One of the challenges of resolving the biodiversity crisis is making it a part of the Victorian community’s consciousness. In a world with so many competing problems, the silent destruction of our unique plants struggles for attention. Gordon Noble offers three simple “nudges” to drive investment in protecting and restoring Victoria’s flora.

The transformative power of science suggests it should play a fundamental role in developing public policy, ensuring science informs debates about issues such as sustainable energy production, ecosystem protection, and genetic modification of food. However, using scientific knowledge to inform policy debate is not straightforward.

It can take hundreds of years for plastic to degrade alone, but nature may already have answers to our problem. For some organisms, plastic debris offers a food source; for many others, a literal life raft. When 8 to 10 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year, some of it provides a home to entire biological communities.

The WHO estimates that one in six people will experience infertility in their lifetime. Further, we have seen a dramatic decrease of almost 50% in both male sperm count and female conception rates in the past 50 years. This decrease can be largely attributed to our increasing exposure to chemicals in our environment known as Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.

We are made of stardust; made of the elements that are forged in stars as they are born, as they live, and as they die. Yet we all have different stories, and Queers in Science celebrated three scientists at the cutting edge of their fields. They shared their research, their personal journeys, and their vulnerability as part of the annual Queers in Science lecture.