Road Construction Contractor Fined $15,000 For Water Pollution At Frenchs Forest
Media release: 21 September 2016 - EPAThe NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued a $15,000 fine to Ferrovial Agroman (Australia) Pty Ltd for water pollution, after sediment laden waters flowed into the Trefoil Creek from the road construction site of the Northern Beaches Hospital Connectivity and Network Enhancement Project in Frenchs Forest.
Ferrovial Agroman are the major partner of a joint venture with York Civil Pty Ltd for the Northern Beaches Hospital Connectivity and Network Enhancement Project - the Ferrovial York Joint Venture. As the minor project partner York Civil received an official caution for the water pollution incident.
EPA Director Metropolitan Giselle Howard said companies have a responsibility to ensure all works by subcontractors are undertaken in accordance with the company’s environment protection licence and measures are taken to prevent pollution.
"A subcontractor was drilling at the construction site to relocate telecommunications cables on 22 April 2016 when the drilling struck a redundant stormwater drain.
"An estimated 12,000 litres of drilling mud then left the construction site through the stormwater drain and flowed onto bushland and Trefoil Creek, impacting the local environment.
"The EPA required the company to clean up sediment from the local bushland and the creek and take required actions to prevent any further pollution.
"The subcontractor and Ferrovial York undertook works to seal the redundant stormwater pipe so that drilling works could recommence without causing further pollution.
"However, on the 5 May the EPA was informed that the sealing of the stormwater pipe partially failed and approximately 2,000 litres of additional drilling mud flowed into Trefoil Creek.
"The EPA again required the companies to clean up the sediment from the local bushland and the creek and this was promptly undertaken.
"The EPA does not believe that adequate measures were taken, following the initial incident, to prevent a reoccurrence of drilling mud discharge to Trefoil Creek and issued a penalty notice."
The Ferrovial York Joint Venture holds an environment protection licence issued by the EPA for this project. This licence does not permit pollution of waters. The $15,000 penalty notice was issued on 2 September 2016 for the breach of this licence.
Penalty Notices are one of a number of tools the EPA can use to achieve environmental compliance including formal warnings, official cautions, licence conditions, notices and directions and prosecutions.
The EPA takes a range of factors into account before delivering a proportionate regulatory response including the degree of environmental harm, whether or not there are any real or potential health impacts, if the action of the offender was deliberate, compliance history, public interest and best environmental outcomes.
For more information about the EPA's regulatory tools, see the EPA Compliance Policy http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/legislation/prosguid.htm.
Media release: 21 September 2016 - EPA
The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued a $15,000 fine to Ferrovial Agroman (Australia) Pty Ltd for water pollution, after sediment laden waters flowed into the Trefoil Creek from the road construction site of the Northern Beaches Hospital Connectivity and Network Enhancement Project in Frenchs Forest.
Ferrovial Agroman are the major partner of a joint venture with York Civil Pty Ltd for the Northern Beaches Hospital Connectivity and Network Enhancement Project - the Ferrovial York Joint Venture. As the minor project partner York Civil received an official caution for the water pollution incident.
EPA Director Metropolitan Giselle Howard said companies have a responsibility to ensure all works by subcontractors are undertaken in accordance with the company’s environment protection licence and measures are taken to prevent pollution.
"A subcontractor was drilling at the construction site to relocate telecommunications cables on 22 April 2016 when the drilling struck a redundant stormwater drain.
"An estimated 12,000 litres of drilling mud then left the construction site through the stormwater drain and flowed onto bushland and Trefoil Creek, impacting the local environment.
"The EPA required the company to clean up sediment from the local bushland and the creek and take required actions to prevent any further pollution.
"The subcontractor and Ferrovial York undertook works to seal the redundant stormwater pipe so that drilling works could recommence without causing further pollution.
"However, on the 5 May the EPA was informed that the sealing of the stormwater pipe partially failed and approximately 2,000 litres of additional drilling mud flowed into Trefoil Creek.
"The EPA again required the companies to clean up the sediment from the local bushland and the creek and this was promptly undertaken.
"The EPA does not believe that adequate measures were taken, following the initial incident, to prevent a reoccurrence of drilling mud discharge to Trefoil Creek and issued a penalty notice."
The Ferrovial York Joint Venture holds an environment protection licence issued by the EPA for this project. This licence does not permit pollution of waters. The $15,000 penalty notice was issued on 2 September 2016 for the breach of this licence.
Penalty Notices are one of a number of tools the EPA can use to achieve environmental compliance including formal warnings, official cautions, licence conditions, notices and directions and prosecutions.
The EPA takes a range of factors into account before delivering a proportionate regulatory response including the degree of environmental harm, whether or not there are any real or potential health impacts, if the action of the offender was deliberate, compliance history, public interest and best environmental outcomes.
For more information about the EPA's regulatory tools, see the EPA Compliance Policy http://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/legislation/prosguid.htm.
Green Globe Awards Finalists Announced
Fewer Homes Among The Gum Trees New Research Warns
20 September 2016: University of Melbourne
Corymbia papuana, credit Freya ThomasAustralians could see fewer suitable environments for the country’s iconic eucalypt trees within a generation, according to a new international research project.
The findings, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, paint a stark picture with the habitat of more than 90 per cent of eucalypt species set to decline, with 16 species forecast to lose their home environments entirely within 60 years, due to climate change.
The study was led by the University of Canberra and included experts from the University of Melbourne, Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation- Corpoica, National Research Collections of Australia – CSIRO, University of California, Berkeley, University of Grenoble Alpes, France, National Science Foundation in the US, University of New South Wales, The Australian National University, James Cook University, Macquarie University, Griffith University, University of Queensland; and the Australian Museum.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Dr Laura Pollock and Dr Heini Kujala led the computer modelling work on eucalypt habitats.
The team used over 260,000 geospatial data points from eucalypt specimens stored in Australia herbaria and accessed through Australia’s Virtual Herbarium. This information was used to create models of current locations and preferred environmental conditions for 657 species of eucalypt trees.
“Once we had developed the models, we could then determine which areas in Australia would be climatically suitable for the species in the future, as the climate changes,” Dr Kujala said.
“Our study found that the majority of the eucalypt species are predicted to shift towards coastal areas, and further south along coastal regions. Many other species groups, such as birds and mammals, that are dependent on eucalypts, are also likely to follow.
“This will mean that for many rare species, conservation efforts will increasingly focus on coastal regions where human population density is also highest. This may lead to increased conflicts between conservation and different land use needs in the future."
Associate Professor Bernd Gruber of the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE), one of the co-authors of the report, said the study was the first to examine the impact of climate change on the distribution of a large group of closely related tree species at a continental scale.
“This study demonstrates the importance of not simply counting the number of species in biodiversity conservation, but also considering their evolutionary history, which determines how closely related species are to each other,” Dr Gruber said.
“Using this approach we were able to identify hotspots that will contain high levels of eucalypt diversity under a changing climate, both in terms of the number of species and their reflection of the trees’ evolutionary pathways. Protecting these hotspots will be important to ensure we retain biodiversity in the future.
“We predict that a three degree rise in temperature over the next 60 years would see a decline of suitable habitat for 91 per cent of the 657 species of eucalypts we studied.
“As a consequence, the distribution of many species will change, and we expect trees suited to temperate and southern Australia to be hit particularly hard, contracting to more climatically suitable areas further south or at higher elevations.
“At least 16 species would have suitable climatic zones disappear altogether.”
The research found that rare, evolutionarily ancient trees which have existed for a long time will feel the brunt of climate change.
“There will be a cascading effect on biodiversity, but the impact of climate change will certainly be felt by most of these iconic tree species,” Dr Gruber added.
“Our analysis suggests that only nine per cent of eucalypt species have the potential to increase their distribution over the same time period.”
Dr Gruber and IAE colleague Carlos González-Orozco acknowledged the important collaboration with world leading experts.
“Dr Andrew Thornhill formerly of the National Research Collections of Australia – CSIRO and now based at the University of California, Berkeley, obtained DNA from the leaves of over 700 eucalypt species, many of which are cultivated in Australian Botanic Gardens. This facilitated the task to gather material more easily to create the world’s most complete evolutionary tree of Australian eucalypts,” Dr González-Orozco said.
“I would also acknowledge Dr Laura Pollock from the University of Melbourne, currently at the University of Grenoble Alpes, France, for her work using super computer infrastructure to enable the modelling of the climatic distribution of all 657 species on a continental scale at a very high level of detail.”
Carlos E. González-Orozco et al. Phylogenetic approaches reveal biodiversity threats under climate change, Nature Climate Change (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3126
20 September 2016: University of Melbourne
Corymbia papuana, credit Freya Thomas
Australians could see fewer suitable environments for the country’s iconic eucalypt trees within a generation, according to a new international research project.
The findings, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, paint a stark picture with the habitat of more than 90 per cent of eucalypt species set to decline, with 16 species forecast to lose their home environments entirely within 60 years, due to climate change.
The study was led by the University of Canberra and included experts from the University of Melbourne, Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation- Corpoica, National Research Collections of Australia – CSIRO, University of California, Berkeley, University of Grenoble Alpes, France, National Science Foundation in the US, University of New South Wales, The Australian National University, James Cook University, Macquarie University, Griffith University, University of Queensland; and the Australian Museum.
Researchers from the University of Melbourne, Dr Laura Pollock and Dr Heini Kujala led the computer modelling work on eucalypt habitats.
The team used over 260,000 geospatial data points from eucalypt specimens stored in Australia herbaria and accessed through Australia’s Virtual Herbarium. This information was used to create models of current locations and preferred environmental conditions for 657 species of eucalypt trees.
“Once we had developed the models, we could then determine which areas in Australia would be climatically suitable for the species in the future, as the climate changes,” Dr Kujala said.
“Our study found that the majority of the eucalypt species are predicted to shift towards coastal areas, and further south along coastal regions. Many other species groups, such as birds and mammals, that are dependent on eucalypts, are also likely to follow.
“This will mean that for many rare species, conservation efforts will increasingly focus on coastal regions where human population density is also highest. This may lead to increased conflicts between conservation and different land use needs in the future."
Associate Professor Bernd Gruber of the University of Canberra’s Institute for Applied Ecology (IAE), one of the co-authors of the report, said the study was the first to examine the impact of climate change on the distribution of a large group of closely related tree species at a continental scale.
“This study demonstrates the importance of not simply counting the number of species in biodiversity conservation, but also considering their evolutionary history, which determines how closely related species are to each other,” Dr Gruber said.
