Australasian Science: Australia's authority on science since 1938
Online Feature
How antibiotics enable pathogenic gut infections
Study pinpoints ways to counter the effects of the antibiotics-driven depletion of friendly, gut-dwelling bacteria.
A number of intestinal pathogens can cause problems after antibiotic administration, said Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the senior author of a study published in Nature.
"Antibiotics open the door for these pathogens to take hold. But how, exactly, that occurs hasn't been well understood," Sonnenburg said.
Shroom to grow: Australia's missing psychedelic science
By Stephen Bright (Curtin University) and Martin Williams (Monash University)
A recent Norwegian study on psychedelic drugs and psychological well-being not only highlighted fewer mental health issues among users of these drugs but also underscored the reinvigoration of scientific research in a field maligned since the moral panic of the 1960s.
A recent Norwegian study on psychedelic drugs and psychological well-being not only highlighted fewer mental health issues among users of these drugs but also underscored the reinvigoration of scientific research in a field maligned since the moral panic of the 1960s.
Frankenfooty: Essendon's mixed bag of supplements
By Ian Musgrave
Essendon's players were exposed to worthless or unproven treatments at best, and rank pseudoscience at worst.
The list of charges by the AFL against the Essendon Football Club for its alleged supplements program makes for compelling reading. Early on in the Essendon charge sheet is this paragraph, which sets the stage for the tragedy that is the whole doping scandal:
Australian Antarctic science is being frozen out by budget cuts
By Matt King, University of Tasmania
Despite rising costs, the government this year handed an 8% budget cut to the Australian Antarctic Division.
A hundred years after Australian explorer and geologist Douglas Mawson returned from his epic scientific adventures in Antarctica, Australia’s scientific exploration of the icy southern continent has all but ground to a halt, for reasons I’ll discuss below.
Exposing dopers in sport: is it really worth the cost?
By Aaron Hermann and Maciej Henneberg
If the achievements of confirmed cheaters and other athletes are similar does it mean the drugs don't work or is everyone cheating?
On the back of an interim report by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) into the Essendon Football Club’s controversial supplements program in 2011-12, the AFL last night charged the club and four key officials, including coach James Hird and doctor Bruce Reid, with bringing the game of football into disrepute.
Sugar is toxic to mice in 'safe' doses
Three soft drinks daily affect lifespan, reproduction
When mice ate a diet of 25 percent extra sugar – the mouse equivalent of a healthy human diet plus three cans of soda daily – females died at twice the normal rate and males were a quarter less likely to hold territory and reproduce, according to a toxicity test developed at the University of Utah.
"Our results provide evidence that added sugar consumed at concentrations currently considered safe exerts dramatic adverse impacts on mammalian health," the researchers say in a study set for online publication Tuesday, Aug. 13 in the journal Nature Communications.
Brain scans may help diagnose dyslexia
Differences in a key language structure can be seen even before children start learning to read.
About 10 percent of the U.S. population suffers from dyslexia, a condition that makes learning to read difficult. Dyslexia is usually diagnosed around second grade, but the results of a new study from MIT could help identify those children before they even begin reading, so they can be given extra help earlier.
The study, done with researchers at Boston Children's Hospital, found a correlation between poor pre-reading skills in kindergartners and the size of a brain structure that connects two language-processing areas.
Can people really be addicted to sex?
By Neil Levy
Is there a neurological basis to hypersexuality?
Is sex addiction real? That is, is it really a disorder, involving diminished control over behaviour?
Questions such as these are difficult to answer because it’s always difficult to distinguish diminished capacity to resist a temptation from a diminished motivation to resist. People who tell us they literally can’t resist might be deceiving themselves, or they might be looking for a convenient excuse.
The day before death
A new archaeological technique gives insight into the day before death.
The day before the child's death was not a pleasant one, because it was not a sudden injury that killed the 10-13 year old child who was buried in the medieval town of Ribe in Denmark 800 years ago. The day before death was full of suffering because the child had been given a large dose of mercury in an attempt to cure a severe illness.
Dolphins keep lifelong social memories
Dolphins can recognise their old tank mates’ whistles after being separated for more than 20 years — the longest social memory ever recorded for a non-human species.
The remarkable memory feat is another indication that dolphins have a level of cognitive sophistication comparable to only a few other species, including humans, chimpanzees and elephants. Dolphins’ talent for social recognition may be even more long-lasting than facial recognition among humans, since human faces change over time but the signature whistle that identifies a dolphin remains stable over many decades.
