Year: 2010

Teams developing Australia’s cochlear implant and pioneering an aquaculture industry based on southern bluefin tuna were among the winners of this year’s Awards for Excellence in Innovation, presented tonight by Warren Snowdon, Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery. A process for making better aluminum ingots and a community guide to Aboriginal knowledge and intellectual property protocols were other winners. The awards are made annually by the Cooperative Research Centres Association, and were presented at the peak body’s Pathfinders 2010 Challenge and Change Conference at Alice Springs.

The HEARing CRC won an award for its role in the development of the Cochlear Hybrid System. The system extends greatly the number of people who can benefit from cochlear implant technology, previously limited to patients with complete hearing loss.

Information: HEARing CRC CEO Professor Bob Cowan Ph 0418 780 198; communications manager Jane Sewell Ph 0434 810 466

The Australian Seafood CRC was presented with an award for research that has set the scene for growth of a sustainable tuna aquaculture industry. The breeding and rearing of the prized southern bluefin tuna in hatcheries will reduce or eliminate the dependence on fragile wild stocks.

Information: Australian Seafood CRC program manager Dr Graham Mair Ph 0410 394 072

The CAST CRC won an award for new moulds and filling systems for making aluminium ingots. The technology, which is being used in Australian smelters and exported, clears the way for the production of high quality aluminium more cheaply, efficiently and safely.

Information: CAST CRC CEO Dr George Collins 0408 202 605

The Desert Knowledge CRC won an award for its Community Guide to Aboriginal Knowledge and Intellectual Property Protocols. The guide is designed to help Aboriginal people and communities collaborating with researchers.

Information: DK CRC CEO Jan Ferguson 0401 719 882

Salt-tolerant bacteria that can break down rocks could replace smelters and chemical plants in the extraction of heavy metals from ores in Western Australia, thanks to new research.

Carla Zammit, a scientist at the Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Integrated Hydrometallurgy Solutions, has identified microorganisms that look promising for use in “biomining” in the state.

She will tell the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28) that biomining has big advantages over traditional ore extraction techniques. “It has lower set-up, operational and maintenance costs, zero smelter emissions, and the microorganisms used absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide,” Miss Zammit said.

About 20 per cent of the world’s copper production comes from biomining. But the technology has been limited in Western Australia because the commercially-available microorganisms currently used cannot tolerate the state’s salty soils and water. “Biomining is used at only two mines in the state,” she said.

Her quest for suitable Australian microorganisms took in 16 sites in the acidic and saline lakes and drains of Western Australia’s wheatbelt “These environments provided the perfect conditions for the growth of the elusive salt tolerant biomining microorganisms,” she said.

One “extremophile” was chosen for detailed examination because of its superior ability to break down iron, a trait used to gauge microorganisms’ biomining potential. Miss Zammit tested the sample for growth speed and ability to attack iron ores in different salinity levels. “The microorganisms tolerated salt at the same concentrations as seawater,” she said. Further research is under way on the organism, and the CRC, which includes the CSIRO and Curtin University of Technology, has attracted interest in the technique from the mining industry.

Miss Zammit is one of eight early career scientists invited to present their research results at the Pathfinders Conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at http://crca.asn.au/conference

See the media releases at http://crca.asn.au/media/annual-conference

Information:

Carla Zammit Ph: 0434 894 040 Email: carla.zammit@postgrad.curtin.edu.au or czammit@hotmail.com

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

More muscular beef cattle can more consistently deliver better meat while adding millions of dollars to the beef industry bottom line, according to new research likely to drive selective breeding programs.

Scientist Peter McGilchrist, of the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies, said beef yields were higher from muscular cattle. But until now, it was unknown whether selecting for muscular stock in breeding programs was affecting meat quality.

He tested muscular and fat cattle for hormone sensitivity and muscle sugars critical to meat quality. He will tell the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28) that muscular animals have more glycogen, a compound that increases the acidity of meat, making it more tender and moist, and giving it the bright cherry-red colour favoured by consumers.

The research, conducted at Murdoch University, Western Australia, with industry collaborators, also showed that muscular cattle were more insulin-sensitive, allowing them to store more glycogen after eating.

They were also less susceptible to stress, helping reduce the depletion of muscle glycogen during mustering, transport and yarding before slaughter.

“Intense genetic selection for more muscle and less fat in other meat production species has resulted in pale, soft and dry meat unacceptable to consumers,” he said. “But fears that selection for muscular cattle might be having the same impact on beef quality are unfounded.”

