Operations

Saving our species and the future of weeds: protecting biodiversity in a changing climate

Biodiversity Node at Macquarie University wins 2017 BHERT Award for Outstanding Collaboration for National (Non-Economic) Benefit

New South Wales is better placed to manage and protect its biodiversity in a changing climate thanks to the deeply collaborative work of the Biodiversity Node of the NSW Adaptation Research Hub, hosted by Macquarie University.

Since it was established in 2013, the Node has delivered research to support the management of biodiversity conservation in NSW under climate change. As a result of this research the Node has produced a suite of evidence-based online tools including:

Niche Finder: baseline maps of ecological ranges and climate niches
Threatened Species: metrics on the vulnerability of NSW threatened species to climate change
Weed Futures: predicting how weeds will respond to climate change
Climate Ready Vegetation: step-by-step instructions on revegetation planning for future climates.

2017 Metcalf Prizes – Media release

Building a blood cancer treatment from the ground up – Mark Dawson, Melbourne

How we and our stem cells get old – Jessica Mar, Brisbane

Winners of the National Stem Cell Foundation of Australia’s Metcalf Prizes announced

Scientists available for interviews

How we and our stem cells get old

Jessica Mar is analysing stem cells to discover the changes that influence ageing.

We all started life as a stem cell. Throughout our lives, stem cells repair and replace our tissues, but as we age they stop working as well. Understanding how this decline occurs is fundamental to understanding—and influencing—how we age. [Read more…] about How we and our stem cells get old

Building a blood cancer treatment from the ground up

Mark Dawson has helped to build a new drug to fight an aggressive form of blood cancer, discovering the basic science of gene expression in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), developing the drug to block that action, and leading an international clinical trial to test it.

Mark first explored how genes function in leukaemia, then identified molecules that interrupt the key genetic instructions that perpetuate cancer cells. The drug subsequently developed to treat AML is now the subject of more than 50 clinical trials around the world. [Read more…] about Building a blood cancer treatment from the ground up

Stunted, obese and unhealthy: can cocoa help rebuild impoverished communities?

In West Sulawesi, 400,000 families depend on cocoa farming. But downturns in price and production are pushing families into poverty, with profound implications for public health.

Fifty per cent of children stunted, 90 per cent of males smoking, and an increasing number of obese women. These were the results from a health and livelihood survey of 140 households in the subdistricts of Anreapi and Mapili.A team of Indonesian and Australian researchers want to address these issues.

The households surveyed are all located in cocoa-producing villages, and they’re under strain with the downturn in Indonesia’s cocoa production. So the team is looking at links between smallholder productivity, health and livelihood, to identify which public health factors have the biggest impact on livelihood in cocoa farming areas.

Cocoa is currently a major livelihood provider for farming families across Indonesia. The supply chain supports more than 400,000 smallholder families, as well as enterprises and services. The crop also provides essential products for international export, including to Australia.

[Read more…]

Renewable ‘alternatives’ cheapest option for Australia, Indonesia

Electricity from photovoltaics and wind are likely the cheapest options for large-scale energy generation in both Australia and Indonesia, according to research from the Australian National University (ANU) and Institut Teknologi Bandung, supported by The Australia-Indonesia Centre.

“Reductions in the cost of photovoltaics and wind, coupled with developments in high-voltage direct current (HVDC) and off-river pumped hydro energy storage, allows photovoltaic and wind to strongly compete with all fossil, nuclear and renewable alternatives,” says Professor Andrew Blakers, who led the project along with Dr Rachmildha Tri Desmana.

“Indeed, photovoltaic and wind are the cheapest options for new large-scale generation capacity in both Australia and Indonesia.”

Reinventing the laser

Caring for Country in Arnhem Land
Macquarie University Eureka Prize winners

Macquarie University congratulates its winners in the 2017 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes and the winner of the Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher.

High-power diamond lasers invented at Macquarie University

High-power lasers have many potential applications: from medical imaging to manufacturing, shooting down drones or space junk, or powering deep space probes. But current laser technologies overheat at high power.

Rich Mildren and his team have developed a technique to make diamond lasers that, in theory, have extraordinary power range. Five years ago, their lasers were just a few watts in power. Now they’ve reached 400 watts, close to the limit for comparable conventional lasers.

Rich Mildren won the Defence Science and Technology Eureka Prize for Outstanding Science in Safeguarding Australia.

Reinventing the laser

High-power diamond lasers, invented at Macquarie University, Eureka finalist

Their calculations suggest that their diamond laser technology could handle over a thousand times the current power. They’ve also shown that they can use diamond to focus multiple laser beams into a single beam. And they can create almost any frequency of light.

Diamond is an outstanding optical material and exceptionally good at dissipating heat. But it’s not very good at generating a laser beam as its dense structure makes it difficult to introduce the impurity additives normally needed to amplify light. Until now.