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What ingredients went into the galactic blender to create the Milky Way?

Our galaxy is a giant ‘smoothie’ of blended stars and gas but a new study tells us where the components came from

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In its early days, the Milky Way was like a giant smoothie, as if galaxies consisting of billions of stars, and an enormous amount of gas had been thrown together into a gigantic blender. But a new study picks apart this mixture by analysing individual stars to identify which originated inside the galaxy and which began life outside.

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Young adults with old knees: preventing arthritis after ACL knee injuries

Half of people who have ACL knee surgery get arthritis by 40, but exercise therapy study by La Trobe researcher / ex-AFLW footballer shows we can keep people active

Australians have the highest rates of ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) knee injuries worldwide, and young Australians are most at risk, with a 74% increase in knee surgery in people under 25 since 2000. Half the people who’ve had a knee reconstruction develop knee arthritis in their 30s, which means a less active lifestyle and potentially even a knee replacement in middle-age.

La Trobe University researcher Dr Brooke Patterson, a former basketballer and AFLW footballer, is driven by her own ACL injury to prevent the rise of this crippling condition and keep people playing sport for longer.

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Building a silicon quantum computer chip atom by atom

An atomic array in silicon paves the way for large scale devices

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A University of Melbourne led team have perfected a technique for embedding single atoms in a silicon wafer one-by-one. Their technology offers the potential to make quantum computers using the same methods that have given us cheap and reliable conventional devices containing billions of transistors.

“We could ‘hear’ the electronic click as each atom dropped into one of 10,000 sites in our prototype device. Our vision is to use this technique to build a very, very large-scale quantum device,” says Professor David Jamieson of The University of Melbourne, lead author of the Advanced Materials paper describing the process.

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Too much heavy metal stops stars producing

Stars evolve according to the elements they manufacture

Stars are giant factories that produce most of the elements in the Universe – including the elements in us, and in the Earth’s metal deposits. But what stars produce changes over time.

Two new papers published in MNRAS shed light on how the youngest generation of stars will eventually stop contributing metals back to the universe.

The authors are all members of ASTRO 3D, the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions. They are based at Monash University, the Australian National University (ANU), and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

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Closing in on the first light in the Universe

Research using new antennas in the Australian hinterland has reduced background noise and brought us closer to finding a 13-billion-year-old signal

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The early Universe was dark, filled with a hot soup of opaque particles. These condensed to form neutral hydrogen which coalesced to form the first stars in what astronomers call the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR).

“Finding the weak signal of this first light will help us understand how the early stars and galaxies formed,” says Dr Christene Lynch from ASTRO 3D, the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions.

Dr Lynch is first author on a paper published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. She and her colleagues from Curtin University and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research have reduced the background noise in their observations allowing them to home in on the elusive signal.

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2021 Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research

More ‘good cells’, safer treatments for leukaemia patients – Siok Tey, Brisbane

Making a virtual human cell to explore how we’re made and how we can regenerate damaged organs – Pengyi Yang, Sydney

WINNERS OF THE NATIONAL STEM CELL FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIA’S METCALF PRIZES ANNOUNCED TODAY

SCIENTISTS AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS:

Research to improve bone marrow transplantation and to use computer science to understand how stem cells work has won two Australian researchers $55,000 each in the annual Metcalf Prizes for Stem Cell Research, awarded by the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

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More ‘good cells’, safer treatments for leukemia patients

Associate Professor Siok Tey.
Credit: QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Associate Professor Siok Tey is researching treatments that will improve the survival and quality of life for her patients with leukaemia or other blood cancers.

“Bone marrow transplantation is an important form of treatment for blood cancers, but it cures only two-thirds of patients,” says Siok, a clinician researcher at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Siok will use her $55,000 Metcalf Prize to improve the outcomes of bone marrow transplantation, which rebuilds the blood and immune systems to protect patients from leukaemia relapse. Not all patients, however, stay in long-term remission, and the treatment often comes with serious side effects.

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Making a virtual human cell to explore how we’re made and how we can regenerate damaged organs

Dr Pengyi Yang. Credit: Children’s Medical Research Institute (CMRI)

 Dr Pengyi Yang plans to transform stem cell research.

“Today’s stem cell treatments have been the product of trial and error. My virtual stem cell will allow us to understand what’s happening inside a single stem cell that makes it decide what type of cell it will become, be it hair, skin, muscle, nerve, blood or other.”

He is mapping the many, complex influences that control stem cells and how they specialise into different cell types.

Pengyi is based at the Children’s Medical Research Institute and at The University of Sydney. He aims to remove much of the guess work from stem cell science and eventually stem cell medicine.

In recognition of his leadership in the field, Pengyi has received one of two annual $55,000 Metcalf Prizes from the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia.

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Securing global net zero: universities have solutions

  • Zero carbon flight is possible, and could be ready by 2030 (Leeds University)
  • Where should I plant my grapes in 2100? (University of Tasmania)
  • Understanding wildfire management with virtual reality projections (Penn State)
  • Floods, droughts, heatwaves, polar vortexes – warming oceans drive extreme weather (University of Bergen)
  • Understanding heat uptake across the Southern Ocean (UNSW Sydney)
  • Open-source solutions for direct carbon capture (NYU)
  • What does ‘net zero’ mean if you don’t have electricity? (University of Southampton)

Speakers available from universities across the world available for interview.

The 50 universities across the world who form the International Universities Climate Alliance are all working on ways we can secure global net zero. The Alliance was established in April 2020 and is convened by the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

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Rover ready for Australian Hospitals

ARTG listing for revolutionary lightweight x-ray machine

  • Globally unique new x-ray technology invented and made in Adelaide
  • Rover is a mobile digital x-ray imaging unit that’s lighter, cheaper, more robust, and more reliable than the competition
  • Micro-X has miniaturized X-ray tubes using carbon nanotube emitter technology that are one tenth of the weight of conventional glass tubes
  • Over 250 units operating in 30 countries around the world, first batch of Rover orders for Australia to be shipped.
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