Dark, firm and dry beef costs the Australian beef industry $35 million a year due to a downgrade in quality.

Mr McGilchrist is one of eight early career scientists invited to present their research results at the Pathfinders Conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

See the media releases at www.crca.asn.au/media/annual-conference

Information:

Peter McGilchrist Ph: 0419 986 056

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

A South Australian scientist has worked out how to use ultrasound to clean up finely textured soils contaminated with DDT – once a widely-used pesticide, now banned because it causes cancer, attacks the nervous system and disrupts the hormonal system in humans.

Kandasamy Thangavadivel will tell the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28) that ultrasound can be used to dislodge molecules of the persistent chemical from fine soil particles.

“DDT was used widely in Australia and around the world for decades until it was banned in most developed countries in the 1970s and globally in 2004,” said Mr Thangavadivel, a chemical engineer at the Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE).

DDT residues remained on Australian farms where it was used for stock dips, he said. Small on-farm stock dips and their associated waste sites were DDT hotspots and might cause groundwater contamination.

Based at the Mawson Lakes campus of the University of South Australia, Mr Thangavadivel built on the knowledge that various levels of acoustic energy can break down a range of complex organic molecules.

“By converting the affected soil to a slurry, and using 30 seconds of ultrasound at 20 kHz, we can break the DDT molecules off the finer soil particles such as clay, silt and organics,” he said.

“We were able to remove 80 per cent of the DDT from the soil in this way.”

The DDT can then be collected in pure form and destroyed by other means.

According to CRC CARE researchers, the relatively low amount of energy used is a breakthrough in the low-cost treatment of soils contaminated with DDT.

“This makes the technique accessible to many more locations around the world where the high cost of energy is prohibitive,” Mr Thangavadivel said.

Mr Thangavadivel is one of eight early career scientists invited to present their research results at the Pathfinders Conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

See the media releases at www.crca.asn.au/media/annual-conference

Information:

Kandasamy Thangavadivel Ph: 0430 056 933

Email: Kandasamy.Thangavadivel@postgrads.unisa.edu.au

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

Peter Martin, CRC CARE Communications Ph: 0429 779 228

Technological advances have put toilets within the reach of the even the poorest people in developing countries but millions of people are still dying from diseases caused by sub-standard sanitation, according to World Toilet Organization founder Jack Sim.

Mr Sim will tell the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28) that a lack of awareness of appropriate sanitation technology, a flush toilet mindset and taboos on discussing excretion are hampering the installation of cheap, clean, environmentally-friendly toilets in city slums and rural villages in developing countries.

The WTO is a non-profit organisation working to improve sanitation world wide. It was established in 2001 by Mr Sim, a plain talking Singaporean businessman turned development campaigner. Its 203 member organisations in 56 countries lobby governments and run education campaigns, including World Toilet Day on November 19.

Mr Sim said cholera and other forms of diarrhoea were among diseases hitting people hard because communities lacked toilets. “Each year, 1.5 million children die unnecessarily from diseases spread by contaminated food and water, and by flies,” said Mr Sim, who was named a “hero of the environment” by Time magazine in 2008.

The big social costs were compounded by economic costs on the national scale as workers’ productivity plummeted and medical bills soared. “For every dollar that is invested in toilets, there is a nine dollar return on the country level,” said Mr Sim.

He said water got a higher priority than toilets in policy on sanitation. “We want to redress the balance by talking toilets,” he said. “The result of not talking toilets is that 2.5 billion people do not have proper sanitation.”

The focus on water meant that flush toilets were seen widely as the solution. “But most people can’t afford to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in big sewerage systems,” he said.

Many designs of stand-alone toilets, such as composting units, costing between zero and $100 per family, were now available. Some did not need water, and Mr Sim wants to see them mass produced.

The WTO wants to use a market system rather than charity to get toilets based on appropriate technology installed around the world. “The poor have the ability to pay,” he said, citing as an example a successful campaign to sell toilets to impoverished people in Cambodia.

The Pathfinders Conference is organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive collaborative research between universities, science agencies, industry and government departments.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

See the media releases at www.crca.asn.au/media/annual-conference

Information:

Mr Jack Sim, World Toilet Organization Ph: +65 8111 5050

Email jacksim@worldtoilet.org

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

Children are good channels for getting fire safety messages into homes, according to new research.

