This article from George Hook at Federation University canvasses his extensive collation of clues from historical narratives, maps and surveying techniques to limit the search area for the vantage point where von Guérard sketched the view on which he based his painting of the Kosciuszko massif. Novel use of spatial technology utilising satellite imagery, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data, particularly digital elevation models, to locate the actual site is explored, and the topographical accuracy of his sketches evaluated when compared with photographs taken from close to the site. Finally, the potential value of using spatial technology in art history field work is discussed.
This Deakin University study raises concern for the reproductive success of woodland birds in Box-Ironbark forests of Central Victoria. Box-Ironbark forest is of high conservation significance, with its component tree species providing year-round flowering, and thus food resources for many species of birds and animals. Many bird species, including the endangered Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia), are more abundant in Box-Ironbark than elsewhere. However, these forests in Central Victoria have become highly fragmented and structurally degraded, due primarily to the history of gold exploration and habitat clearance in the region. The study suggests that a consequence of this may be a greater abundance and widespread distribution of generalist egg predators throughout the region.
While antibiotics have reduced the global burden of infectious disease, these miracle drugs are no longer working against emerging “superbugs.” A recent report from the UK estimates that, by 2050, nearly 10 million people are likely to die from drug-resistant infections if the current trends persist. In response, Professor Elena Ivanova and her team have generated bactericidal surfaces that physically rupture bacterial cells in a few hundred seconds without harming animal cells. The rapidness with which they kill ensures that there is little opportunity for bacteria to adapt and become resistant. In the middle of a global antimicrobial resistance crisis, Professor Ivanova’s work provides hope that we haven’t yet lost the fight against superbugs!
Having seen first-hand the increasing number of children with allergic reactions admitted to the RCH, Professor Katie Allen and her research group sought to identify the exact rate of food allergy in the population and devised the HealthNuts study. The study followed 5300 children from Melbourne aged 1 to 10 and assessed their reactions to specific foods known to commonly trigger allergic reactions (allergenic foods) – peanut, egg, cow’s milk and sesame. It found that over 10% of children had ‘challenge-proven allergy’, which is when a child is observed to have an allergic reaction to a specific food and treated in a safe clinical setting.
Our evidence for the existence of the different dinosaurs that lived in prehistoric Australia comes from fossilised animal remains and other records of life, such as fossilised footprints. Specific conditions are required for fossilisation to occur, which means that not all life-forms from the Mesozoic Era are preserved, but they are all we have to determine the types of animals that existed during this time. As Swinburne University palaeontologist Dr Stephen Poropat puts it, ‘we need the right rocks!’.