“Using this approach we were able to identify hotspots that will contain high levels of eucalypt diversity under a changing climate, both in terms of the number of species and their reflection of the trees’ evolutionary pathways. Protecting these hotspots will be important to ensure we retain biodiversity in the future.
“We predict that a three degree rise in temperature over the next 60 years would see a decline of suitable habitat for 91 per cent of the 657 species of eucalypts we studied.
“As a consequence, the distribution of many species will change, and we expect trees suited to temperate and southern Australia to be hit particularly hard, contracting to more climatically suitable areas further south or at higher elevations.
“At least 16 species would have suitable climatic zones disappear altogether.”
The research found that rare, evolutionarily ancient trees which have existed for a long time will feel the brunt of climate change.
“There will be a cascading effect on biodiversity, but the impact of climate change will certainly be felt by most of these iconic tree species,” Dr Gruber added.
“Our analysis suggests that only nine per cent of eucalypt species have the potential to increase their distribution over the same time period.”
Dr Gruber and IAE colleague Carlos González-Orozco acknowledged the important collaboration with world leading experts.
“Dr Andrew Thornhill formerly of the National Research Collections of Australia – CSIRO and now based at the University of California, Berkeley, obtained DNA from the leaves of over 700 eucalypt species, many of which are cultivated in Australian Botanic Gardens. This facilitated the task to gather material more easily to create the world’s most complete evolutionary tree of Australian eucalypts,” Dr González-Orozco said.
“I would also acknowledge Dr Laura Pollock from the University of Melbourne, currently at the University of Grenoble Alpes, France, for her work using super computer infrastructure to enable the modelling of the climatic distribution of all 657 species on a continental scale at a very high level of detail.”
Carlos E. González-Orozco et al. Phylogenetic approaches reveal biodiversity threats under climate change, Nature Climate Change (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3126
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Department Decision On Champions Quarry Modification Application
20.09.2016: Departmental Media Release_Department of Planning and EnvironmentThe Department of Planning and Environment has partially approved a modification application to change the project approval for Champions Quarry near Lismore, having considered issues raised during public consultation in its assessment. Champions Quarry 2 Pty Ltd proposed modifications to four aspects of the quarry’s existing project approval. The Department has approved modifications to three of the four aspects:- public road maintenance contributions for Lismore Council can continue to be calculated with scales fitted to front-end loaders, which weigh materials transferred from the quarry. As an alternative, the quarry is still permitted to build and use a truck weighbridge.
- an internal road connecting the central and southern extraction areas of the quarry will now be watered to manage dust, rather than being sealed.
- boundaries identified in the Biodiversity Offset Strategy have been amended to better protect existing vegetation on site.
The company also sought to change the required frequency of Community Consultative Committee (CCC) meetings, however the Department determined this condition should remain unchanged. This means that the CCC will continue to decide the frequency of its meetings. A spokesperson from the Department said consultation with the community is enshrined into the process for assessing applications. “The modification application was publicly exhibited for community feedback during March 2016,” a spokesperson said. “Key issues raised during public consultation include dust emissions, the ongoing need of the CCC and the accuracy of using scales as a measurement method. “The Department has closely considered potential dust impacts on the local community and is satisfied that watering the internal haul road is a satisfactory and practical alternative to sealing. “The accuracy of scales for weighing quarry products has also been considered. The Department is satisfied that accuracy will be maintained provided the company appropriately manages these processes, as outlined in its application, and required by the Department through a condition in its approval. “The Department has thoroughly assessed the modification application under clear and consistent rules.” For more information visit http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/.
SUNDAY MORNING BIRDWATCHING with PNHA
Would you like to know more about our local birds and explore our bushland reserves? Then join us on one of our bird walks:
PNHA Birdwatching 8am Sunday 25 September, Warriewood Wetlands, followed by Morning Tea and a talk on the Birds of Warriewood Wetlands at 9.30am.
Warriewood Wetlands is one of Sydney’s birding hotspots with over 150 species recorded. Come along and see how many you can find.
At 9.30am, after the walk, join us for morning tea and a talk on the birds of Warriewood Wetlands provided by PNHA. We are holding this event as part of the Friends of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment's Narrabeen Spring Celebration.
Meet: 8am for the walk, and/or come at 9.30am for the morning tea and talk, Katoa Close, off Garden St, North Narrabeen.
Bring: For the walk: Binoculars, water, insect repellent, hat. Morning tea will be provided (see Bookings)
Bookings: Please book this time, for catering. Text or call 0439 409 202.
Our last walk of the year is at 7.30am on Sunday 27 November at Warriewood Wetlands. The summer migratory species will have arrived and the Wetlands will be home to nesting birds and birds with young. there should be plenty to see.Meet at Katoa Close, North Narrabeen.
Most walks last a couple of hours. Bring binoculars and morning tea for afterwards if you like. Contact pnhabirdwatching@gmail.com for details of each walk.
20.09.2016: Departmental Media Release_Department of Planning and Environment
The Department of Planning and Environment has partially approved a modification application to change the project approval for Champions Quarry near Lismore, having considered issues raised during public consultation in its assessment.
Champions Quarry 2 Pty Ltd proposed modifications to four aspects of the quarry’s existing project approval. The Department has approved modifications to three of the four aspects:
- public road maintenance contributions for Lismore Council can continue to be calculated with scales fitted to front-end loaders, which weigh materials transferred from the quarry. As an alternative, the quarry is still permitted to build and use a truck weighbridge.
- an internal road connecting the central and southern extraction areas of the quarry will now be watered to manage dust, rather than being sealed.
- boundaries identified in the Biodiversity Offset Strategy have been amended to better protect existing vegetation on site.
The company also sought to change the required frequency of Community Consultative Committee (CCC) meetings, however the Department determined this condition should remain unchanged. This means that the CCC will continue to decide the frequency of its meetings.
A spokesperson from the Department said consultation with the community is enshrined into the process for assessing applications.
“The modification application was publicly exhibited for community feedback during March 2016,” a spokesperson said.
“Key issues raised during public consultation include dust emissions, the ongoing need of the CCC and the accuracy of using scales as a measurement method.
“The Department has closely considered potential dust impacts on the local community and is satisfied that watering the internal haul road is a satisfactory and practical alternative to sealing.
“The accuracy of scales for weighing quarry products has also been considered. The Department is satisfied that accuracy will be maintained provided the company appropriately manages these processes, as outlined in its application, and required by the Department through a condition in its approval.
“The Department has thoroughly assessed the modification application under clear and consistent rules.”
For more information visit http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/.
SUNDAY MORNING BIRDWATCHING with PNHA
Would you like to know more about our local birds and explore our bushland reserves? Then join us on one of our bird walks:
PNHA Birdwatching 8am Sunday 25 September, Warriewood Wetlands, followed by Morning Tea and a talk on the Birds of Warriewood Wetlands at 9.30am.
Warriewood Wetlands is one of Sydney’s birding hotspots with over 150 species recorded. Come along and see how many you can find.
At 9.30am, after the walk, join us for morning tea and a talk on the birds of Warriewood Wetlands provided by PNHA. We are holding this event as part of the Friends of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment's Narrabeen Spring Celebration.
Meet: 8am for the walk, and/or come at 9.30am for the morning tea and talk, Katoa Close, off Garden St, North Narrabeen.
Bring: For the walk: Binoculars, water, insect repellent, hat. Morning tea will be provided (see Bookings)
Bookings: Please book this time, for catering. Text or call 0439 409 202.
Our last walk of the year is at 7.30am on Sunday 27 November at Warriewood Wetlands. The summer migratory species will have arrived and the Wetlands will be home to nesting birds and birds with young. there should be plenty to see.Meet at Katoa Close, North Narrabeen.
Most walks last a couple of hours. Bring binoculars and morning tea for afterwards if you like. Contact pnhabirdwatching@gmail.com for details of each walk.
Wilderness Horse Riding
Resupply Contingency Plans For Early Sea-Ice Retreat
21st September 2016: Media Release - Australian Antarctic Division
The Australian Antarctic Division is putting in place contingency plans for an aerial resupply of Davis station after an early retreat of Antarctic winter sea-ice coverage this year.
A view of Davis station from the sea ice. (Photo: Rob Cullen)
The sea ice began its retreat four weeks earlier than normal, after its lowest winter maximum on record of 18.5 million square kilometres.
Operations Manager at the Australian Antarctic Division, Robb Clifton, said the sea ice retreat is being factored into the season plan.
“Each year we normally do an over-ice resupply at Davis station at the start of the season using heavy machinery to move cargo and people across to station,” Mr Clifton said.
“While our regular drilling program on the sea-ice in front of Davis is still showing it's thick enough to drive on, we may have to use helicopter sling loads if the ice isn’t solid enough when Australia’s icebreaker Aurora Australis arrives at the beginning of November.”
Additionally the satellite imagery is showing some fast-ice, which is sea-ice connected to the land, is breaking up earlier.
“The fast ice off Davis is sheltered between the surrounding islands, which usually reduces the likelihood of the ice breaking out early,” Mr Clifton said.
“The Antarctic Division is used to working in a highly variable Antarctic environment, with sea-ice, ocean conditions, wind speeds, temperature and visibility often changing rapidly.
“We build as much flexibility and contingency into our shipping and aviation operations as possible to cope with a range of eventualities.”
The Aurora Australis sails for Davis on voyage 1 on 27 October.
21st September 2016: Media Release - Australian Antarctic Division
The Australian Antarctic Division is putting in place contingency plans for an aerial resupply of Davis station after an early retreat of Antarctic winter sea-ice coverage this year.
A view of Davis station from the sea ice. (Photo: Rob Cullen)
The sea ice began its retreat four weeks earlier than normal, after its lowest winter maximum on record of 18.5 million square kilometres.
Operations Manager at the Australian Antarctic Division, Robb Clifton, said the sea ice retreat is being factored into the season plan.
“Each year we normally do an over-ice resupply at Davis station at the start of the season using heavy machinery to move cargo and people across to station,” Mr Clifton said.
“While our regular drilling program on the sea-ice in front of Davis is still showing it's thick enough to drive on, we may have to use helicopter sling loads if the ice isn’t solid enough when Australia’s icebreaker Aurora Australis arrives at the beginning of November.”
Additionally the satellite imagery is showing some fast-ice, which is sea-ice connected to the land, is breaking up earlier.
“The fast ice off Davis is sheltered between the surrounding islands, which usually reduces the likelihood of the ice breaking out early,” Mr Clifton said.
“The Antarctic Division is used to working in a highly variable Antarctic environment, with sea-ice, ocean conditions, wind speeds, temperature and visibility often changing rapidly.
