathematicians and yet maths is all around you.

So who wants to live forever?

Published on December 19, 2008 in Biology, Health, NSW, News and The Future. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Prof. David Handelsman, Director, ANZAC Research Institute
http://www.anzac.edu.au asks

What is the SECRET OF HEALTHY AGING IN MEN?

A research team at the Andrology Department of Concord Hospital’s ANZAC Research Institute is interested in this question and collaborates with the Prince Henrys Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne to evaluate the testosterone levels of healthy Australian men over 40 years of age.

Thanks to improved health Australia will see men over the age of 65 nearly triple from the present 1.4 million to an estimated 3.6 million in 2051. As a result a key National Research Priority is to promote healthy, enjoyable and productive independent living for older men for as long as possible.

One widely discussed possibility to improve the health of older men could be testosterone treatment. Testosterone is the major male sex hormone and it decreases gradually with age. Restoring levels to those of young men might reverse some physical ailments of older men. However, it is not yet clear if and when such treatment is needed or whether it is beneficial. That probably depends on how well maintained or low a man’s own blood testosterone levels are.

A crucial first step in deciding whether testosterone treatment for middle aged and older men might be useful is to establish reliable normal ranges for blood testosterone levels of healthy men as they get older. This would help work out which men might benefit from treatment and who do not need treatment. Though it is already known from other studies in Australia and overseas that testosterone levels do decline slowly with age, previous studies had methods that were not sufficiently reliable to provide a proper guide for such treatment for Australian men.

For this purpose the research team is evaluating the health of 200 men at 5 short visits over a period of three months. No drug treatments are administered, but extensive blood testing will be performed.
This study is supported by the MBF Foundation.

If you are interested in being a part of this study that may be changing the way aging is treated in the 21st century you can be a part of this study.

OR if you know a man over 40 who feels very well, he might be an ideal candidate for the “HEALTHY MAN STUDY”!

Interested men please call the Andrology department on: (02) 9767 7222 or e-mail to: healthyman@anzac.edu.au

The Unhumble T-shirt that costs the earth

Published on October 7, 2008 in Biology, Energy, For Beginners, History, News, Technology, The Future, Transport and Water. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

http://flickr.com/photos/85389265@N00/1517461714
img:http://flickr.com/photos/85389265@N00/1517461714
This is a great short movie detailing the hidden impacts of that T-shirt that looks so good on you. Watch it here. Kristian Labusga tells the tale of this style icon that walks with a heavy footprint. When we take into account all the activity that goes into producing a 250 gram shirt we can be wearing 4tonnes of resources on our backs. Literally carrying the world on your shoulders.

Wouldn’t it be good if everything we bought came with the stories of all the people and places it involved in its creation, all the many extras that made it happen. For your t-shirt that would be the cotton farmer, the truck driver the ship captain the weaver the dyer the sewer. It would mean the water, the pesticides, the chemical, bleaches, inks and packaging, the fuel oil. But all we care about is the designer and the design.

And that is just a T-shirt, what about a television, a car, a mobile phone, or in fact a phone call. When it only costs a few cents or dollars the impacts are easy to ignore, but they are just as real. What answer would you get if you asked your retailer to tell you where the cotton came from in that new shirt, the leather in your new shoes or the gold in your new phone. If we knew there were real people toiling to make our lives happen would we be more concious of the power of our money?

How aware are you of where the things you have come from, how they get here and what will happen to them when you are done?

Giant squid on the dissection table at Museum Victoria

Published on July 18, 2008 in Biology, News, Recorded Talks and Podcasts, Reviews and Uncategorised. 0 Comments

Giant Squid on the wharf after being brought to Melbourne on board a fishing boat
Giant Squid on the wharf after being brought to Melbourne on board a fishing boat Photographer: David Paul. Image source: University of Melbourne

Now this is fascinating. You will probably never get the chance to see this happening. A giant squid caught by fishers off Victoria is dissected in a public forum. Rarely caught whole and hardly ever seen in captivity this is a great video for anyone with a interest in Australia’s natural history.

With expert commentary from Dr Mark Norman, world-renowned squid expert and Deputy Head of Science (Marine Zoology), Museum Victoria.

They even talk about squid that can fly. Now that is amazing.

Anyway check it out here

James Watsons genome published

Published on April 30, 2008 in Biology, Health, History, News, Technology and The Future. 0 Comments

Last week the co-discoverer of the double helix, James Watson, had his genome published in the journal Nature. His was the second genome published. The first cost billions. Watson’s genome cost just a few hundred thousand. The first published genome was that of geneticist Craig venter.
Craig ventner genome

In a decade your personal genetic code will be available for a thousand dollars or so. “This news is the crest of a giant wave in personal genomics that is coming,” says US geneticist Eddy Rubin, who is visiting Melbourne this week to mark the first ten years of Australia’s national genome research facility (the AGRF).

Rubin’s particular interests are in harnessing genomics to unlock the secrets of biofuels. Currently the biofuel feedstock of choice, in the US especially, is corn, but it is a really inefficient, carbon-intensive way of producing biofuels.

Rubin is investigating a variety of alternatives, including grasses and trees that can be grown on non-agricultural lands, and bacteria that can easily convert cellulose-rich plant fibres into useful biofuels.

Today Australian researchers firmly agreed that with the new tools available the cost of genome science is dramatically reduced, making it far more accessible.

“It’s now the right time for Australia to fund the generation of genomic data to enable us to understand and manage the genetic information of our native flora and fauna,” says Sue Forrest, Director of the AGRF.

from science in public

Pregnant man

Published on April 4, 2008 in Biology and The Future. 1 Comment

Pregnant man at the powerhouse museumYou are probably very aware of the “is he or isn’t he” stories going around about a real pregnant man, I am not going to wade into those arguments but just remind you all that we had a discussion here about the ethics of male pregnancy during Ultimo Science Festival 2007. You can see pictures and read more here.

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