Science In Public
Science writers, communicators, media, training, and public relations
Within 5 km of News Limited in Holt Street, Sydney for example there are reports of at least 3,500 different animal species, and 2,400 plant species.
ABC Southbank in Melbourne is a neighbour to more than1200 animals and 519 plants. In the coming months the records will be more detailed as institutions add their records. [Read more…] about What’s living in your street?
A coming together and genetic merging of an American plant with an African or Asian plant one or two million years ago produced the ancestor of the bush that now provides 90% of the world’s commercial cotton. And although the resulting plant has been domesticated and changed genetically by breeding over thousands of year, it retains a genetic structure and capacity which is conducive to further modification. [Read more…] about How cotton was born
They’ve got a long way to go, but the concept illustrates the power of modern botany to deliver everything from new medicines, to functional foods, and customised biofuels. More below.
Also at the International Botanical Congress in Melbourne today: IdentifyLife will empower everyone to identify plants and animals. Make way for the microbes – can plants help us create a sustainable future or do we need to turn to microbes? [Read more…] about Growing drugs, Identify life and make way for microbes. Wednesday at Botanical Congress
They’re a long way from that outcome. But, as they reported to the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne today, they have already shown that sunflowers make a precursor to cancer drugs as part of their defence against insect attack. [Read more…] about Could we grow drugs using sunflowers?
Can we rely on them in the future? Or will it be the era of the microbes. [Read more…] about Make way for the microbes?
A plant name dispute that has bubbled away for a decade has finally been resolved at the XVIII International Botanical Congress in Melbourne.
The species concerned are the acacias, which until now has included the Australian wattles and the thorn trees of the Serengeti—both highly recognisable and iconic groups of plants. [Read more…] about The Acacia debate
Key decisions of the Nomenclature Section of the XVIII IBC
Written by Nicholas Turland
The Nomenclature Section met for five days, 18–22 July 2011, to discuss proposals to amend the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. The more significant changes to the Code are outlined below and will be put to Congress for ratification on Saturday. [Read more…] about Decisions of the Congress on nomenclature
Climate change is already changing the environment of the established “terroirs” of Australian wines, such as the Coonawarra and the Barossa Valley, says Prof Snow Barlow of the University of Melbourne.
But it won’t be the end of winemaking as we know it. Our wines will just evolve. [Read more…] about The vines they are a-changin’
Some recent projects: ASTRO 3D, MindEar, Cortical Labs (Dishbrain), Illumina, ABC, World Mining Congress 2023.