“We build as much flexibility and contingency into our shipping and aviation operations as possible to cope with a range of eventualities.”
The Aurora Australis sails for Davis on voyage 1 on 27 October.
Govt’s Own Report Shows Overwhelming Opposition To Proposals That Increase Land Clearing
New Science Released By FRDC
Scientists Uncover Insights Into The Formation Of Earth’s Oldest Continental Crust
September 19, 2016
Samples of the world's oldest precisely dated rock. Credit: Image courtesy of University of AlbertaAddressing fundamental unknowns about the earliest history of Earth's crust, scientists have precisely dated the world's oldest rock unit at 4.02 billion years old. Driven by the University of Alberta, the findings suggest that early Earth was largely covered with an oceanic crust-like surface.
"It gives us important information about how the early continents formed," says lead author Jesse Reimink. "Because it's so far back in time, we have to grasp at every piece of evidence we can. We have very few data points with which to evaluate what was happening on Earth at this time." In fact, only three locations worldwide exist with rocks or minerals older than 4 billion years old: one from Northern Quebec, mineral grains from Western Australia, and the rock formation from Canada's Northwest Territories examined in this new study.
While it is well known that the oldest rocks formed prior to 4 billion years ago, the unique twist on Reimink's rock is the presence of well-preserved grains of the mineral zircon, leaving no doubt about the date it formed. The sample in question was found during fieldwork by Reimink's PhD supervisor, Tom Chacko, in an area roughly 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife. Reimink recently completed his PhD at the University of Alberta before starting a post-doctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C.
"Zircons lock in not only the age but also other geochemical information that we've exploited in this paper," Reimink continues. "Rocks and zircon together give us much more information than either on their own. Zircon retains its chemical signature and records age information that doesn't get reset by later geological events, while the rock itself records chemical information that the zircon grains don't."
He explains that the chemistry of the rock itself looks like rocks that are forming today in modern Iceland, which is transitional between oceanic and continental crust. In fact, Iceland has been hypothesized as an analog for how continental crusts started to form.
"We examined the rock itself to analyze those chemical signatures to explore the way that the magma intrudes into the surrounding rock." One signature in particular recorded the assimilation step of magma from Earth's crust. "While the magma cooled, it simultaneously heated up and melted the rock around it, and we have evidence for that."
Reimink says that the lack of signatures of continental crust in this rock, different from what the early continents were expected to look like, leads to more questions than answers. Reimink says one of the biggest challenges as a geologist is that as we travel back in time on Earth, the quantity and quality of available evidence decreases. "Earth is constantly recycling itself, the crust is being deformed or melted, and pre-history is being erased," remarks Reimink.
"The presence of continents above water and exposed to the atmosphere has huge implications in atmospheric chemistry and the presence or absence of life. The amount of continents on Earth has a large chemical influence both on processes in the deep Earth (mantle and core) and at the Earth's surface (atmosphere and biosphere). There are constant feedback loops between chemistry and geology. Though there are still a lot of unknowns, this is just one example that everything on Earth is intertwined." "No evidence for Hadean continental crust within Earth's oldest evolved rock unit" appears in the October issue of Nature Geoscience.
J. R. Reimink, J. H. F. L. Davies, T. Chacko, R. A. Stern, L. M. Heaman, C. Sarkar, U. Schaltegger, R. A. Creaser, D. G. Pearson. No evidence for Hadean continental crust within Earth’s oldest evolved rock unit.Nature Geoscience, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2786
September 19, 2016
Samples of the world's oldest precisely dated rock. Credit: Image courtesy of University of Alberta
Addressing fundamental unknowns about the earliest history of Earth's crust, scientists have precisely dated the world's oldest rock unit at 4.02 billion years old. Driven by the University of Alberta, the findings suggest that early Earth was largely covered with an oceanic crust-like surface.
"It gives us important information about how the early continents formed," says lead author Jesse Reimink. "Because it's so far back in time, we have to grasp at every piece of evidence we can. We have very few data points with which to evaluate what was happening on Earth at this time." In fact, only three locations worldwide exist with rocks or minerals older than 4 billion years old: one from Northern Quebec, mineral grains from Western Australia, and the rock formation from Canada's Northwest Territories examined in this new study.
While it is well known that the oldest rocks formed prior to 4 billion years ago, the unique twist on Reimink's rock is the presence of well-preserved grains of the mineral zircon, leaving no doubt about the date it formed. The sample in question was found during fieldwork by Reimink's PhD supervisor, Tom Chacko, in an area roughly 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife. Reimink recently completed his PhD at the University of Alberta before starting a post-doctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C.
"Zircons lock in not only the age but also other geochemical information that we've exploited in this paper," Reimink continues. "Rocks and zircon together give us much more information than either on their own. Zircon retains its chemical signature and records age information that doesn't get reset by later geological events, while the rock itself records chemical information that the zircon grains don't."
He explains that the chemistry of the rock itself looks like rocks that are forming today in modern Iceland, which is transitional between oceanic and continental crust. In fact, Iceland has been hypothesized as an analog for how continental crusts started to form.
"We examined the rock itself to analyze those chemical signatures to explore the way that the magma intrudes into the surrounding rock." One signature in particular recorded the assimilation step of magma from Earth's crust. "While the magma cooled, it simultaneously heated up and melted the rock around it, and we have evidence for that."
Reimink says that the lack of signatures of continental crust in this rock, different from what the early continents were expected to look like, leads to more questions than answers. Reimink says one of the biggest challenges as a geologist is that as we travel back in time on Earth, the quantity and quality of available evidence decreases. "Earth is constantly recycling itself, the crust is being deformed or melted, and pre-history is being erased," remarks Reimink.
"The presence of continents above water and exposed to the atmosphere has huge implications in atmospheric chemistry and the presence or absence of life. The amount of continents on Earth has a large chemical influence both on processes in the deep Earth (mantle and core) and at the Earth's surface (atmosphere and biosphere). There are constant feedback loops between chemistry and geology. Though there are still a lot of unknowns, this is just one example that everything on Earth is intertwined." "No evidence for Hadean continental crust within Earth's oldest evolved rock unit" appears in the October issue of Nature Geoscience.
J. R. Reimink, J. H. F. L. Davies, T. Chacko, R. A. Stern, L. M. Heaman, C. Sarkar, U. Schaltegger, R. A. Creaser, D. G. Pearson. No evidence for Hadean continental crust within Earth’s oldest evolved rock unit.Nature Geoscience, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2786
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Australia No. 10 on world health scorecard, but alcohol & weight pose challenges
22 September 2016
Australia has come in at No. 10 of a global study tracking progress on health, but faces challenges around suicide, alcohol consumption and overweight children.
Timor-Leste, Tajikistan, Colombia, Taiwan and Iceland have made the greatest strides in areas such as expanded health coverage, and malaria and tobacco control; while Brazil has almost halved deaths of children under five.
The study, by the international Global Burden of Disease (GBD) collaboration, published today in The Lancet, analyses the progress of 188 countries, over a 15-year period, towards achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on health.
Countries were ranked on a scale of zero to 100, with Iceland topping the list at 85, Australia at 81, the United States at 75, and the Central African Republic — one of the 10 poorest countries in the world — at 20.
Unexpected results included India ranking 143rd, despite rapid economic growth; and the United States performing more poorly than other high-income indicators such as alcohol consumption, childhood overweight and death from violence.
Lead author, Laureate Professor Alan Lopez, the Rowden-White Chair of Global Health and Burden of Disease Measurement at the University of Melbourne, said the findings were important for policymakers for allocating domestic health spending, prioritising foreign aid budgets, and benchmarking themselves against other countries.
“Income, education and birth rates are behind a large part of health improvement,” said Professor Lopez, who is the co-founder of the Global Burden of Disease study and leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health Initiative.
“But there is a lot to learn from the countries that have shown the biggest improvements, especially in how they have managed economic development with investments in improving universal health coverage.”
Australia scored 63 on Overweight, 55 on Suicide, 54 on Alcohol and 66 on Smoking.
The Global Burden of Disease collaboration is the largest and most comprehensive effort to quantify health loss across place and time. It has more than 1800 researchers in nearly 130 nations and territories.
Read: Measuring the health-related Sustainable Development Goals in 188 countries: a baseline analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31467-2
Australia No. 10 on world health scorecard, but alcohol & weight pose challenges
22 September 2016
Australia has come in at No. 10 of a global study tracking progress on health, but faces challenges around suicide, alcohol consumption and overweight children.
Timor-Leste, Tajikistan, Colombia, Taiwan and Iceland have made the greatest strides in areas such as expanded health coverage, and malaria and tobacco control; while Brazil has almost halved deaths of children under five.
The study, by the international Global Burden of Disease (GBD) collaboration, published today in The Lancet, analyses the progress of 188 countries, over a 15-year period, towards achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on health.
Countries were ranked on a scale of zero to 100, with Iceland topping the list at 85, Australia at 81, the United States at 75, and the Central African Republic — one of the 10 poorest countries in the world — at 20.
Unexpected results included India ranking 143rd, despite rapid economic growth; and the United States performing more poorly than other high-income indicators such as alcohol consumption, childhood overweight and death from violence.
Lead author, Laureate Professor Alan Lopez, the Rowden-White Chair of Global Health and Burden of Disease Measurement at the University of Melbourne, said the findings were important for policymakers for allocating domestic health spending, prioritising foreign aid budgets, and benchmarking themselves against other countries.
“Income, education and birth rates are behind a large part of health improvement,” said Professor Lopez, who is the co-founder of the Global Burden of Disease study and leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Data for Health Initiative.
“But there is a lot to learn from the countries that have shown the biggest improvements, especially in how they have managed economic development with investments in improving universal health coverage.”
Australia scored 63 on Overweight, 55 on Suicide, 54 on Alcohol and 66 on Smoking.
The Global Burden of Disease collaboration is the largest and most comprehensive effort to quantify health loss across place and time. It has more than 1800 researchers in nearly 130 nations and territories.
Read: Measuring the health-related Sustainable Development Goals in 188 countries: a baseline analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31467-2
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Research To Reverse Spinal Cord Injury Offers Renewed Hope To Thousands At UTS
16 September, 2016: By University of Technology Sydney(UTS)Research aiming to reverse the paralysing effects of spinal cord injuries that devastate the lives of countless Australians and their families will soon begin at UTS.
A new Centre for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine being established in the Faculty of Science will build on astonishing research results produced by UCLA-based scientist Dr Reggie Edgerton, welcomed to the Faculty this week by new Dean of Science, Professor Judith Smith.
