Australasian Science: Australia's authority on science since 1938
Expert Opinion
Experts pick apart the veracity of claims made in research papers and the media.
Gene Editing for Conservation Needs In-Built Protection
By Australian Science Media Centre
Researchers have been considering using gene drives to rid New Zealand of invasive pests, but have they adequately estimated the issues and addressed indigenous rights?
Gene drive technology in any implementation is powerful and risky, and thus a precautionary approach to all stages of its development and release is critical. New Zealand already has the most advanced risk management systems in the world for biosecurity and the release of new organisms, including genetically modified ones. Gene editing is only an extension of existing genetic modification which, once established in the wild, usually becomes irreversible.
Australia's Space Agency to Land in Adelaide
By AusSMC
Australia’s Space Agency will touch down in Adelaide by mid-2019. It is hoped that it will help triple Australia’s space economy to $12 billion by 2030.
Mr Warwick Holmes is the Executive Director of Space Engineering at the University of Sydney
"I welcome the decision for the Australian Space Agency to be based in South Australia. The state has a long and successful history of previous space engineering endeavours, including the Europa 1 to 10 launches at Woomera by ELDO, the precursor to the European Space Agency.
Autism Link to Traffic Pollution Exposure During Pregnancy
By Australian Science Media Centre
Exposure to traffic pollution during pregnancy has been linked to an increased risk of autism.
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NASA has Mars InSight
By AusSMC
NASA's InSight lander has touched down on Mars after spending almost 7 months travelling through space. Its mission is to measure the temperature of the red planet and listen out for any earthquakes to help scientists understand more about the interior of the planet.
Ms Kim Ellis, Director International Earth & Space Technology Pty Ltd
"As our global civilisation moves closer to developing technology which can both transport and provide life support for humans across the vast distances required to get to Mars, missions such as Insight provide us with data and insights critical to understanding challenges.
The Persistent Killer of Killer Whales
By AusSMC
Killer whales are at risk due to PCB contamination despite a near-global ban more than 30 years ago. The threat affects more than half of the world’s orcas, and whale populations near industrialised regions and at the top of the food-chain are at a high risk of population collapse over the next 100 years.
This valuable study in Science (https://goo.gl/KuEN9u) extends previous work within the author team, which found alarming levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in North Atlantic killer whales, and further, found these levels to have an immunotoxicological impact. The author team showed that PCB-mediated effects on reproduction and immune function threaten the long-term viability of more than 50% of the world’s killer whale populations. Indeed, in a number of populations today there is strong evidence of reduced fertility and even complete cessation of reproduction.
Mozzies Knocked out with Gene Drive
By AusSMC
Researchers say they've successfully used a CRISPR-based gene drive to cause the collapse of a population of caged malaria-carrying mosquitoes by targeting a gene that determines whether an individual mosquito develops as a male or a female.
Research article: A CRISPR–Cas9 gene drive targeting doublesex causes complete population suppression in caged Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes. Nature Biotechnology https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4245
Dr Gordana Rasic is a senior research officer in the Mosquito Control Group, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
"In this study, scientists created a new gene drive that disrupts development of female malarial mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae) and causes their caged populations to crash.
The Biodiversity Benefits of Limiting Warming to 1.5°C
By Australian Science Media Centre
Global temperatures are on track to rise by 3.2°C by 2100. A new study estimates that if this occurs, 26% of vertebrates, 49% of insects and 44% of plants would be unable to survive in about half of the areas they currently inhabit, compared with just 4% of vertebrates, 6% of insects and 8% of plants if warming is limited to 1.5°C.
A paper just published in Science by a UK and Australian collaboration … is a mighty effort as a piece of research, but it’s also a mighty effort in trying to paint a silver lining on a thundercloud. Habitat loss of species is a good proxy for pressures towards extinction, and this paper simultaneously tells us how many species we could “save”’ by delivering on the Paris agreement. The problem is that the subtext outlines our actual effects on the demise of the world’s species and adds another 150,000 species or so on top of past and vast efforts to measure it.
What the Federal Budget Means for Science
Experts comment on how the 2018-19 Federal Budget will impact research, health and science.
Andrew Holmes is President of the Australian Academy of Science
"This is a good budget for science. It reflects the long-term and strategic approach that is needed for Australia to benefit from science and innovation at a global scale."
Australia’s national supercomputers give scientists across government, industry and universities the processing power for the complex scientific computations needed in an advance society including accurate weather forecasts, drug development, and large-scale astronomy.
First Stars May Have Revealed the Dark Matter Particle
By Alan Duffy
CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory has detected a faint silhouette of the first stars after the Big Bang. Its extreme coldness indicates the existence of the dark matter particle.
Radiation from the intense light of the first stars, in particular Lyman alpha, altered giant clouds of gas 180 million years after the Big Bang. These clouds then blocked the light of the afterglow of that Big Bang, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We see these clouds silhouetted against the fireball all around us. The continuing growth of stars, and the first galaxies, eventually heated that gas until it itself began to glow within just 100 million years.
Ozone Levels Still Decreasing Away from Poles
By AusSMC
While ozone levels in the upper atmosphere near the poles have been recovering, new research has found that the bottom part of the ozone layer at more populated latitudes is not recovering.
The worst ozone-depleting substances are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other volatile chemicals containing chlorine or bromine. Emissions of these substances have been drastically reduced by international agreement, under the Montreal Protocol, to ban or restrict their production and consumption. As a result (we’d like to believe), the decline in the stratospheric ozone concentration has been arrested and there are some signs of recovery.