Briony Towers, a research psychologist at the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre and University of Tasmania, investigated, for the first time, how children understood and talked about bushfires.

She will present her results at the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre next week (May 26–28).

Ms Towers did in-depth interviews with 250 children aged between five and 17 at schools in bushfire-prone regions of Victoria and Tasmania. To gauge the influence of family on children’s perceptions, and vice versa, she also interviewed parents.

Children named firefighters as their most important information source, but the research showed that parents had a bigger influence.

Surprisingly, Ms Towers’ research showed that children exerted a powerful influence on parents’ decisions and actions on emergency plans for fires that begin in the home. Many parents reported that when children initiated housefire escape plans as a result of school programs, they could not ignore the message.

This child-to-parent line of communication is now being tapped to get bushfire safety messages into homes.

The study formed the basis of a new, 10-part animated bushfire safety program, “Li’l Safety Club”. Pitched at young television, radio and internet audiences, the program was broadcast on all free-to-air networks in south-eastern Australia last summer. It was designed to raise children’s awareness and stimulate discussion of bushfire safety within families.

The research has also lain the foundations for emergency services to develop school-based bushfire education programs like those for housefire education, Ms Towers said.

Ms Towers is one of eight early career scientists invited to present their research results at the Pathfinders Conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

Information:

Briony Towers Ph: 0400 543 336

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815; Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211

A study showing that more muscular cattle more consistently deliver better meat, and the discovery of bacteria that could be used in the extraction of heavy metals from ores are among research findings to be presented at the Pathfinders 2010 Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28).

Top early career scientists have been invited to present their research results at the conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association.

Peter McGilchrist, of the CRC for Beef Genetic Technologies, will tell the conference that muscular beef cattle can more consistently deliver better meat . The work is likely to drive selective breeding programs.

Information Peter McGilchrist Ph 0419 986 056

Carla Zammit, of the Parker CRC for Integrated Hydrometallurgy Solutions, has found salt-tolerant bacteria that can break down rocks. The microorganisms could replace smelters and chemical plants in the extraction of heavy metals from ores in Western Australia.

Information Carla Zammit Ph: 0434 894 040 Email: carla.zammit@postgrad.curtin.edu.au or czammit@hotmail.com

Kandasamy Thangavadivel, of CRC CARE, has worked out how to use ultrasound to clean up finely textured soils contaminated with DDT – once a widely-used pesticide, now banned because it causes cancer, attacks the nervous system and disrupts the hormonal system in humans.

Information Kandasamy Thangavadivel Ph: 0430 056 933

In work at the Invasive Animals CRC, Adriana Ford-Thompson found that conflict between farmers and government agencies was weakening the assault on invasive pests such as feral pigs and dogs.

Information Adriana Ford-Thompson Ph: 0447 628 925

Briony Towers, of the Bushfire CRC, has found that children are good channels for getting fire safety messages into homes.

Information Briony Towers Ph: 0400 543 336

Viveka Weiley, of the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design, is designing new creativity-supporting digital systems that remix the real environments of colleagues working apart.

Information Viveka Weiley Ph: 0433 992 602

Information:

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

Architects in studios scattered across the globe will sketch together, and geologists on fieldwork will point out landscape features to colleagues in city offices in real time if Viveka Weiley has his way.

Mr Weiley is designing new creativity-supporting digital systems that remix the real environments of colleagues working apart.

He will describe these futuristic workplaces at the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28).

“Increasingly we want to collaborate with colleagues across the country or the globe, but our tools are lacking”, said Mr Weiley, of the Australasian Cooperative Research Centre for Interaction Design, and the University of Technology Sydney.

Videoconferencing and virtual worlds were a start, but they did not support the richest forms of collaboration, he said. “Videoconferencing replicates meeting rooms,” he said. “Creative work tends not to happen in meeting rooms. The workplace of the future will look much like that of the present, but it will be augmented with unobtrusive devices that pervasively connect it to other places.”

He is working on prototypes including:

• a low-cost camera and projection system to allow collaborators working apart to sketch together
• digital photo frames that indicate the presence of distant collaborators
• microprojectors to give remote collaborators a panoramic view of each other’s environment

Mr Weiley’s research took him to creative workplaces including Pixar Animation Studios in California, and into the realms of cognitive science, education theory and architectural theory.

He wants to pinpoint the elements of creative workplaces to lay the foundations of a new generation of mixed reality environments and tools. He is currently developing prototype tools for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Innovation team.