Tweny paralysed people have so far had the ability to mover limbs for the first time after chronic spinal cord injury through novel new techniques pioneered by the US researcher. Results for the first twelve of these subjects have been published.
Professor Edgerton presented his discoveries to guests at a major research fundraising event launching Project Edge and and then a packed public forum hosted by UTS this week.
He was joined by neuroscientist Professor Bryce Vissel who'll lead the University’s newest science research initiative. Taking a transdisciplinary approach to its work, the centre will also seek novel treatments and cures for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, further enriching UTS as a centre of innovative future-focused health research.
Professor Vissel urged guests and VIPs at the event to call for and contribute to the substantial funding needed for the research which is offering the first new solutions supporting recovery in decades.
“Every day in Australia another person is paralysed from a spinal injury due to a vehicle accident, sporting injury or simple fall,” Professor Vissel said. “Promising therapies such as Professor Edgerton’s will finally be tested with people here who so desperately need them. We will take a multi-disciplinary approach and collaborate with a broad range of scientists, designers and engineers at UTS to deliver real solutions,”Professor Edgerton’s first four patients who received epidural stimulators recovered hand movement, bladder and bowel control, sexual function and the ability to stand – never previously achieved following a devastating SCI. 
The people behind Project Edge. Photo by Carmen Lee PlattCelebrity journalist Kerri-Anne Kennerley, whose husband John suffered partial quadriplegia from a simple accident this year shared her tragic personal experiences with the audience at the UTS public event and sent an equally urgent call for research funding and for people to donate to Project Edge.
“What Professor Edgerton has achieved is truly astonishing. As one who is faced with seeing the impact of spinal cord injury on a loved one, I am so proud of UTS and SpinalCure Australia for bringing this ground-breaking to Australia and giving us such real reason for hope of a better life,” Ms Kennerley said.
UTS is working with SpinalCure Australia (SpinalCure) and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) to support focused integrated research in neurological disorders such as spinal cord injury.
Professor Edgerton has agreed to collaborate with UTS to establish trial and develop his groundbreaking research in Australia. His work offers hope to the 15,000 Australians currently paralysed by spinal cord injuries and the hundreds of thousands worldwide. His work could also benefit people living with other mobility conditions caused by stroke or Parkinson’s.
“After meeting with Bryce and the team at UTS, I came to the view that UTS is the only program, worldwide, that together with our established program in the US, has the capacity, commitment, breadth of expertise and community support to develop the technology and take it forward to the next phase,” Prof Edgerton said.
Epidural electrical stimulation is one of the most promising avenues of research in spinal injury. The treatment, (described as like “currents of electricity jump-starting the spinal cord”) involves the implantation of a small electrode array against the spinal cord below the site of injury.
Professor Edgerton has developed a new generation of electrical stimulation that allow transcutaneous (through the skin) stimulation eliminating the dangers and cost of surgery and allowing a much quicker roll-out of the trials. His team has showed that in combination with pharmacological treatment, it can achieve results comparable to those seen using the epidural stimulation implants.
Speaking on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Provost Professor Peter Booth said UTS was committed to making a real difference to the community through its research, teaching and outreach.
"We have a proud history in a broad spectrum of health research and naturally excited Professor Bryce Vissel has joined the Faculty of Science to expand our existing expertise in neuroscience," Professor Booth said.
Subject to securing funding, UTS will roll-out neurostimulation combined with exercise for patients across Australia within five years. A world-leading research program for exercise training and rehabilitation for people with SCI, stroke and Parkinson’s disease will be developed with SCIA, which has over seven years’ experience in managing specialty, best-practice, exercise programs for people with mobility issues.
Now in its 21st year SpinalCure Australia funds research to end paralysis. Every day in Australia another person has a spinal injury generally from a car accident, sports injury or everyday fall.
To donate to this extraordinary new spinal cord research at UTS visitwww.projectedge.org.au
16 September, 2016: By University of Technology Sydney(UTS)
Research aiming to reverse the paralysing effects of spinal cord injuries that devastate the lives of countless Australians and their families will soon begin at UTS.
A new Centre for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine being established in the Faculty of Science will build on astonishing research results produced by UCLA-based scientist Dr Reggie Edgerton, welcomed to the Faculty this week by new Dean of Science, Professor Judith Smith.
Tweny paralysed people have so far had the ability to mover limbs for the first time after chronic spinal cord injury through novel new techniques pioneered by the US researcher. Results for the first twelve of these subjects have been published.
Professor Edgerton presented his discoveries to guests at a major research fundraising event launching Project Edge and and then a packed public forum hosted by UTS this week.
He was joined by neuroscientist Professor Bryce Vissel who'll lead the University’s newest science research initiative. Taking a transdisciplinary approach to its work, the centre will also seek novel treatments and cures for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, further enriching UTS as a centre of innovative future-focused health research.
Professor Vissel urged guests and VIPs at the event to call for and contribute to the substantial funding needed for the research which is offering the first new solutions supporting recovery in decades.
“Every day in Australia another person is paralysed from a spinal injury due to a vehicle accident, sporting injury or simple fall,” Professor Vissel said. “Promising therapies such as Professor Edgerton’s will finally be tested with people here who so desperately need them. We will take a multi-disciplinary approach and collaborate with a broad range of scientists, designers and engineers at UTS to deliver real solutions,”
Professor Edgerton’s first four patients who received epidural stimulators recovered hand movement, bladder and bowel control, sexual function and the ability to stand – never previously achieved following a devastating SCI.
The people behind Project Edge. Photo by Carmen Lee Platt
Celebrity journalist Kerri-Anne Kennerley, whose husband John suffered partial quadriplegia from a simple accident this year shared her tragic personal experiences with the audience at the UTS public event and sent an equally urgent call for research funding and for people to donate to Project Edge.
“What Professor Edgerton has achieved is truly astonishing. As one who is faced with seeing the impact of spinal cord injury on a loved one, I am so proud of UTS and SpinalCure Australia for bringing this ground-breaking to Australia and giving us such real reason for hope of a better life,” Ms Kennerley said.
UTS is working with SpinalCure Australia (SpinalCure) and Spinal Cord Injuries Australia (SCIA) to support focused integrated research in neurological disorders such as spinal cord injury.
Professor Edgerton has agreed to collaborate with UTS to establish trial and develop his groundbreaking research in Australia. His work offers hope to the 15,000 Australians currently paralysed by spinal cord injuries and the hundreds of thousands worldwide. His work could also benefit people living with other mobility conditions caused by stroke or Parkinson’s.
“After meeting with Bryce and the team at UTS, I came to the view that UTS is the only program, worldwide, that together with our established program in the US, has the capacity, commitment, breadth of expertise and community support to develop the technology and take it forward to the next phase,” Prof Edgerton said.
Epidural electrical stimulation is one of the most promising avenues of research in spinal injury. The treatment, (described as like “currents of electricity jump-starting the spinal cord”) involves the implantation of a small electrode array against the spinal cord below the site of injury.
Professor Edgerton has developed a new generation of electrical stimulation that allow transcutaneous (through the skin) stimulation eliminating the dangers and cost of surgery and allowing a much quicker roll-out of the trials. His team has showed that in combination with pharmacological treatment, it can achieve results comparable to those seen using the epidural stimulation implants.
Speaking on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Provost Professor Peter Booth said UTS was committed to making a real difference to the community through its research, teaching and outreach.
"We have a proud history in a broad spectrum of health research and naturally excited Professor Bryce Vissel has joined the Faculty of Science to expand our existing expertise in neuroscience," Professor Booth said.
Subject to securing funding, UTS will roll-out neurostimulation combined with exercise for patients across Australia within five years. A world-leading research program for exercise training and rehabilitation for people with SCI, stroke and Parkinson’s disease will be developed with SCIA, which has over seven years’ experience in managing specialty, best-practice, exercise programs for people with mobility issues.
Now in its 21st year SpinalCure Australia funds research to end paralysis. Every day in Australia another person has a spinal injury generally from a car accident, sports injury or everyday fall.
To donate to this extraordinary new spinal cord research at UTS visitwww.projectedge.org.au
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Smoke From 2015 Indonesian Fires May Have Caused 100,000 Premature Deaths
September 19, 2016: Harvard University
Smoke from agricultural fires over Borneo in the fall of 2015.Credit: NASA Earth ObservatoryIn the fall of 2015, hazardous levels of smoke from agricultural fires blanketed much of Equatorial Asia. Schools and businesses closed, planes were grounded and tens of thousands sought medical treatment for respiratory illness.
In a new study, Harvard University researchers and their colleagues estimate that the 2015 smoke event caused upwards of 100,000 deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
To mitigate the impact of future smoke events, the team developed a model framework which could help governments and policymakers in Southeast Asia identify, in almost real time, the fires with the highest potential to cause damage to human health.
The research is described in Environmental Research Letters. It was led by researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in collaboration with colleagues from Columbia University.
"Although the regions experienced several major haze events over the past twenty years, the 2015 event was one of the worst," said Shannon N. Koplitz, first author and Harvard graduate student. "We understand many of the underlying conditions that lead to these extreme events, and we can often predict when smoke pollution will be severe based on particular meteorological indicators, but regional efforts to mitigate the effects on public health have not been successful."
"Our hope is that this framework can inform early-response efforts to identify areas where effective fire and land use management would yield the greatest benefits to human health, even as the haze event is still unfolding," said Loretta J. Mickley, Senior Research Fellow at SEAS and coauthor.
The research is part of a larger effort by Harvard and Columbia to provide local stakeholders with an effective tool to assess the public health costs from fires and guide policy decisions. The framework uses a mathematical model to quickly identify the fires that will have the biggest impact on human health downwind.
"Decisions on how to manage the lands, which geographies to protect, how industries are regulated and where fires are allowed to burn are decisions of life and death," said Samuel Myers, Senior Research Scientist at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Director of the Planetary Health Alliance and coauthor of the paper. "We want to support local policy makers to make those decisions with clear data."
Fires started by farmers in Indonesia, particularly those producing palm oil and timber for wood pulp and paper, are the main culprits of haze events in this region. The fires, largely in coastal peatlands, burn at relatively low temperatures and can smolder for weeks or even months before extinguishing, resulting in lots of smoke.
During periods of extreme dry weather caused by El Niño and a phenomenon called the positive Indian Ocean Dipole, smoke emissions are considerably higher -- either because farmers are taking advantage of the dry weather to burn more land or because once burning, the fires are more difficult to control. Although many fires burn in remote areas of Indonesia, prevailing winds can carry the smoke hundreds of miles to densely populated cities like Palembang in Sumatra, and Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The region experienced similar smoke conditions caused by El Niño in 2006 but the Harvard-led team found that deaths from air pollution more than doubled between the 2006 and 2015 events, from about 38,000 to about 100,000. This is largely because of where the fires burned in relation to population centers, and their intensity. Fires in southern Sumatra and nearby Jambi province turn out to be particularly deadly.
