Few Australian companies have a clear view of what their company’s increasing reliance on digital technologies is doing to create carbon emissions. This is not a trivial issue. It has significant implications for regulators, policy makers, company boards, and the rest of us, who increasingly compete with IT companies and data centres for electricity.
The Council of the Royal Society of Victoria is delighted to announce that Professor Patrick De Deckker AM has been selected to receive the RSV’s 2023 Medal for Excellence in Scientific Research. Patrick’s remarkable career spans almost three decades, making enormous contributions to fields within palaeoontology and environmental science.
Alexander von Humboldt has been referred to as ‘the forgotten father of environmentalism.’ As early as 1844, he wrote that humans change the climate ‘by cutting down forests, by changing the distribution of water bodies, and through the production of large vapour and gas masses at the centres of industry.’ Humboldt also described the greenhouse effect in his opus magnum, ‘Kosmos’.
From tiny bacteria to giant blue whales, the chemical reactions going on inside all living things – including us – that keep them alive cannot happen without water. By taking NASA’s lead and following the water, scientists can pinpoint the most compelling locations where life – either past or present – might possibly exist in the vast expanse of the solar system beyond our home planet.
No new antibiotic classes have been invented for decades – the high cost and high risk of failure in blue sky research means new products are variants of existing compounds discovered prior to 1984. So students were invited by Whittlesea Tech School to develop new anti-microbial products to kill harmful bacteria while keeping the good ones safe.