Viveka Weiley is one of eight early career scientists invited to present their research results at the Pathfinders Conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

See the media releases at www.crca.asn.au/media/annual-conference

Information:

Viveka Weiley Ph: 0433 992 602

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

Conflict between farmers and government agencies is weakening the assault on invasive pests such as feral pigs and dogs, according to new research.

The study, by University of York conservation scientist Adriana Ford-Thompson, also showed that disagreements between landholders, and tensions at the city/country boundary over shooting and baiting were restraining the campaign.

The study, funded by the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre and the Economic and Social Research Council, UK investigated community involvement in pest management. Its aim was to find ways to recruit more farmers to programs to control feral animals on rural land.

Mrs Ford-Thompson interviewed wildlife managers around the country to find out why some landholders were hostile to the programs, with some even denying pest controllers access to their properties.

She will tell the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change Conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre this week (May 26–28) that community participation is essential to vertebrate pest control. “When some farmers don’t participate, their land can become refuges for pests,” she said.

However, there was disagreement over who should foot the bill. “Some see feral animal control as a government problem, while governments often see it as a landholders’ problem,” she said. And some landholders claimed that governments were not matching their investment by controlling pests adequately on public land.

Meanwhile, many farmers doing it tough did not see control aimed primarily at biodiversity conservation as a priority.

Another cause of tension was mixed land use. “Sheep producers might be affected by lamb losses to wild dogs and foxes, whereas neighbouring beef producers might not be affected much at all,” she said.

And some landholders near cities and towns feared a backlash from urban communities if they participated in pest control programs. “Shooting pests is sometimes seen as unsafe or unsavoury near towns and cities,” she said.

One solution was “nil tenure”, an approach that has worked in the control of wild dogs in some regions. “Ownership boundaries are removed in the decision making process,” Mrs Ford-Thompson said.

Another was the recruitment of community leaders. Wide community participation paid social dividends. “Programs to control the cane toad have brought indigenous and non-indigenous Australians together,” she said.

Mrs Ford-Thompson is one of eight early career scientists invited to present their research results at the Pathfinders Conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

See the media releases at www.crca.asn.au/media/annual-conference

Information:

Adriana Ford-Thompson Ph: 0447 628 925

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28)

Ph: 0417 222 211 Email: laurelle@creativeterritory.com

CRCA Media Ph: 0419 250 815 Email: crcamedia@gmail.com

Leading politicians, Indigenous representatives, public servants and academics meeting at the Pathfinders 2010: Challenge and Change conference at the Alice Springs Convention Centre on May 26–28 will probe federal government and opposition policy on areas including health.

Speakers this year at Australia’s main annual innovation conference include Warren Snowdon, Minister for Indigenous Health, Rural and Regional Health and Regional Services Delivery. Northern Territory Education and Training Minister Chris Burns and Australian Council of Social Service CEO and former NT chief minister, Clare Martin, will also address the conference, organised by the Cooperative Research Centres Association. Among other speakers will be Charles Darwin University Vice-Chancellor Barney Glover, Harold Furber, Chair of the Desert People’s Centre, and John Scanlon, Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.

World Toilet Organization founder and development campaigner Jack Sim will address the conference on sanitation in developing countries. The WTO was set up by the plain talking Singaporean businessman, named “hero of the environment” by Time Magazine in 2008, to curb diseases caused by poor sanitation. It now operates in 56 countries.

Meanwhile, some of Australia’s top young scientists will release their latest research findings, including:

• a study showing that children are good channels for getting fire safety messages into homes
• research showing that more muscular beef cattle can more consistently deliver better meat
• a study showing that disunity is weakening the war on feral animals
• the discovery of salt-tolerant bacteria that could be used in heavy metal extraction
• research mixing virtual and real worlds for creative collaboration
• the use of ultrasound to clean up DDT residues in agricultural soils

The CRCA represents Australia’s 50 CRCs operating under a federal government program to drive public/private sector research.

See the conference program at www.crca.asn.au/conference

What: Pathfinders 2010 Challenge and Change: Sourcing evidence to tackle the real issues

When: Wednesday, 26 May 2010 until Friday, 28 May 2010

Where: Alice Springs Convention Centre

Information: crcamedia@gmail.com Ph: 0419 250 815

Laurelle Halford (Alice Springs Convention Centre, May 26–28) Ph: 0417 222 211