"Based on years of epidemiological research, we understand very well the relationship between pollution and mortality," said Jonathan Buonocore, coauthor and research associate at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "We know for each incremental increase in air pollution, you get a certain incremental increase in mortality risk."
Being able to identify the most dangerous fires could help save lives in the future, Buonocore said. "For the first time in Indonesia, we have a rapid assessment modeling tool that can quickly estimate the cost to human health of these haze events, as they are happening," he said.
In ongoing work, the researchers are using the model to diagnose the health impacts of different land-use scenarios over the next 20-30 years. This effort could promote more rational land-use decisions and management that could save thousands of lives.
"If regional policy makers understand fully the health dimension of these biomass fires, we believe they will be in a better position to manage them more effectively and improve human health and ecosystems at the same time," said Ruth DeFries, of Columbia University and coauthor of the paper.
This research was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Shannon N Koplitz, Loretta J Mickley, Miriam E Marlier, Jonathan J Buonocore, Patrick S Kim, Tianjia Liu, Melissa P Sulprizio, Ruth S DeFries, Daniel J Jacob, Joel Schwartz, Montira Pongsiri, Samuel S Myers. Public health impacts of the severe haze in Equatorial Asia in September–October 2015: demonstration of a new framework for informing fire management strategies to reduce downwind smoke exposure.Environmental Research Letters, 2016; 11 (9): 094023 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094023
September 19, 2016: Harvard University
Smoke from agricultural fires over Borneo in the fall of 2015.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory
In the fall of 2015, hazardous levels of smoke from agricultural fires blanketed much of Equatorial Asia. Schools and businesses closed, planes were grounded and tens of thousands sought medical treatment for respiratory illness.
In a new study, Harvard University researchers and their colleagues estimate that the 2015 smoke event caused upwards of 100,000 deaths across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
To mitigate the impact of future smoke events, the team developed a model framework which could help governments and policymakers in Southeast Asia identify, in almost real time, the fires with the highest potential to cause damage to human health.
The research is described in Environmental Research Letters. It was led by researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in collaboration with colleagues from Columbia University.
"Although the regions experienced several major haze events over the past twenty years, the 2015 event was one of the worst," said Shannon N. Koplitz, first author and Harvard graduate student. "We understand many of the underlying conditions that lead to these extreme events, and we can often predict when smoke pollution will be severe based on particular meteorological indicators, but regional efforts to mitigate the effects on public health have not been successful."
"Our hope is that this framework can inform early-response efforts to identify areas where effective fire and land use management would yield the greatest benefits to human health, even as the haze event is still unfolding," said Loretta J. Mickley, Senior Research Fellow at SEAS and coauthor.
The research is part of a larger effort by Harvard and Columbia to provide local stakeholders with an effective tool to assess the public health costs from fires and guide policy decisions. The framework uses a mathematical model to quickly identify the fires that will have the biggest impact on human health downwind.
"Decisions on how to manage the lands, which geographies to protect, how industries are regulated and where fires are allowed to burn are decisions of life and death," said Samuel Myers, Senior Research Scientist at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Director of the Planetary Health Alliance and coauthor of the paper. "We want to support local policy makers to make those decisions with clear data."
Fires started by farmers in Indonesia, particularly those producing palm oil and timber for wood pulp and paper, are the main culprits of haze events in this region. The fires, largely in coastal peatlands, burn at relatively low temperatures and can smolder for weeks or even months before extinguishing, resulting in lots of smoke.
During periods of extreme dry weather caused by El Niño and a phenomenon called the positive Indian Ocean Dipole, smoke emissions are considerably higher -- either because farmers are taking advantage of the dry weather to burn more land or because once burning, the fires are more difficult to control. Although many fires burn in remote areas of Indonesia, prevailing winds can carry the smoke hundreds of miles to densely populated cities like Palembang in Sumatra, and Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
The region experienced similar smoke conditions caused by El Niño in 2006 but the Harvard-led team found that deaths from air pollution more than doubled between the 2006 and 2015 events, from about 38,000 to about 100,000. This is largely because of where the fires burned in relation to population centers, and their intensity. Fires in southern Sumatra and nearby Jambi province turn out to be particularly deadly.
"Based on years of epidemiological research, we understand very well the relationship between pollution and mortality," said Jonathan Buonocore, coauthor and research associate at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "We know for each incremental increase in air pollution, you get a certain incremental increase in mortality risk."
Being able to identify the most dangerous fires could help save lives in the future, Buonocore said. "For the first time in Indonesia, we have a rapid assessment modeling tool that can quickly estimate the cost to human health of these haze events, as they are happening," he said.
In ongoing work, the researchers are using the model to diagnose the health impacts of different land-use scenarios over the next 20-30 years. This effort could promote more rational land-use decisions and management that could save thousands of lives.
"If regional policy makers understand fully the health dimension of these biomass fires, we believe they will be in a better position to manage them more effectively and improve human health and ecosystems at the same time," said Ruth DeFries, of Columbia University and coauthor of the paper.
This research was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Shannon N Koplitz, Loretta J Mickley, Miriam E Marlier, Jonathan J Buonocore, Patrick S Kim, Tianjia Liu, Melissa P Sulprizio, Ruth S DeFries, Daniel J Jacob, Joel Schwartz, Montira Pongsiri, Samuel S Myers. Public health impacts of the severe haze in Equatorial Asia in September–October 2015: demonstration of a new framework for informing fire management strategies to reduce downwind smoke exposure.Environmental Research Letters, 2016; 11 (9): 094023 DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094023
Thunder Fox
Taronga ‘Stands Up For The Wild’ With 100 Year Birthday Parade
School children celebrate 100 years of Taronga Zoo - photo by Rick Stevens
A parade of giant animal light sculptures will make their way down Macquarie Street, Saturday 15 October, Taronga Zoo announced today,marking100 years since the Zoo officially opened in Mosman in 1916.
Starting at Hyde Park at 8pm, the amazing light sculptures will be escorted by a cast of school children who will dance, sing and light up the streets for the wild to the Sydney Opera House, where a live performance will take place.
The giant animal light sculptures represent Taronga’s ten year commitment to the conservation and preservation of 10 Centenary Species, iconic and beloved animals which include the Asian Elephant, Platypus, and Sumatran Tiger.
The fabulous light parade will recreate the historic moment 100 years ago, when Jessie the elephant made her way from the original Zoological site in Moore Park, through the CBD, down Macquarie Street to a spot on the foreshore directly where the Harbour Bridge and Opera House would rise years later. Jessie boarded a barge, to be transported across the harbour as did hippos, primates, reptiles, and many other animal species Taronga still cares for today.
Taronga is encouraging Australians to ‘Stand Up #FortheWild’ by coming along to cheer the parade or by donating to its Centenary Commitment to turn around the plight of these 10 critical species.
Creative Director, Ignatius Jones, said: “This will be the most amazing parade that Sydney has seen in a 100 years! An absolute carnival of lights, dancing and music!”
“A great night out for friends and families, the Taronga Birthday Parade will spread the word that we need to stand up for these amazing animals and help Taronga ensure their future.”
Taronga Zoo’s CEO, Cameron Kerr said: “We’re inviting everyone in Sydney to ‘Stand Up for the Wild’ by coming along to what will be an amazing spectacle and help support the work being done for these 10 vital species.”
“We’re asking Australians not just in Sydney but across the country help us raise $1 million dollars to kick-start a lifetime conservation commitment.”
The parade is the exciting culmination for Taronga’s Centenary program, presented by long-term supporter ANZ, which has also included Vivid Sydney at Taronga, EID at Taronga, inviting guests to come in for $1 on their birthday, creating a stunning collection of past and present Taronga memories at #IGrewupWithTaronga, hosting an amazing birthday party on the 7 October Centenary anniversary and the commencing of amazing field-work to conserve the 10 Centenary species.
Donate $10 to help Taronga save 10 endangered species from extinction. Visit: tarongaparade.org
What: Taronga Birthday ParadeCost: FREEWhen: Saturday 15 October 2016 at 8pm Where:Starting from Hyde Park North and continuing along Macquarie Street to the Sydney Opera House grand finale performance
School children celebrate 100 years of Taronga Zoo - photo by Rick Stevens
A parade of giant animal light sculptures will make their way down Macquarie Street, Saturday 15 October, Taronga Zoo announced today,marking100 years since the Zoo officially opened in Mosman in 1916.
Starting at Hyde Park at 8pm, the amazing light sculptures will be escorted by a cast of school children who will dance, sing and light up the streets for the wild to the Sydney Opera House, where a live performance will take place.
The giant animal light sculptures represent Taronga’s ten year commitment to the conservation and preservation of 10 Centenary Species, iconic and beloved animals which include the Asian Elephant, Platypus, and Sumatran Tiger.
The fabulous light parade will recreate the historic moment 100 years ago, when Jessie the elephant made her way from the original Zoological site in Moore Park, through the CBD, down Macquarie Street to a spot on the foreshore directly where the Harbour Bridge and Opera House would rise years later. Jessie boarded a barge, to be transported across the harbour as did hippos, primates, reptiles, and many other animal species Taronga still cares for today.
Taronga is encouraging Australians to ‘Stand Up #FortheWild’ by coming along to cheer the parade or by donating to its Centenary Commitment to turn around the plight of these 10 critical species.
Creative Director, Ignatius Jones, said: “This will be the most amazing parade that Sydney has seen in a 100 years! An absolute carnival of lights, dancing and music!”
“A great night out for friends and families, the Taronga Birthday Parade will spread the word that we need to stand up for these amazing animals and help Taronga ensure their future.”
Taronga Zoo’s CEO, Cameron Kerr said: “We’re inviting everyone in Sydney to ‘Stand Up for the Wild’ by coming along to what will be an amazing spectacle and help support the work being done for these 10 vital species.”
“We’re asking Australians not just in Sydney but across the country help us raise $1 million dollars to kick-start a lifetime conservation commitment.”
The parade is the exciting culmination for Taronga’s Centenary program, presented by long-term supporter ANZ, which has also included Vivid Sydney at Taronga, EID at Taronga, inviting guests to come in for $1 on their birthday, creating a stunning collection of past and present Taronga memories at #IGrewupWithTaronga, hosting an amazing birthday party on the 7 October Centenary anniversary and the commencing of amazing field-work to conserve the 10 Centenary species.
