From Cosmos Magazine, June 30, 2017 (Image: naturalismus via Flickr) At his North Adelaide practice, Peter-John Wormald has the unenviable job of unblocking the noses of people with chronic sinusitis. Many of his patients have spent years on antibiotics that have failed to budge their infection, providing the perfect breeding ground for resistant superbugs. For … Continue reading
From Nature Medicine, June 2017 (Image: Nick Page via Flickr) In September 2012, a small biotech startup named Trevena unveiled preclinical trial results for its front-running compound, TRV027. The fledgling Philadelphia-based company had been going strong since its founding five years earlier, raising $24 million from investors in 2008 and securing a position in BusinessWeek’s … Continue reading
From The Guardian, May 10, 2017 (Image: Sergio Niebla via Flickr) Biofuels have long been touted as a carbon-neutral alternative to fossil fuels, doing for the world’s planes, ships and automobiles what windfarms and solar panels are doing for its electricity grids. With the transport sector accounting for almost one fifth of Australia’s total carbon … Continue reading
From the Guardian, April 14, 2017 (Image: Alberto d’Argenio via Flickr) There’s no shortage of measures that homeowners and businesses can take to lessen their environmental footprint – from better insulation and double glazing, to easing up on air-con usage and swapping in LED lights. One part of the house that seems to be attracting … Continue reading
From The Guardian, April 6, 2017 (Image: Solar thermal plant in Spain, Beyond Zero Emissions via Flickr) Between the political bickering following a spate of blackouts in South Australia and the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeting that he had a fix, and then the South Australian government announcing that it will build a grid-connected battery … Continue reading
From Cosmos Magazine, April 4, 2017 (Image: AJC1 via Flickr) A treasure trove of medicinal compounds could still be lurking within the fungi that revolutionised modern medicine through the use of antibiotics, according to a new study published in Nature Microbiology. Penicillin, derived from the Penicillium fungi, became the first mass-produced antibiotic in the 1940s. … Continue reading
From the Guardian, March 17, 2017 (Image: Rusty Stewart via Flickr) Like so many of the Indigenous communities dotted across the Australian continent, the remote communities in north-west New South Wales are struggling. “These are not happy places,” says the Euahlayi elder Ghillar Michael Anderson. Many of the 300 or so residents of Anderson’s hometown … Continue reading