Donate $10 to help Taronga save 10 endangered species from extinction. Visit: tarongaparade.org
What: Taronga Birthday Parade
Cost: FREE
When: Saturday 15 October 2016 at 8pm
Where:Starting from Hyde Park North and continuing along Macquarie Street to the Sydney Opera House grand finale performance
NASA Begins Study Of Australia's Great Barrier Reef
September 15, 2016: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Gulfstream III carrying NASA's PRISM instrument being readied for science flights from Cairns, Australia. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/BIOS
A NASA airborne mission designed to transform our understanding of Earth's valuable and ecologically sensitive coral reefs has set up shop in Australia for a two-month investigation of the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef ecosystem.
At a media briefing on Sept. 13 at Cairns Airport in North Queensland, Australia, scientists from NASA's COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) mission and their Australian collaborators discussed the mission's objectives and the new insights they expect to glean into the present condition of the Great Barrier Reef and the function of reef systems worldwide.
"CORAL offers the clearest, most extensive picture to date of the condition of a large portion of the world's coral reefs," said CORAL Principal Investigator Eric Hochberg of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Ferry Reach, St. George's, Bermuda, prior to the briefing. "This new understanding of reef condition and function will allow scientists to better predict the future of this global ecosystem and provide policymakers with better information for decisions regarding resource management."
CORAL's three-year mission combines aerial surveys using state-of-the-art airborne imaging spectrometer technology developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, with in-water validation activities. The mission will provide critical data and new models for analyzing reef ecosystems from a new perspective. CORAL will generate a uniform data set for a large sample of reefs across the Pacific Ocean. Scientists can use these data to search for trends between coral reef condition and the natural and human-produced biological and environmental factors that affect reefs.
Over the next year, CORAL will survey portions of the Great Barrier Reef, along with reef systems in the main Hawaiian Islands, the Mariana Islands and Palau.
In Australia, CORAL will survey six discrete sections across the length of the Great Barrier Reef, from the Capricorn-Bunker Group in the south to Torres Strait in the north. Two locations on the reef -- one north (Lizard Island Research Station) and one south (Heron Island Research Station) -- will serve as bases for in-water validation activities. Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Queensland in Brisbane are collaborating with NASA and BIOS to conduct additional complementary in-water validation activities.
The Great Barrier Reef: Australia's National TreasureLocated in the Coral Sea off Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef encompasses more than 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands. It is more than 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) long and covers an area of about 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometers). The largest single structure made by living organisms on Earth, the reef teems with biodiversity, including about 400 species of coral. It attracts about 2 million visitors a year; in turn, tourism and fishing generate billions annually and employ tens of thousands of people. However, the reef faces environmental pressures from various human and climate change impacts.
"The Great Barrier Reef is Australia's national treasure, so having a broader understanding of its condition and what's threatening it will help us better understand how we can protect it," said Tim Malthus, research leader of CSIRO's Coastal Monitoring, Modeling and Informatics Group in Canberra, Australia. "Along with surveying several large sections of the reef, CORAL will also survey the health of corals in the Torres Strait, a complex high-tide area that has been historically less studied. It is also opportunistic for us to see if the reef is recovering after the recent bleaching event."
Stuart Phinn, professor of geography at the University of Queensland (UQ), said CORAL will provide Australian coral reef science and management with unique new maps and mapping approaches. These will expand ongoing efforts to map and understand Great Barrier Reef dynamics. "Being able to support and collaborate on NASA's CORAL project will enable groups like ours to advance our capabilities and transfer them to Australian science and management agencies," Phinn said. "Part of this includes building a process for mapping the entire reef. UQ and CORAL will exchange field data, knowledge and experience to cross-validate mapping and monitoring approaches."
An Urgent Need for Better DataAround the world, concerns among scientists, resource managers and the public that coral reef ecosystems are degrading at alarming rates due to human-induced factors and global change have motivated increased assessment and monitoring efforts. The urgency of the problem has forced estimates of global reef status to be synthesized from a variety of local surveys with disparate aims, methods and quality.
The problem with current assessments of reef degradation, said Hochberg, is that the data supporting these predictions are not uniform and surprisingly sparse. "Virtually all reef assessments to date rely on in-water survey techniques that are laborious, expensive and limited in spatial scope," he said. "Very little of Earth's reef area has been directly surveyed. More importantly, there are no existing models that quantitatively relate reef conditions to the full range of biological and environmental factors that affect them -- models that can help scientists better understand how coral reefs will respond to expected environmental changes. CORAL addresses an urgent need in the face of ongoing worldwide reef degradation, and also serves as a pathfinder for a future satellite mission to globally survey the world's reefs."
Natural, balanced coral reefs comprise mosaics of coral, algae and sand on the seafloor that, together, drive the structure and function of reef ecosystems. When corals die, algae rapidly take over their skeletons. A non-stressed, healthy reef will usually increase coral coverage as it recovers from disturbance. But when a stressed reef is disturbed, the carbonate structure of its coral erodes, and the reef ultimately becomes a flat-bottom community dominated by algae, shifting rubble and sand, with little to no coral recovery. Such ecosystem phase shifts, as they are called, represent a radical change in a reef's character, marked by a decline in the diversity of reef flora and fauna.
CORAL will generate scientific data products describing coral reef condition, measuring three key components of reef health for which we currently have limited data: composition, primary productivity and calcification. Primary productivity is a measure of how much energy is available to drive biological activity in a reef system. Calcification measures the net gain in carbonates, which determine a reef's long-term growth.
PRISM: Shining New Light on Coral Reef ConditionTo accomplish its science objectives, CORAL will use JPL's Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer (PRISM). PRISM will literally peer through the ocean's surface to generate high-resolution images of reflected light in the specific regions of the electromagnetic spectrum important to coral reef scientists. Mounted in the belly of a modified Tempus Solutions Gulfstream IV aircraft, PRISM will survey reefs from an altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) to generate calibrated scientific data products.
"PRISM builds on an extensive legacy of JPL spectrometers that have successfully operated for NASA and non-NASA missions," said Michelle Gierach, NASA CORAL project scientist at JPL. "It provides the coral reef science community with high-quality oceanographic imagery at the accuracy, range, resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity and uniformity needed to answer key questions about coral reef condition. PRISM data will be analyzed against data for 10 key biological and environmental factors affecting coral reef ecosystems, acquired from pre-existing data sources."
NASA collects data from space, air, land and sea to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.
For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earth
September 15, 2016: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Gulfstream III carrying NASA's PRISM instrument being readied for science flights from Cairns, Australia. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/BIOS
A NASA airborne mission designed to transform our understanding of Earth's valuable and ecologically sensitive coral reefs has set up shop in Australia for a two-month investigation of the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest reef ecosystem.
At a media briefing on Sept. 13 at Cairns Airport in North Queensland, Australia, scientists from NASA's COral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) mission and their Australian collaborators discussed the mission's objectives and the new insights they expect to glean into the present condition of the Great Barrier Reef and the function of reef systems worldwide.
"CORAL offers the clearest, most extensive picture to date of the condition of a large portion of the world's coral reefs," said CORAL Principal Investigator Eric Hochberg of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Ferry Reach, St. George's, Bermuda, prior to the briefing. "This new understanding of reef condition and function will allow scientists to better predict the future of this global ecosystem and provide policymakers with better information for decisions regarding resource management."
CORAL's three-year mission combines aerial surveys using state-of-the-art airborne imaging spectrometer technology developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, with in-water validation activities. The mission will provide critical data and new models for analyzing reef ecosystems from a new perspective. CORAL will generate a uniform data set for a large sample of reefs across the Pacific Ocean. Scientists can use these data to search for trends between coral reef condition and the natural and human-produced biological and environmental factors that affect reefs.
Over the next year, CORAL will survey portions of the Great Barrier Reef, along with reef systems in the main Hawaiian Islands, the Mariana Islands and Palau.
In Australia, CORAL will survey six discrete sections across the length of the Great Barrier Reef, from the Capricorn-Bunker Group in the south to Torres Strait in the north. Two locations on the reef -- one north (Lizard Island Research Station) and one south (Heron Island Research Station) -- will serve as bases for in-water validation activities. Scientists from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the University of Queensland in Brisbane are collaborating with NASA and BIOS to conduct additional complementary in-water validation activities.
The Great Barrier Reef: Australia's National Treasure
Located in the Coral Sea off Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef encompasses more than 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands. It is more than 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) long and covers an area of about 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometers). The largest single structure made by living organisms on Earth, the reef teems with biodiversity, including about 400 species of coral. It attracts about 2 million visitors a year; in turn, tourism and fishing generate billions annually and employ tens of thousands of people. However, the reef faces environmental pressures from various human and climate change impacts.
"The Great Barrier Reef is Australia's national treasure, so having a broader understanding of its condition and what's threatening it will help us better understand how we can protect it," said Tim Malthus, research leader of CSIRO's Coastal Monitoring, Modeling and Informatics Group in Canberra, Australia. "Along with surveying several large sections of the reef, CORAL will also survey the health of corals in the Torres Strait, a complex high-tide area that has been historically less studied. It is also opportunistic for us to see if the reef is recovering after the recent bleaching event."
Stuart Phinn, professor of geography at the University of Queensland (UQ), said CORAL will provide Australian coral reef science and management with unique new maps and mapping approaches. These will expand ongoing efforts to map and understand Great Barrier Reef dynamics. "Being able to support and collaborate on NASA's CORAL project will enable groups like ours to advance our capabilities and transfer them to Australian science and management agencies," Phinn said. "Part of this includes building a process for mapping the entire reef. UQ and CORAL will exchange field data, knowledge and experience to cross-validate mapping and monitoring approaches."
An Urgent Need for Better Data
Around the world, concerns among scientists, resource managers and the public that coral reef ecosystems are degrading at alarming rates due to human-induced factors and global change have motivated increased assessment and monitoring efforts. The urgency of the problem has forced estimates of global reef status to be synthesized from a variety of local surveys with disparate aims, methods and quality.
The problem with current assessments of reef degradation, said Hochberg, is that the data supporting these predictions are not uniform and surprisingly sparse. "Virtually all reef assessments to date rely on in-water survey techniques that are laborious, expensive and limited in spatial scope," he said. "Very little of Earth's reef area has been directly surveyed. More importantly, there are no existing models that quantitatively relate reef conditions to the full range of biological and environmental factors that affect them -- models that can help scientists better understand how coral reefs will respond to expected environmental changes. CORAL addresses an urgent need in the face of ongoing worldwide reef degradation, and also serves as a pathfinder for a future satellite mission to globally survey the world's reefs."
Natural, balanced coral reefs comprise mosaics of coral, algae and sand on the seafloor that, together, drive the structure and function of reef ecosystems. When corals die, algae rapidly take over their skeletons. A non-stressed, healthy reef will usually increase coral coverage as it recovers from disturbance. But when a stressed reef is disturbed, the carbonate structure of its coral erodes, and the reef ultimately becomes a flat-bottom community dominated by algae, shifting rubble and sand, with little to no coral recovery. Such ecosystem phase shifts, as they are called, represent a radical change in a reef's character, marked by a decline in the diversity of reef flora and fauna.
CORAL will generate scientific data products describing coral reef condition, measuring three key components of reef health for which we currently have limited data: composition, primary productivity and calcification. Primary productivity is a measure of how much energy is available to drive biological activity in a reef system. Calcification measures the net gain in carbonates, which determine a reef's long-term growth.
PRISM: Shining New Light on Coral Reef Condition
To accomplish its science objectives, CORAL will use JPL's Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer (PRISM). PRISM will literally peer through the ocean's surface to generate high-resolution images of reflected light in the specific regions of the electromagnetic spectrum important to coral reef scientists. Mounted in the belly of a modified Tempus Solutions Gulfstream IV aircraft, PRISM will survey reefs from an altitude of 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) to generate calibrated scientific data products.
"PRISM builds on an extensive legacy of JPL spectrometers that have successfully operated for NASA and non-NASA missions," said Michelle Gierach, NASA CORAL project scientist at JPL. "It provides the coral reef science community with high-quality oceanographic imagery at the accuracy, range, resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity and uniformity needed to answer key questions about coral reef condition. PRISM data will be analyzed against data for 10 key biological and environmental factors affecting coral reef ecosystems, acquired from pre-existing data sources."
NASA collects data from space, air, land and sea to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.
For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earth
The Big Six: Our Innovation Hacks For The Future
See It Before It's Gone: The Paradox Of 'Last Chance Tourism' On The Great Barrier Reef
September 22, 2016
Many of the tourists now flocking to see Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are hoping to 'see it before it's gone' -- in the latest example of what's come to be known as 'Last Chance Tourism (LCT)'.
Annah Piggott-McKellar and Karen McNamara from the University of Queensland (Australia) explain the concept of 'LCT' in the current issue of the Journal of Sustainable Tourism.
They write: "LCT is a niche tourism market focused on witnessing and experiencing a place before it disappears. This tourism market can also be referred to as climate change, disappearing or vanishing, doom, dying, endangered or 'see it before it's gone' tourism."
As Piggott-McKellar and McNamara note, at the heart of LCT is a paradox: the tourists scrambling to visit a particular site 'before it's gone' are themselves contributing to its destruction. Population pressure, on-site activities associated with access and carbon emission related to travel can cause a site to deteriorate further, thus raising its 'destination status' by being in greater danger and creating more demand for visits.
To investigate this paradox, and learn more about what motivates tourists to travel to the GBR, the pair questioned over 230 visitors to the site last year.
Overall, the data suggested that just under 70% of respondents were 'strongly motivated' to see the Reef 'before it's gone' -- the first concrete evidence of the GBR having become an LCT destination.
'Last chance tourists' were found to be predominantly 'older, more environmentally conscious females who are visiting the region for the first time and who have travelled greater distances, both on a domestic and international scale.'
Those seeking a 'last chance experience' were also more likely to be concerned about the health of the reef -- in particular coral bleaching and climate change, both of which, incidentally, would have an effect on a tourist's experience of the site.
"This finding was of interest," they write, "as it emphasises the paradox involved in LCT, in that tourists are travelling greater distances to view the destination that is in danger, contributing higher levels of emissions and thus exacerbating the impacts of climate change."
In contrast, the tourists surveyed only had moderate to low concern about the impact of the tourist industry or other destructive factors on the reef itself. That tourists do not associate their own travel to the reef with damage is part of the paradox of LCT.
This study provides an important baseline for further research into travel to the GBR. It also provides insight into the need to improve tourists' awareness of real threats to the reef, which includes the tourists themselves, among a host of other threats.
Annah E. Piggott-McKellar, Karen E. McNamara. Last chance tourism and the Great Barrier Reef. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 2016; 1 DOI:10.1080/09669582.2016.1213849
Wynyard Walk Opens To Public
September 20, 2016
Wynyard Walk, Sydney's newest pedestrian tunnel, is open to the public and offers increased convenience and safety for commuters under the CBD.
The new 180-metre tunnel means commuters can walk between Wynyard Station and the new jobs precinct at Barangaroo in six minutes, with capacity for 20,000 people to walk through per hour.
NSW Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said the new tunnel is critical in providing the pedestrian link between Barangaroo, the new ferry hub and the light rail project.
“It’s now about six minutes from the station to Barangaroo, you don’t have to cross roads or navigate steep inclines. We’ve also just completed the first stage of the Wynyard Station renovation. New lifts, escalators and lobby are also on the way for Wynyard,” Mr Constance said.
The tunnel will initially open from 5am to 9pm daily to allow construction to continue on the Clarence Street entrance, as well as other minor finishing touches. Following the opening of the Clarance Street entry, Wynyard Walk will be open 24 hours.
Phase two of the Wynyard Station upgrade is expected to be completed by mid-2017.
Read more about Wynyard Walk on Tomorrow's Sydney
‘10 Qubits In 5 Years’: UNSW Strikes Deal To Commercialise Quantum Computer Tech
21 September, 2016: by Steve Offner - UNSW
Industry , Innovation and Science Minister Greg Hunt inspects UNSW's quantum labs with UNSW's Professor Michelle Simmons. Photo: Simon Anders
UNSW has struck a $70 million deal to create a consortium to develop and commercialise technology that could lead to the world’s first quantum computer in silicon.
The four-way agreement between UNSW, the researchers, business and the federal government will pave the way for the development of a prototype silicon quantum integrated circuit – the first step in building a functional quantum computer.
The UNSW team is the only research group in the world that can make atomically precise devices in silicon. The scientists and engineers, within the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computing and Communication Technology (CQC2T) led by UNSW Scientia Professor Michelle Simmons, hope to have built a 10-qubit circuit within five years.
Winning the global race to build a functional quantum computer will give Australia a significant competitive advantage, creating new growth and job opportunities.
Industry, Innovation and Science Minister Greg Hunt announced the $70 million consortium during a tour of the UNSW-based Centre’s new quantum computing laboratories, opened by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in April.
In funding already announced, the federal government has contributed $25 million over five years to the consortium through its National Innovation and Science Agenda, complementing $25 million from UNSW, and $10 million each from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Telstra. Other partners are expected to join the consortium to bring the founding investment to $100 million.
The Australian Research Council recently extended funding to the CQC2T as a Centre of Excellence. This funding, comprising $34 million in government contributions and $103 million in cash and in-kind support from participating organisations, supports the Centre’s fundamental research over the next seven years.
Minister Hunt said this week's announcement was the culmination of negotiations over the IP of the technology development and was an example of how governments, universities and business could work together to translate great research into commercial reality.
Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionise the industries of the future, solving in hours or minutes problems that would take conventional computers – even supercomputers – centuries, he said.
“Winning the global race to build a functional quantum computer will give Australia a significant competitive advantage, creating new growth and job opportunities,” he said.
The Minister said he agreed with a categorisation that likened the international competition to build the first functioning quantum device as “the space race of the 21st Century”.
“I would call it Space-Plus: it’s the development of the next great economic activity for Australia and for the world.
“San Francisco and the Bay area have Silicon Valley … we want to create Sydney as the Quantum Harbour for the 21st Century,” he told research, business and University leaders, including UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Ian Jacobs, Telstra Chief Operations Officer Brendon Riley, and Commonwealth Bank Executive General Manager Edward Easton.
The CQC2T is a collaboration of six Australian universities; UNSW, the Australian National University, University of Melbourne, University of Queensland, Griffith University and University of Sydney; and 12 international university and industry partners.
The Centre’s director, Professor Simmons, acknowledged her research team leaders Professor Sven Rogge from UNSW Science, and Professors Andrew Dzurak and Andrea Morello from UNSW Engineering and thanked the Minister, Telstra and CBA for their financial backing.
“The Government has supported our fundamental research over many years and this new agreement is a unique opportunity that will allow us to do things that we would not be able to do under the normal research banner in Australia.
“It is a phenomenal opportunity for us to prototype potentially transformational quantum computing technology here in Australia, and be the first in the world to build 10 qubits [of quantum circuitry] in five years,” she said.
Minister Hunt said he personally believed in the work of the centre, and set Professor Simmons and her team a goal – “that the Centre give rise to at least one Nobel laureate over the next 20 years”.
“I think you can deliver because if the promise of what is being posed and researched and developed today reaches just one-fifth of its expectation, that will be of Nobel scale, and for Australia that will be an immense global achievement.”
UNSW Vice-Chancellor Professor Jacobs agreed. “You’ll be interested to know what motivates academics more than anything else … it’s parking spaces,” he joked, and explained that the University had set aside a parking spot outside the Chancellery building, as a reward for its first Nobel Prize winner.
“I echo your hope that that first Nobel Prize comes from this great group of scientists, that it leads to developments that are truly important for the future of humanity, and to the creation of Quantum Harbour in Sydney, to the benefit of this nation,” he said.
The Big Six: CSIRO'S Plans For The Future
20 September, 2016: by CSIRO
CSIRO will grow its investment in new areas of breakthrough science to over $52 million per year by 2020, helping to turn Australia's challenges into opportunities and invent a better future.
The creation of six Future Science Platforms (FSPs) which will underpin innovation in health and biology, resources, agriculture and manufacturing, have the potential to support the reinvention and creation of new industries and new jobs for Australia.
CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Larry Marshall, believes investing in challenging and riskier science will ensure research continues to meet the needs of industry, community and the environment in a rapidly changing world.Photo: CSIRO's Future Science Platforms are critical to turn Australia's future challenges into opportunities to invent a better future for us all
"Exactly as planned in Strategy 2020, we've freed up resources to enable this initial $17 million investment in 2016/17 to launch the FSPs, growing to over $50 million per year by 2020," Dr Marshall said.
"We're seriously excited about CSIRO's next chapter and how we're investing in Australia's science future.
"The platforms fuel deeper collaboration across disciplines as we tackle things that haven't been done before, which is exactly what we need to stay ahead of accelerating global disruption of all kinds from economic to environmental."
Some FSPs will draw on big data to make strides forward for health and environment, some use CSIRO's precision science to transform biological systems and others focus on our deep knowledge of resources and manufacturing to create more sustainable industries to support the jobs of tomorrow.
Not only will the Future Science Platforms invest in research and delivery of solutions, they're also an investment in the next crop of researchers.
"FSPs will attract a new generation of researchers to work collaboratively on genuinely challenging science and help invent Australia's future," Dr Marshall explained.
"The platforms empower CSIRO's strategy of solving Australia's toughest challenges, and getting science off the lab bench and into people's hands as quickly as possible to improve Australia's sustainability and prosperity."
The six Future Science Platforms are:
Environomics
Unlocking genetic and other knowledge from our vast species biodiversity so we can preserve and manage ecosystems under environmental change, better manage economically useful species, detect biosecurity threats and create new products based on previously unknown biological data.
Synthetic Biology
The design, fabrication, and construction of new biological parts, devices, systems, and machines, as well as the re-design of existing biological systems for useful purposes. Synthetic biology enables revolutionary advances in cellular factories, designer organisms and biological devices.
Deep Earth Imaging
Discovering the previously undiscovered minerals, energy and water resources that lie deep under the earth or sea. The science of Deep Earth Imaging will help us more precisely image subsurface geology to unlock the potential of this vast and relatively under-explored area.
Digiscape
Helping agricultural industries to be more productive and providing more valuable knowledge to environmental policy makers through a new generation of decision tools. Using sensors, data visualisation, artificial intelligence and assisted decision making to generate timely and relevant advice and insights will allow better choices for more productive and sustainable outcomes.
Probing Biosystems
A revolution in healthcare and agriculture through devices and systems to obtain real-time information from living organisms about their health and well-being. This will lead to the ability to provide health and medical interventions that are timely, customised and highly specific.
Active Integrated Matter
Reinventing fields as diverse as manufacturing, agriculture, emergency services, infrastructure and mining through combining advanced materials, robotics, sensing technologies, data processing and autonomous capabilities. New forms of autonomous robots will operate safely in dangerous environments while smart materials will enable new types of customised and personalised products and services.
For more information on the Future Science Platforms, visitwww.csiro.au/FSP
Ancient Skeleton Discovered On Antikythera Shipwreck
September 19, 2016: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Archaeologists Brendan Foley, Theotokis Theodoulou and Alex Tourtas excavate the Antikythera Shipwreck skeletal remains, assisted by Nikolas Giannoulakis and Gemma Smith.
Credit: Photo by Brett Seymour, EUA/WHOI/ARGO
An international research team discovered a human skeleton during its ongoing excavation of the famous Antikythera Shipwreck (circa 65 B.C.). The shipwreck, which holds the remains of a Greek trading or cargo ship, is located off the Greek island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea. The first skeleton recovered from the wreck site during the era of DNA analysis, this find could provide insight into the lives of people who lived 2100 years ago.
Led by archaeologists and technical experts from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the team excavated and recovered a human skull including a jaw and teeth, long bones of the arms and legs, ribs, and other remains. Other portions of the skeleton are still embedded in the seafloor, awaiting excavation during the next phase of operations.
"Archaeologists study the human past through the objects our ancestors created," said Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist with WHOI. "With the Antikythera Shipwreck, we can now connect directly with this person who sailed and died aboard the Antikythera ship."
The Antikythera Shipwreck is the largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered, possibly a massive grain carrier. It was discovered and salvaged in 1900 by Greek sponge divers. In addition to dozens of marble statues and thousands of antiquities, their efforts produced the Antikythera Mechanism -- an astounding artifact known as the world's first computer. In 1976, Jacques-Yves Cousteau and the CALYPSO crew returned to the wreck and recovered nearly 300 more objects, including skeletal remains of the passengers and crew.
The skeleton discovered on August 31, 2016, is the first to be recovered from an ancient shipwreck since the advent of DNA studies. Ancient DNA expert Dr. Hannes Schroeder of the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, hastened to Antikythera to view the remains. Once permission is obtained from the Greek authorities, samples will be sent to his laboratory for a full suite of analyses. If enough viable DNA is preserved in the bones, it may be possible to identify the ethnicity and geographic origin of the shipwreck victim.
"Against all odds, the bones survived over 2,000 years at the bottom of the sea and they appear to be in fairly good condition, which is incredible," said Schroeder.
The Antikythera research team generates precise three-dimensional digital models of every artifact, allowing discoveries to be shared instantly and widely even if the objects remain on the sea floor. Several 3D models of the skeletal remains are available for researchers and the public to view on the Antikythera Projectwebpage.
Jonathan Knowles, Autodesk Explorer In Residence, said, "Our reality capture technology is not only helping share the amazing story of the Antikythera wreck with the world using digital models and 3D printed artifacts, it is enabling important preservation and furthering meaningful research."
The project is supported by corporate partners Hublot, Autodesk, Cosmote, Costa Navarino Resort and private sponsors Swordspoint Foundation, Jane and James Orr, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, the Domestic Property Committee of Kythera and Antikythera, the Municipality of Kythera, and private sponsors of WHOI.
The research team consists of archaeologists Dr. Theotokis Theodoulou and Dr. Dimitris Kourkoumelis (Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports); Research Specialist Dr. Brendan Foley (WHOI); archaeologist Alexander Tourtas; professional technical divers Edward O'Brien (WHOI), Philip Short, Alexandros Sotiriou, Nikolas Giannoulakis, and Gemma Smith; videographer Evan Kovacs; documentary director Michalis Tsimperopoulos; supported by Michalis Kelaidis, Dimitris Romio, and Dimitris Manoliades.
The robotic mapping survey was conducted by Prof. Stefan Williams, Dr. Oscar Pizarro, and Christian Lees from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, University of Sydney. U.S. National Parks Service underwater photographer Brett Seymour and archaeologist Dr. David Conlin volunteer their time and expertise.
The Return to Antikythera project is supervised by the Director of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities Dr. Aggeliki Simosi and is under the aegis of the President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos.
The above is reprinted from materials provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
International Healthcare Leader Wins Top Alumni Honour
21 September 2016: By University of Technology Sydney(UTS)
The Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Dr Frances Hughes, responsible for leading a global force of more than 16 million nurses, has been recognised with the prestigious UTS Chancellor's Award for Excellence at the 2016 UTS Alumni Awards.
Dr Frances Hughes receives the UTS Chancellor's Award for Excellence from Chancellor Brian Wilson. Picture: Carmen Lee Platt/Encapture Photography
UTS Chancellor Brian Wilson paid tribute to the impact of Dr Hughes' work at last night's awards and to her embodiment of UTS's core values, including equality and social justice.
"Dr Hughes is working at the top of her profession, leading an international effort to ensure that health care is accessible and affordable to all – particularly to vulnerable populations," he said.
Hughes has played a significant leadership role in general and mental health nursing across the globe and has been instrumental in the development of government policy around nurse prescribing, primary care and rural scholarship schemes, the nursing workforce, nurse practitioners and mental health.
She was the first nurse to be awarded the Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy by the Commonwealth Fund in New York and was a Fulbright Scholar. In 2005 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to mental health as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours.
Hughes spent six years as a World Health Organization (WHO) facilitator for the Pacific Island Mental Health Network and is regularly called upon by the WHO, governments and non-government organisations to consult on critical matters relating to nursing, policy and mental health across the globe.
Hughes commenced her role with the ICN in February this year – it is the first time in the organisation's 100 year history that it has appointed a chief executive from the Southern Hemisphere.
"It is a great honour," says Hughes, who travelled from her home in Geneva, Switzerland, to receive the award. "Personally, it has meant stepping up and challenging myself, my philosophies, my beliefs and my knowledge of nursing and health," she said.
The UTS Alumni Awards gala awards ceremony was attended by more than 200 alumni, staff and students in the UTS Great Hall. Eleven of the university's most outstanding graduates were honoured for achievements in innovation, leadership and compassion that are changing the world for the better.
This year's recipients included innovators in technology and health, drivers of social justice and change in the community and leaders across business and the legal profession.
Kate Burleigh, Managing Director of Intel Australia/New Zealand, was recognised with the UTS Business School Alumni Award for her role as a technology industry leader and passionate advocate for building Australia's innovation economy.
Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Russell Taylor AM, was recognised for his work promoting knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, traditions, languages and stories.
ther award recipients included Associate Professor Richard Ferrero, whose world-leading medical research is working towards an understanding of the cellular processes involved in stomach cancer – one of the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide – and Cristina Cifuentes, Commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The event was hosted by UTS Chancellor Brian Wilson and Vice-Chancellor Professor Attila Brungs, with journalist and UTS alumna Sunanda Creagh acting as Master of Ceremonies.
To read more about the 2016 Alumni Awards, and the inspiring stories of this year's Award recipients, visit the UTS Alumni website.
This year's full list of recipients:
UTS: YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD 2016
Emmanuel Freudenthal
Freelance Investigative Journalist
Bachelor of Business (2006) Hons 1 (2007)
UTS: INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ALUMNI AWARD 2016
Russell Taylor AM
Chief Executive Officer, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
Master of Business Administration (1993)
UTS: INTERNATIONAL ALUMNI AWARD
Nguyen The Trung
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DTT Technology Group
Bachelor of Science in Computing Science (2002)
UTS: COMMUNITY ALUMNI AWARD
Emre Celik
President and Chief Executive Officer, Rumi Forum
Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering (2001)
UTS: ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – UTS BUSINESS SCHOOL
Kate Burleigh
Managing Director, Intel Australia/New Zealand
Master of Business in Marketing (2000)
UTS: ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – FACULTY OF DESIGN, ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING
Kim Crestani
Director, Order Architects
Bachelor of Architecture (1984)
UTS: ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Sean Gordon
Chief Executive Officer, Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council
Bachelor of Education in Adult Education (2000)
UTS: ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Bettina McMahon
Executive General Manager, Government and Industry Collaboration and Adoption, Australian Digital Health Agency
Master of Business in Information Technology Management (2007)
UTS: ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – FACULTY OF HEALTH;
UTS: CHANCELLOR'S AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE
Dr Frances Hughes ONZM
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, International Council of Nurses
Doctor of Nursing (2003)
UTS: ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – FACULTY OF LAW
Cristina Cifuentes
Commissioner, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Bachelor of Laws (2005)
UTS ALUMNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – FACULTY OF SCIENCE
Associate Professor Richard Ferrero
Research Group Head, Gastrointestinal Infection and Inflammation, Hudson Institute of Medical Research
Bachelor of Applied Science Biomedical Science, 1985